Sune Engsig
What are the most important software testing trends for 2024, and how might they impact your testing strategy?
Skip ahead to:
QA goes from backroom to boardroom
Small steps towards autonomous testing
Vendors look outside their portfolio to promote quality
The high-profile software failures of 2023 underscored the critical role of QA in strengthening digital immune systems. No longer a mere checkpoint, quality is now high on the agenda.
While recession and inflation have plagued recent times, you can’t afford to defund your digital investments and drop the ball on quality. Over the next few years, we anticipate that bigger chunks of IT budgets will be allocated towards testing, with a focus on validating end-to-end processes at speed. However, the return on those investments will depend on the chosen solutions.
Keep reading to explore the three key software testing trends that are set to shape the QA landscape in 2024.
QA goes from backroom to boardroom
Companies of all sizes are realizing QA is something you absolutely need to prioritize. In 2023, there were a number of high-profile incidents caused by QA failures. The New York Stock exchange had a software glitch that led to a magnitude of busted trades, and the FAA suffered its largest and most catastrophic disruption of service since 9/11. These incidents are just a few of many examples of recent incidents that had a significant impact on businesses and highlighted the importance of investing in quality assurance.
Quality is no longer a mere checkpoint; it’s a serious boardroom agenda. According to The World Quality Report 2023-24, 67% of businesses have incorporated QA into the core of their business operations, ensuring that their technology investments align with quality standards.
Technology leaders will continue to focus on modernizing and boosting the resilience of applications as part of a broader effort to create robust digital immune systems. QA has a big role to play in boosting system resilience by continuously catching bugs early and preventing them from reaching end users. We envision that it will become part of a wider conversation about CX and UX, moving higher up the agenda.
Gartner expects that by 2025, organizations that invest in building digital immunity will increase customer satisfaction by decreasing downtime by 80%.
QA and Application Managers will continue to recognize the essential role of automated testing in promoting quality. As test automation matures, understanding spreads that automated testing is a cross-functional, collaborative, and lasting effort.
Those who fail to fix the foundations of their systems risk creating what Forrester refers to as a digital illusion, where applications might look shiny on the surface but are slow and cumbersome for the end users.
Small steps towards autonomous testing
We couldn’t write an article about the latest trends in software testing without mentioning AI.
In 2024, we expect to see more AI augmentation in QA. Augmented intelligence is a subset of artificial intelligence in which AI technologies assist humans rather than replace them.
According to The World Quality Report 2023-24, 77% of organizations consistently invest in AI and utilize it to optimize QA processes.
Here are a few ways we anticipate that organizations will leverage AI in their test strategy:
- Intelligent test scoping: AI can help choose the most efficient test cases by analyzing huge amounts of data from previous tests.
- Test case generation: Test coverage can be increased by AI automatically generating test cases by modifying existing ones or creating them from scratch.
- Self-healing: AI can automatically recalibrate the formulas used to uniquely identify elements in an application - elements that by the very nature of software development will constantly change. This limits the amount of QA manual testing needed and can reduce the burden of maintenance.
- Predictive testing: AI can analyze test results to predict which are likely to fail in the future.
However, despite all the talk, we are far from reaching autonomous testing nirvana.
Roy Amara was an American scientist who coined the following adage: “We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.” Even though Roy came up with this in the 1960s, it still applies today and is particularly relevant when we look at AI in testing.
As AI evolves, it is expected to transcend into a fully autonomous activity, where no human intervention is needed. Testing will instead be created, driven, and managed by AI.
When autonomous testing arrives, it will help democratize automation to an even greater extent. This means business users will be able to create and maintain tests even more easily without a dependency on development.
Vendors look outside their portfolio to promote quality
In 2023, Microsoft boldly redefined its scope of care and engagement when it comes to quality. Specifically, quality is now being defined from its customer’s end-to-end business perspective.
For Microsoft customers, the responsibility of ensuring business functionality end-to-end is entirely on you. But, with One Version, Microsoft is engaging in helping their customers manage this. They do this with mandatory updates and by recommending technology-agnostic partners that look beyond their application portfolio and test cross-platform processes.
We anticipate that other vendors will follow Microsoft’s lead, making periodic quality updates obligatory. This might include:
- Adding non-voidable and non-postponable updates – like the monthly PQUs
- Reducing the number of updates that can be skipped
- Removing support entirely for old versions
QA Managers may already be experiencing challenges in handling continuous software updates and keeping up with the rapid pace of development. This pressure is likely to persist in 2024, so look for tools that can save time on repetitive processes and provide clear insights on how updates will impact you.
Author Bio
Sune Engsig, Field CTO at Leapwork
With almost 10 years of experience in evangelizing and implementing automation solutions across various industries and domains, Sune leads the vision and execution of Leapwork’s no-code automation platform that empowers organizations to deliver business capabilities faster and more efficiently. Sune works closely with clients to understand their automation needs and challenges, and to provide them with the best possible start and support. His focus is on the true enabler of successful automation: getting people and their skills into play. His passion lies in helping businesses optimize their processes, organization, and outcomes with no-code automation.
