Software Testing Trends 2015The year 2014 witnessed cross border mergers, acquisitions and rapid adoption of social media platforms. It also witnessed creation of large chunks of data and rapid advancements in mobile and cloud technologies. Another major advancement was Internet of Things (IoT), which is slowly changing the way how organizations interact with their customers, employees and partners. In the current digital information age, individuals are demanding improved connectivity and on the go access to information, which is making businesses, Government organizations and other public sector entities to be more agile and flexible while offering services and deliverables. We have added a new post on the latest software testing trends in 2016, which provides comprehensive insights on the emerging software testing trends. 
The rapid influx of new technologies has thrown open new set of challenges to the present day CIOs, increasing their responsibilities towards delivery and support. Business leaders are expecting CIOs to come out with innovative ideas and outline a vision on how emerging technologies can shape up their organizations. Today’s CIO is also expected to help organisations to understand customer preferences in a better way and help them retain customers, along with new acquisitions. The year 2015 is going to be a huge challenge for the software testing fraternity due to emergence of new technologies, let’s take a look at some of the latest trends in the software testing domain for the year 2015.

Software Testing Trends 2015

In 2015 as well, the top priority of businesses across the globe remains Cost Optimization – delivered through process and technology. Additional priorities include supporting organic growth, build new products and platforms and upgrade their existing systems. Most of the IT leaders accept that integration of existing IT systems is a top priority for their organizations. Digital transformation remains another important focus and businesses are ranking high on cloud computing and business analytics.
Quality and reliability are being given greater attention, which is resulting in reduction of software application errors, improving security and application performance. Social media is being closely scrutinized by organizations in order to safeguard from reputational damages that often result from the comments posted on organization’s social media channels. These testing trends would also have a significant impact on the discipline of quality assurance and software testing in 2015. I would like to give due credit to Gartner and IDC for providing valuable foresight on software testing industry trends for 2015 and beyond.

Software Testing Industry Predictions for 2015

Transformational Projects Will Drive QA and Software Testing Budgets

Software testing budgets will be on the rise, especially in the sectors of energy & utilities (E&U) and transportation, these domains will most likely be spending 27 percent and 31 percent of their budgets on QA and testing. It has also been observed that most of the organizations are allocating more than 40 percent of their IT budget towards quality assurance and software testing domains.
Testing budget allocated for new software development initiatives is now slowly overtaking budgets that are usually allocated for software maintenance projects, which is a positive sign. Consumer products, retail, financial services and transportation sector are swiftly advancing towards new IT development initiatives. IT trends such as big data analytics, cloud, mobility and virtualization will continue to grow, although these are considered as fairly expensive technologies to develop and maintain.

Testing Center Of Excellence (TCOE) – Continues to Grow

Another trend in testing is the concept of TCOE, completely operational TCOE models have effectively grown to 26 percent from a mere 4 percent in the year 2011. A TCOE can be present in multiple forms, it can exist as a pure methodological support, which will control QA and testing or can exist as a complete test execution factory, which will provide on demand testing services to software projects across the organization. Businesses are also looking to set up TCOE’s using a combination of best practices to offer improved governance, process, control and metrics.

Crowdsourcing – Good or Bad?

Crowd sourced testing a relatively new trend in software testing, where software applications are made available to a large number of end-users, who will try to identify defects and bugs. Crowd sourced testing services are usually managed by companies ‘as a service’. Interestingly, almost 27 percent of organizations have already experimented with the concept of crowd sourced testing and are willing to continue with this new software testing trend. But I believe that crowd sourced testing can never replace the conventional quality assurance and testing teams.

2015 is for SMAC Technologies

The increasing usage of social media, mobile, analytics and cloud technologies also referred together as SMAC improves operational efficiencies and strengthens relationships with customers and end-users. There is a significant demand from customers, employees and end-users for responsive, anywhere accessible software applications that improve the areas of communication, business and entertainment. The increasing usage of social media is creating “Zero Tolerance” environment, as any failure, error or outage is resulting in immediate exposure to the global audience via social media channels. Organizations will be spending 52 percent of their IT budget towards QA and testing, out of which major allotments are 27 percent for cloud, 40 percent for big data & analytics and 17 percent for mobile.

Mobile, Mobile, Mobile

Mobile devices have become a part and parcel of our daily lives and the same goes for businesses. Mobile technologies have established themselves as an effective profit making assets for an undeniably disseminated and on the go workforce.

Mobile Application Testing

The mobile application testing trend is going to have a major impact on QA and software testing industry. There has been is a steep rise in organizations that are practicing mobile application testing, which stood at 31 percent in the year 2012, but increased to 55 percent in 2013 and 87 percent in the year 2014 and it is not an exaggeration, but the figures may actually rise up to 95 percent by the end of 2015. Functionality testing, security testing and performance testing are the primary focus areas for organizations that are involved in mobile application testing, which are followed by usability testing, regression testing and compatibility testing. Gartner predicts that there will be about four Android devices for every Windows or Apple (iOS) device by the year 2015.

Mobile Testing Best Practices

With the rapid changes in mobile technologies, businesses are expecting matured mobile testing practices from organizations offering mobile testing services. Software testing applications should be able to support a wide range of devices and operating systems, which would help in the creation of multiple test scenarios / executions across multiple platforms. The development lifecycle of mobile applications is relatively compact as compared to a standard or a web application; hence it is always a challenge for software testing teams to complete the testing within the allocated time frame. Almost 40 percent of the organizations agree that time is a crucial factor for QA and testing teams, which highlights the importance of automation to perform regression testing.

PC Gets Boost, Still Outpaced By Mobile

Comparison between Mobile Devices and Personal Computers

Android Rules, When It Comes To Operating System

Android Operating System Statistics

Big Data and Analytics

Big data and analytics testing is a catching up trend in software testing domain. It is not only about testing vast chunks of data, but it is all about testing the correctness and accuracy of data (i.e. Obtaining a meaningful and actionable information), which is sourced from multiple platforms. As per my analysis, big data and analytics testing will account for approximately 50 percent of the total software testing budget in the year 2015. Big data and analytics testing applications are highly complex and pose a big challenge to the software testing teams.
The software testing teams will be working with data centric processes and would not only be responsible to identify data irregularities and quality issues, but also figure out performance issues, security concerns, accuracy of ETL processes and most importantly verify, if the sourced data is relevant and suitable for business analytics.

Cloud Migration

Despite the odds cloud computing faced in its initial years, it will catch up in the year 2015. Although, we have witnessed a decline in cloud adoption in 2013 (20 percent), but it bounced back and gained momentum by demonstrating a positive trend in 2014 (28 percent) and is expected to reach 32 percent by the end of 2015. Organizations are benefiting immensely by adopting cloud services, especially by building and maintaining cloud environments. 
It would be considerably easy for software testing teams in the cloud environment, if they are provided the right environment and desired ramp up to an agreed load capacity. On the contrary, not all software applications can be hosted in the cloud environment e.g. large enterprise systems, which require robust integration testing would have to be hosted in a separate infrastructure test environments. However, the cloud testing trend is here to stay for a foreseeable future.

Conclusion 

Considering the above software testing trends, statistics and projections, we can confidently predict a bright future for quality assurance and software testing domain, especially in the areas of automation testing, performance testing and security testing. Software testers need to be prepared and be ready to grab the emerging opportunities in the 13 billion dollar software testing industry.
References:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2014/05/28/gartner-predicts-by-2015-more-than-50-of-crm-will-be-deployed-as-saas/
http://www.capgemini.com/thought-leadership/world-quality-report-2014-15

Author

Jagannadha Swamy Tata was a practice lead for QA and Testing. He is an avid technology blogger and an industry expert. He has extensive experience in managing complex testing projects and delivery. He likes exploring new tools, technologies and trends.
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91 Comments

  1. avneet

    February 4, 2015

    Hi Jagannadha,
    I’m a manual tester with 4 yrs of experience. I want to learn new technologies for testing please guide me…I know about HP ALM / Bugzilla / Jira… but it is not making good in this market.. taking up the survey BigDatif a analytics looks good with Hadoop but do we(manual testers) have something in Hadoop.. If I opt for Mobile testing then where should I look for and where for cloud computing.

    • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

      February 24, 2015

      Hello Avneet,
      Firstly, I would like to apologize for the delayed response. Let me answer your query, the idea of moving out of our comfort zones to new domains such as Big Data/ Hadoop might be a little overwhelming at first. Software testing and Hadoop are not mutually exclusive, the skills and platforms that are used in Hadoop are mainly Java, SQL and Linux. If you are proficient in these skills, then you can consider exploring Big data/ Hadoop testing. However, I would recommend you to undertake extensive research and zero in on your interest and also evaluate your strengths before deciding to proceed with either mobile, cloud or big data testing.

      • avneet

        April 25, 2015

        Thanks Jagannadha,
        I worked on my interest and researched over all my capabilities and market requirements, I’m learning java and side by side selenium my aim is to move towards the mobile app testing after selenium i thinking for selendroid, Monkeytalk, calabash or appium tools to learns but i need your help which should i select from these.

  2. Rahul

    March 23, 2015

    Hi Jagannadha,
    I am a manual tester around 4years of experience in web and mobile testing. I want to switch to automation side to improve skills as well as financial growth but i am not familar with core java(selenium). I am not aware of ETL or SOA testing etc.. I am in little confusion whether i can go for automation or intermediate tools(SOA,ETL) testing side or Remain in manual only…? Can you suggest me what is the latest trend in testing side and what should i learn to improve skills to well settled in testing domain..

    • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

      March 25, 2015

      Hello Rahul,
      Since you have a good amount of experience in manual and mobile application testing, I would recommend you to learn automation testing instead of any testing tools (SOA, ETL etc.). If you are very keen to move towards automation testing, I would suggest you to initially start with HP’s Unified Functional Testing (UFT), so that you will gain thorough knowledge on automation processes, standards and frameworks. When you are slightly comfortable, you can start learning mobile application automation testing as you are already familiar with mobile application testing.

  3. Atul

    April 16, 2015

    Hi,
    I have around 5.6 years of experience in Web, Mobile & Performance Testing. Almost 4.5 years of Performance testing experience using tools like VSTS & JMeter. Currently working for mobile application testing. Also, I have started working on the automation testing using Selenium WebDriver using Java. This is a new field for me & I’m finding it quite interesting for learning. Apart from Selenium, i’m also using Appium for mobile automation testing.
    Can you please guide if mobile testing (including both manual & functional) is a good choice or should I focus more on the Performance Testing for web applications. Please let me know if having various skill sets like Performance Testing, Automation etc. is good or should I focus on any one of these skills.

    • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

      April 17, 2015

      You seem to have diversified experience in Performance and Automation testing. In fact, having such an exhaustive technical skill set is really good and contributes immensely to your career growth.
      Performance testing of Web application is a great career and you already have 4.5 years of experience, which would suffice you to work on any web application prospects/opportunities in your career ahead.
      Presently, mobile technology is evolving rapidly, helping Mobile Functional and Automation Testing to grow in double-digits. Your experience with Selenium and Appium suits the current market trend of mobile testing.
      My suggestion to you would be to continue with Mobile testing, as it is a rapidly growing trend. I would also recommend you to simultaneously explore Mobile Performance testing, as you have good exposure in Performance testing. This is certainly going to be the next trend, as it happened in the case of Web application performance testing. You already have sound technical skills with Selenium and Appium and this would only help you to scale up your skills in other technical areas.

  4. sairam

    April 23, 2015

    Hi Jagannadha,
    I am fresher and completed BCA.Planning to do a course in TESTING has a career .I need your suggestion’s regarding choosing a particular tools, Growths and demands.What exactly I have to do for perfect line.Please guide me.

    • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

      May 11, 2015

      Software testing is one of the most important aspects of software development life-cycle. A software process is based on well-defined software quality control and testing standards, testing methods, strategy, test criteria and tools. Software engineers perform all types of software testing activities to carry out a software test process. The last quality checking point for a software product in its production line is software testing.
      “Testing is any activity aimed at evaluating an attribute or capability of a program or system and determining that it meets its required results.” by Hetzel 1983
      Software testing milestones can be achieved either by manual testing or automated testing. Automation testing reduces human error, save time and budget. There are a variety of tools in the industry, propriety and open source. Both come with their own set of advantages and disadvantage.
      I would advise aspiring professional like you to acquire skills in each flavor i.e. propriety and open source as well. Overall, the underlying principle is similar and only the implementation approach changes.
      An ideal software testing professional’s launch pad would be:
      – Manual Testing
      – Functional Testing Tools (both flavors)
      – Test Management Tools (both flavors)

  5. GK

    April 23, 2015

    Hi jagannadha ,
    I am working as a QA in a mobile app development company from past 1 year. I want to know which mobile automation tool is best in current market.As i want to learn new technology so which is best tool for mobile app automation testing.
    Please guide me.
    Thank You

    • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

      May 1, 2015

      There are a lot of automation tools available in the market. It is quite difficult to recommend a particular tool as each tool has its own pros and cons. Appium, Robotium, Ranorex and Monkey Runner are the most popular tools in the current market.
      My recommendation would be Appium, it is the current trending tool. It has a framework for creating automated tests for iOS and Android. It is an open source tool and supports Android versions from 2.3 onwards. Appium utilizes WebDriver interface for running tests. It supports several programming languages, such as Java, C#, Ruby and other languages, which are in the Web Driver library. Furthermore, it can control Safari and Chrome on mobile devices, which allows us to test mobile web sites. These features make it more reliable and most convenient tool to use.
      Robotium is another option, it is suitable for performing test automation for different Android versions. The tests created by Robotium are written in Java. But it consumes lot of time and effort to create tests by using Robotium, as one must work with the program source code in order to automate tests. The primary disadvantage is that it cannot lock and unlock a smartphone or a tablet, there is no Record and Play function available, and it does not provide screenshots.

  6. Chandra

    April 30, 2015

    Thanks for updating us with such a nice article.
    I am having 7.5 years of experience on travel and health insurance domain. From the last 2.5 years, I have been working on selenium webdriver. I wanted to scale up my automation knowledge in mobile automation (Selendroid/Appium) but I don’t have any prior experience in mobile testing. Advise me will it be a correct move, if i go ahead with my current decision (Mobile Automation) or should I move with performance testing or any other automation testing tool.
    Waiting for your response

    • Chandra

      May 5, 2015

      Hello Jagannadha ,
      Thanks for the details description about the mobile automation tools.
      I have asked one more question in my privious question -if i go ahead with my current decision (Mobile Automation) or should I move with performance testing ?
      what will be best of my carrier please guide me.
      Regards
      Chandra

    • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

      May 11, 2015

      Having 2.5 years of experience on Selenium is pretty good and can be considered as a base skill to begin a career in Mobile automation. Yes, I would recommend you to gain experience some hands-on experience on mobile testing. However, your present experience gives you all the flexibility to explore and make mobile automation as your career.
      I also presume that you do not have any experience in performance testing. Performance testing and functional automation testing are altogether different spheres. You may have to begin your career from scratch and get a good hold on all aspects of performance testing. In your case, I would recommend you to groom your Automation skills and make Mobile automation as your career.

  7. Chandra

    May 3, 2015

    Hi Jagannadha,
    I am working on Functional testing and have nearly 11 yrs of IT experience. Currently I am in US. Could you please suggest me which performance testing tool is good to learn for me ?

    • Hello,
      Many tools are existing in market but Jmeter is the best open source tool and from licensed side Loadrunner is good.
      Apache Jmeter is the best open source web application performance testing tool and no matter on which platform application runs. Now a days Jmeter is a popular open source tool and using by many companies.
      Loadrunner is a licensed performance testing tool from HP and more than 60% of the market occupied by Loadrunner. Tool is compatible with most of the latest technologies and has many features to handle performance of any application.
      For a performance engineer tool proficiency covers only 20-30% of the performance engineering activities and remaining all comes under tuning. So apart from tool learning , be proficient in 2-tier and 3-tier architectures.
      Regards.

    • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

      May 19, 2015

      Hello Chandra,
      Hope the suggestions from PPK help you. Do let me know, if you have any further queries.

  8. vrach

    May 13, 2015

    Hello,
    Your article is so knowledgeable. Thanks!
    I am lecturer by profession always wanted to learn something new in technology and after guiding many students in their academic projects i grown up my interest in software testing. HTML, CSS, Core JAVA are my key skills. I did a diploma in software testing too. they introduce different tools like QTP RFT.. etc. I experienced automation testing is quit inserting and now wanted to make a career in this field. I am trying my hard to Get the job as i have 5 years of exp in teaching so facing much difficulty in getting interview calls. I am exploring selenium web driver and getting interest & command over it day by day. can you suggest something which is very demanding in testing or simply which helps me to get shortlisted by companies? so that I can prepare that and make my resume strong and highlighted which will help me to get job regardless of my previous profile.
    Thanks

    • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

      May 19, 2015

      Appreciate your interest in this article and software testing practice on the whole. Teaching is an amazing profession, which not only helps us to keep learning, but also a great way to spread knowledge and awareness.
      With your experience, I am sure you would qualify as a good software test engineer, as your skills would be very useful in in generating test artifacts such as test strategy, test plan, test cases etc.
      There are quite a few software testing tools, both propriety and open source accessible in the market. In order to stand out in the industry, I would recommend you to learn testing frameworks with functions and other features, which would help you carry testing with having to gain exhaustive knowledge of scripting or coding.

  9. Kashif Chishti

    May 15, 2015

    Hi,
    Very comprehensively written article.
    I’m a Software tester and having experience of almost 2 years in manual mobile apps testing. I have started learning apps automation, currently I’ve started learning monkeytalk, is it good enough to start with or should I switch to any other tool?
    Thanks!

    • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

      May 21, 2015

      There are several mobile app testing present in the market that are transforming mobile automation testing for small screens that includes both mobile and tablets. I believe mobile app testing tool such as MonkeyTalk or Appium, which is based on an open source test automation framework is good to start with. In addition to these there are several other mobile app testing tools available in the market, which are quite effective as well.

  10. Gudur Satish

    May 18, 2015

    Sir,
    The article is very good and informative.
    Thanks & Regards,
    Satish Gudur

    • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

      May 21, 2015

      Thanks Gudur, glad that you liked the post.

  11. archana

    May 23, 2015

    Hi Jagannatha,
    Very good & informative article. I am having 8+ experience in manual testing. Willing to learn big data & hadoop. Will it be right decision?

    • Sandeep

      May 27, 2015

      Hi Jagannatha,
      I have around 6 years of experience in Manual Testing including Mobile, Android app testing. Please suggest me which automation tool training is important for me, my career growth.
      Thank you
      Piyush

      • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

        June 9, 2015

        Hello Piyush,
        I would recommend you to learn the below tools, which would help you in your career growth in the mobile automation testing domain. Below are the two tools, which are quite popular for mobile automation testing, Ranorex (Licensed tool) and Appium (Open Source).
        Ranorex is an excellent tool for test automation, especially for android based mobile applications. The major plus point with Ranorex is its comprehensive reporting capabilities along with screenshots etc. It can also connect a smartphone or a tablet to the Internet via a Wi-Fi network. Using Ranorex automation testers can perform data-driven tests, which helps them to create tests very easily with just a click of a button. It is a licensed mobile application tool.
        Appium test automation framework can create automation tests for iOS and Android based mobile applications. It is an open source software and can be downloaded freely from the appium.io website. It supports Android versions starting from 2.3 or later. Appium utilizes WebDriver interface for test execution. It supports several programming languages, such as Java, C#, Ruby and others which are present in the WebDriver library.

        • How about UFT 12.0 for mobile application testing?

          • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

            June 25, 2015

            HP Unified Functional Testing 12.x supports Mobile Application Testing. However, in my personal opinion the Add-in is new and need to be tested and certified by the industry.

    • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

      June 1, 2015

      This is an emerging framework in the IT industry. Learning Big Data and Hadoop development will be a great idea. For a big data testing strategy to be effective, the “4Vs” of big data i.e. volume (scale of data), variety (different forms of data), velocity (analysis of streaming data in microseconds) and veracity (certainty of data) – must be continuously monitored and validated. Acquiring ‘Data Warehousing’ concepts with an automated functional testing will be good technology stack to jump into Big Data testing.

      • archana

        June 5, 2015

        Thank u so much for valuable feedback

  12. Bhavya

    June 3, 2015

    Hello Sir,
    I have manual testing experience of 7 years into web and application testing. I am aware of UFT basic concepts. I feel I have outdated the market trends since I do not have any hands-on experience on automation/mobile testing.
    What would you guide me to start with? I am looking for a job change and I feel with this profile I dont see myself in the potential job market.
    Please guide me on how to enhance my career

    • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

      June 10, 2015

      Hello Bhavya,
      Over the years software testing standards have improved considerably. A lot of automation/mobile testing tools have been introduced in the market. Most of the companies have realized the importance of automation testing; Hence, I would recommend you to gain advanced level knowledge of HP’s Unified Functional Testing (UFT). Additionally, you can also focus on learning Data Driven and Hybrid Driven Frameworks in detail.
      Along with UFT, I would also recommend you to learn Agile Methodologies and gain working knowledge of Database Testing, as it would prove to be of a great value addition.

  13. Prashant Mali

    June 7, 2015

    Hi,
    I wanted to know the latest growing company in the software testing. and additionally please tell me where to get the training, so it will be helpful to me
    Are there more opportunities in the software testing and automation field.
    Also please suggest me any name of software testing institutes in Pune location.

    • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

      June 25, 2015

      Quality Assurance is a practice which remains a vital part of the software development life cycle (SDLC) and will be relevant in the days to come. The approach or methodology might change with evolving technology and tools.
      I have limited information about the software testing training facilities in said location, but there are many options for online training.

  14. mangesh pardeshi

    June 8, 2015

    hi sir, i am a fresher B.E computer student have selected software testing as my profile. So in order to learn automation testing, which scripting language would you recommend to learn. And what is the future of software tester in upcoming days.
    I would also like you to guide me for my future as i have selected software testing as my profile and wanted to know what is the pay for fresher and what will be the skill required for automation testing along with what is the future of software tester.

    • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

      June 25, 2015

      First of all, since you are from a computer science background, I’m assuming that you have basic programming skills in C language. Every software automation tool uses a different programming language. Depending on the automation tool that you have opted, you may have to learn the programming language. Here’s an example, HP’s Unified Functional Testing (UFT) uses VB scripting, while Selenium supports various other scripting languages (Java, C Sharp etc.).
      In the near future, software firms will look out for software testing professionals having multiple skills, i.e. expertise in multiple automation tools and automation experts in both functional and performance testing. When it comes to pay, it all depends on the market condition, your skill sets and negotiation skills.

  15. Hi Jagannadha,
    First, great article, good job, gives brief but to the point Insight!
    I have a question to you, since you are an expert in the SW Testing Field. I am planning to take PhD thesis where my interest is mainly in the SW Testing Field, what would you think be a good and up to date toppic for such type of Research…?
    Any ideas would be more then welcome!!!

  16. hiren darji

    June 8, 2015

    Hello ..first of all thank you so much for this wonderful informative article
    I am a fresher just completed my M.TECH COMPUTER
    I am very much interested in making my career as QA , I am fundamentally clear about all the testing and methods ..Can i choose it..? as a fresher company will consider me or not ..? as I am a fresher
    And WHAT THINGS should i start learning that can help me getting job…
    Please enlighten me…
    warm regards

    • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

      June 25, 2015

      I’m glad that you found the article informative and useful. To obtain a break in the Quality Assurance domain, one needs to demonstrate the following skills:
      – Knowledge of Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
      – Knowledge of software testing concepts
      – Ability to write test cases and test scenarios
      – Knowledge of test execution, reporting and resolution
      Apart from these, it’s vital to have good oral and written communication skills.
      All the very best.

  17. Pulkit Garg

    June 14, 2015

    Hi Jagannadha Swamy,
    First of all I would like to say that your article is really helpful.
    I am working on Selenium from past 1 year with total years of experience of 6 years.
    I am confused that which field I should choose to give strength to my CV from Automation, Performance or Security.
    Or combination of all the above 3?

    • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

      June 25, 2015

      I am glad that you found this article helpful. Curriculum Vitae is an important document which provides information about your skills and achievements.
      One should be honest and transparent while making claims about their skills and accomplishments but one can always claim to know the knowledge acquired in technology, tool or utility through self-study.
      All the three fields that you mentioned are in good demand. However, it is completely based on your interest that you should decide the domain that you would like to pursue.

  18. Padma

    June 16, 2015

    Hi ,
    i am working as a software test engineer, i need your suggestion. I am working in a small organization . I have to present a topic on recent trends in testing which can be useful for the company to get the projects for the company .
    upon getting hold in the technique or a tool in manual testing , we as a team can prove to the management that we are strong enough in this area which is current trend in market and able to take up if we have projects .
    Regards,
    Padma
    So i need to valuable suggestion

    • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

      July 10, 2015

      Apologies for the delay in responding to your comments. The market is quickly moving towards solutions compatible for smaller screens i.e. mobiles and tablets. These devices come with varied configurations in terms of operating systems, browsers and screen resolutions.
      Validating takes lot of efforts in terms of time and resources. There are quite a few emulators to do this task in the market. Get yourself familiar with these tools and prepare a self-study or proof of concept (POC), which acts as a baseline.
      – Figure out the team’s adaptability to a new domain and technology.
      – Acquire best practices and learn with your experiences
      – Try to pitch your organization in a better way for client prospects.
      I would recommend you to pick the retail domain for your POC.

  19. sushma

    June 16, 2015

    Hi Jagannadha,
    I have 8+ yrs of experience in manual testing of web and client application. currently am working on insurance domain application and after 6 months am planning to change the company so please guide me which technology is good to learn so that i can learn in 6 months before i change the company.
    I heard cloud computing and bigdata testing is booming. so please guide which is good.
    Awaiting for your favorable reply.
    Thanks,
    Sushma G.R

    • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

      June 25, 2015

      I would recommend you to learn Big Data testing and also gain some knowledge of automation testing tools such as HP’s Unified Functional Testing and Selenium’s (AutoIT). Additionally, focus on learning agile methodologies, which along with automation tools will prove to be an added advantage.

    • nagendrakumar

      June 29, 2015

      sir choose testing is a carrier is good or bad

      • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

        July 13, 2015

        Career as a software test engineer is always relevant in the software industry. If you are keen to pursue a career in the software testing domain, you need to keep a tab on the latest trends and developments.
        The profile demands constant learning of new technology, domain and validate a software which is developed to help the end customer. A testing team is the custodian of the quality which ultimately leads to customer delight.

  20. Madhesh

    June 25, 2015

    Currently i am working as a software test engineer. I have 4.2 years of experience, in that i have 3.6 years in manual testing and i plan to learn automation testing, but i cannot learn as i don’t have the ability to code. please suggest me whether i have to go with functional automation or non functional testing.

    • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

      July 2, 2015

      As you have mentioned that you are planning to learn automation testing, but cannot learn due to lack of knowledge in coding. You can explore the following options. I would recommend you to learn non-functional testing, performance testing in particular, which is a type of non-functional testing, wherein knowledge of coding is not required to test software applications.
      Additionally, there are several testing tools in the market such as HP’s Load Runner and JMeter, which are used for performance testing. Using these tools, software testers can record user actions based on client’s requirements. However, keep in mind that software testers need to have knowledge of regular expressions to handle the values dynamically, while performing load testing. A thorough analysis is often required to find the bottlenecks in a software application after results are obtained.

  21. murthy

    June 27, 2015

    Hi.. I’m working as a manual tester in last 1 year. i have doubt regarding testing types. which is the most using technology in manual and automation. is it correct for continues the carrier as a manual tester.

    • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

      July 10, 2015

      Manual testers will always have their importance in this ever evolving IT industry. Deep diving into the implementation of automation tool is not going to replace the manual testing effort in order to reap long term benefits in the area of
      1. Time
      2. Cost
      3. Improved Quality.
      The tool and approach can vary based on domain, technology and various other factors. Career as a manual test engineer is always relevant in this industry and one need to improve by working efficiently
      1. By acquiring domain knowledge
      2. Improve analytical skills and come out with innovate scenarios to improve the system
      3. Optimize test execution time
      4. Effective communication is certainly helpful, as it would allow teams to close issues and improve quality

  22. vineet sabarwal

    June 28, 2015

    Hi Jagannadha,
    Please accept my sincere congratulations for providing such an informative article of current trends on Software testing.
    I am working on a proposal to commence software testing service and was eager to know what are the latest trends in Software testing market? Your article has provided me the kick start and helped to know where to concentrate more.
    Thank You,
    Vineet Sabarwal

    • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

      July 13, 2015

      Thank you for your encouraging feedback about this blog. While I am happy to hear that you have enjoyed reading and gained enough information for your sales pitch. We would be happy to collaborate with you for any of your leads.
      You can contact us on any of the contact numbers listed on our website.

  23. saurabh

    July 2, 2015

    Hello..
    I have just started my career as a QA trainee. I would like to know that what are the areas or new technologies should i focus on, which will help me after a experience of a year or two. Also what are the new trends in testing..?

    • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

      September 8, 2015

      Since you are a trainee, I would initially recommend you to gain some exposure on automation testing. The tools that are currently in demand are UFT (Mobile and WebService) and Selenium. Try to focus on developing automation scripts using the above mentioned tools.

  24. Sachin

    July 8, 2015

    Hello Jagannadha,
    I am software testing manager working in a product based company with 13 yrs Exp. throughout my career, I have worked on manual – functional testing along with datawarehousing testing in banking and securities domain. I know automation and agile methodology have great demand in today’s world.
    Although, i know selenium automation tool but i am not inclined towards it and least intererested in learning further.
    could you please suggest what to do in my case?

    • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

      September 8, 2015

      As you know Agile methodology has a great demand in today’s IT industry, it is really defining the way IT industry is shaping up. As you are aware of the Agile methodology, you have an option to become a scrum master to get to the next level by learning and gaining through understanding of the banking and financial domain.

  25. kumari

    July 14, 2015

    I am a manual tester having 3.5 years of exp. Currently working in printer domain technology. In my company we are not using any tool(manual testing + Security testing). I would like to learn current latest tool to improve my Carrier. Now i am looking to change to company. Please suggest me latest technologies with good future(like Big data).
    Waiting for your responds
    Kumari

    • Melissa

      July 20, 2015

      Microsoft Test Manager, or HP Quality Center are best tools to learn for test execution, VersionOne for Project Managing tests and stories if you are wanting to work in an Agile environment, and last but not least at a minimum, IBM AppScan for security testing, in addition to learning how Fiddler2 and other tools can be used to test for security related issues within your envonrment.

      • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

        September 9, 2015

        Thanks for the comment Melissa.

    • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

      September 9, 2015

      Yes, you can go ahead and start learning big data testing, I am sure you will agree that with the current demand for big data, employment opportunities remain high. As per IDG Enterprise Big Data Research, 70% of enterprise organizations have either deployed or are planning to deploy big data-related projects and programs. However, please note that this is at its infant stage.
      Big data testers normally have to work with unstructured or semi structured data. As a big data tester, you will have to focus heavily on research and development efforts. It is a great opportunity for innovative software testers, who are keen to explore new domains. However, before you switch to big data testing, I would recommend you to start exploring this field and try to gain some real-time exposure.

  26. saurabh

    July 30, 2015

    What are the Agile testing Challenges.? What are the Pros and cons involved in the Agile methodology.? Please share the experience.

  27. shirisha

    July 31, 2015

    hello sir,
    I am Planning for Ph.d in software Testing,have knowledge in Manual testing and tool QTP,please help me to find out the research scope and problem definition as per current trends in software testing .
    Thanks in advance

    • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

      September 9, 2015

      It is really nice to hear that you are planning to opt for Ph.D. in software testing. The major problem software testing professionals face is the speed with which they can perform application testing; the testing process tends to be slow. I would recommend you to perform research on the various techniques in software testing. The topics could revolve around various testing techniques such as Equivalence Partitioning Testing and Boundary Value Testing.

      • Abhay

        September 11, 2015

        I am currently pursuing PhD in software test techniques. Believe me its rare area having plenty of research scope. OATS and cube is one of them. Drop me msg for more details
        Abhay.p2702@gmail.com

        • Abhay

          September 11, 2015

          Also do not worry about tools and languages as PhD is a stage where you will be playing with algorithms and industry will use them to develop new tools.

  28. srihimanish

    August 10, 2015

    Hi sir
    I have 7 yrs of experience in manual testing looking for change of job immediately, as company going to lay off within 1 month, what way i can improve skills to get job as soon as possible.

    • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

      September 9, 2015

      I would recommend you to learn automation or performance testing, a lot of software companies these days are looking out for performance testing engineers. Try to gain knowledge to analyze various performance reports and bench-marking various types of applications. I would suggest you to learn the following tools:
      Automation Testing: Selenium
      Performance Testing: Load Runner/JMeter

  29. GNB

    August 21, 2015

    Hi Sir,
    It was a pleasure talking to you.Information on this website is very helpful to all the testing folks.I wish your continued support.
    I am having 6 years of experience in Manual Testing. Want to know the market in US for Tetsing. Can i have any info on Ruby Testing? Is it useful to enhance my career in US.

    • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

      December 23, 2015

      There will be a market for all software testing streams, especially for individuals with the right skill and attitude. Though, few technologies tend to dominate the testing market at given intervals. Examples being Unified Functional Testing (UFT) and Selenium, these appear to be quite popular these days. However, many companies adopt technologies taking into considerations various factors such as budget, local talent pool, tool support etc.
      I am sure testing on Ruby based applications will have its own market, but you may not receive the same number of interview calls as you would for Selenium or UFT. I would suggest you to invest your time on learning other open source tools/framework with Selenium.

  30. Sachiv Gandhi

    August 26, 2015

    Hello Jagannadha,
    I am having 7+ years of experience in Manual testing. I am quite keen on moving to automation testing. will that be good choice? along with it could you please suggest scripting languages which is in demand and which would be helpful in future growth.

    • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

      December 23, 2015

      For software testers with your level of experience, I would recommend cultivating skills required for the next level. Techniques and skills such as estimation, risk identification and mitigation, effective test case design, effective test review, etc. These skills would be helpful to enhance your career.
      Furthermore, you can learn Visual basic scripting language to keep yourself ready for any automation opportunity down the line.

  31. Modhurima

    August 26, 2015

    Hi,
    After reading this article, I am getting interest to shift to Software Testing as career from Application Development & Support. I am having 4.3 years of experience in Insurance Domain Application Support & Maintenance projects.
    Hence without having prior knowledge in testing domain, will it be a good choice to go ahead?
    If yes, whether have to learn first manual/Non- functional testing or directly should learn automation testing tools?
    Thanks,

    • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

      December 23, 2015

      I suggest you to jump start your career with Automation Testing given your background in software development. I am sure you would be able to handle complex test scenarios with ease. In some case it may require to build the test goals using your logic.
      Please try your skill enhancement in Selenium, which needs basic to medium knowledge of various languages. Selenium supports popular languages such as C#, Java, Java Scripts, Pearl etc.

  32. seema

    September 1, 2015

    Dear Sir,
    I seek your advice regarding starting my career in Testing domain. I am M.E and have been in academic Industry before taking a break. Now, I wish to pursue my career ; please suggest some futuristic course/training that can help me boost career.
    TIA

  33. Alam

    September 3, 2015

    Dear All,
    I have around 10 years of experience in Manual Testing, presently working as test lead role,with multiple domain(Insurance/Ecom and ERP application). Now looking for change. Could you please suggest any course, which will help me to change the job which require minimal or no coding experience. Because I am not good in coding.
    Regards,
    Alam

  34. sunny

    September 7, 2015

    I have 2 years of experience in manual testing and 3 years of gap i know it is a bit difficult to get into the industry again but i want to start my carrier again in software testing. Which technology should i learn to get the job again any advice would be a great help.

    • Venkat

      September 15, 2015

      Go and join as a fresher… for while it is pain but it makes you comfort in s/w field

  35. Latha

    September 8, 2015

    Very useful article.Really helpful..thanks

  36. jyoti mishra

    October 20, 2015

    Hello sir,
    i have 6 years of exp in manual testing.I am confused between ETL and performance testing to choose for enhancing my skills.Please suggest which one i should go for

  37. Bhashna

    October 20, 2015

    Really interesting content and the way you are guiding the guys here is an awesome job being done.
    I have an experience of over 9 yrs in QA with lot of domain experience in Oracle products. I have recently moved to a start up company for which QA is a very early word. However – what trends of QA would help start ups these days to market their QA work ?

  38. kiran

    October 21, 2015

    Hi Jagannadha,
    i have 6 years of exp in manual and automation testing (used shell script) .working in product based company domain -File system testing , i am not sure abt new technology, if i want to boom in future means , what should i do , which technology and what are the things i need to learn ,i have bit confusion on selecting the path, please suggest me some gud thoughts , thanks in advance.

  39. sashidhar

    October 28, 2015

    Hi Jagannadha,
    I worked as a testing engineer how to improve my self??How I become a good tester in future,What are all the automation tools available in present trend???Please give me suggetions….Thanks..

  40. venkat

    October 29, 2015

    Hi Jagannadha,
    i was worked in automation tools like QTP,Testcomplete,Selenium in SAP and Finacial domains.i have an experience of 1.3 yrs in software testing. please suggest me what are the areas that i need to focus or what are the booming technologies that i have to focus.
    please suggest me.

  41. Robin john

    November 16, 2015

    Hi Jagannadha,
    Thanks for sharing ur experiences with us , i liked your blog very much. I am a manual tester with 2.2 yrs exp ,presently working on mobile application testing on IOS apps and for automation i am learning XCODE UI automation instruments but i got stuck in many places, not enough materials available for it.
    i have done automation through QTP (not advanced QTP using complex vb scripts but basic scripts) ,have knowledge of jmeter (learnt through web little bit), OWASP ZAP, QC as i was a web application tester.
    Now I am a bit confused what to do for growth in my testing career ,in my free time i do R&D on different tools and techniques but not getting a definite thing.
    my location is indore not getting good tutors of selenium webdriver and appium also very much confused wat to do.
    Please help
    Thanks & regards
    Robin John
    Ph- +91-8109395955
    Mail id – robin_john_jbp@yahoo.com

  42. prithvi

    November 27, 2015

    Hi sir,
    Really i am very impressed by your article 🙂
    I am having 3 years experience in manual testing ( banking and travel ) domain. i wanted to updated my self in testing ,now i wanted to learn Big data testing. But i dont have knowledge in coding, so can i learn Big data testing? or please guide me how can i proceed in my work, please suggest me.
    Please reply me back sir, i will be waiting for your guidelines.
    Thank you

  43. Bhargav Deepak

    December 18, 2015

    Hello Mr. Jagannadha,
    I completed my B.tech (I.T) and have been working in Manual Testing for the past 7 months. I want to know when I should set up a target and what are all the techniques and methodologies to be learnt, so that I can shine well after 3 years or would you suggest me any type of testing in this latest trend. I need your help to decide my career in future. Thank you.

  44. Sonal

    June 1, 2016

    Hello Jagannadha,
    I am having totally experience of 9 years in Manual Testing which includes Functional Testing,System Testing , UAT and also an exposure of agile methodology -KANBAN board and Postman /Rest client Api testing. Please help me to grow in market with latest trends and technology. Please guide me.
    Thanks,
    Sonal

    • Jagannadha Swamy Tata

      June 9, 2016

      DevOps is an emerging concept that is replacing the traditional software delivery model. It has catalyzed into a movement and is rapidly gaining popularity among the technical community. DevOps helps in introducing quality software products into the market at a faster pace, as compared to the traditional models. Furthermore, QA has would be playing a critical role in the DevOps model.
      The second important trend is Automation, anything that can be automated, should be automated. So learning test automation is the key to enhance a career in software testing. I would recommend you to pick any of the functional testing tools, both commercial and open source to enhance your skill sets.

      • Sonal

        June 30, 2016

        Thanks for the reply.
        Learning Automation is a good idea but at this stage i guess every company will treat as fresher in Automation and if try on this every one need expertise in automation field.
        Please suggest what to do in this case as initially i have started learning on QTP and Selenium.

  45. srinivas

    October 4, 2016

    Hi,
    I’m Srinivas currently working for QA engineer, having 2 years of experience in manual testing (functional, system, unit, integration) and also having experience on web testing. I have knowledge on QTP (functional testing ) not completely.
    I want to switch to automation side to improve skills as well as financial growth but i am not familiar with core java (selenium). I am in little confusion testing side or Remain in manual only? Can you suggest me what is the latest trend in testing side and what should I learn to improve skills to well settled in testing domain. And also having experience in DB.
    plz suggest me where can enhance my skills and achieve my goals and better growth. If can I go for management side what would be the better option (I heard about BDA is it good to move management tools)

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