Software Testing Evolution & Methodologies

Software programming has evolved over the decades and consequently, testing, which is an integral part of software development, has also gone through a series of changes. 

It’s all started with programming and debugging phase, when finding errors during debugging was considered testing. In 1957, testing got an individual identity and was treated as a separate activity from the debugging process. Till the late ’70s, testing was seen as an exercise to ensure that the software works as per the specified requirements. It was then extended to find the errors, besides ensuring the proper functioning of the software. In the ’80s, the testing activity was also considered as a measurement of quality. With this, it gained more importance and was treated as a clearly defined and managed process of the software development life cycle.  By the mid-’90s, the testing process had its own life cycle.

In this article, we have segregated the phases of software testing evolution in terms of different eras for a better understanding.

The Era of Programmers and Testers – Software Testing Introduction 

Development and testing were treated as mutually independent activities during this era. Once the software was ready, it was passed on to the testing team for verification. Testers were not very actively involved during the requirement analysis phase and had limited interactions with business stakeholders. They were heavily dependent on the knowledge passed on to them via documentation done during design and development or gathering knowledge from developers who wrote the code. Lack of insight into the requirements and expectations of the customers led to limited testing strategies used by the testing team. The testers would develop a test plan based on their understanding of documentation and test the software in an ad-hoc manner. This obviously had certain limitations and the testing was not comprehensive.

Testing evolved and then moved to next era – era of Exploratory Testing & Manual Testing

The Era of Exploration and Manual Testing

The late ’90s saw the advent of various methodologies like agile testing, exploratory testing, etc. Testing was done manually using detailed test cases and test plans.

Exploratory testing gave freedom to test and break software in indigenous ways by exploring the software within the gamut of testing charters. 

Expansive and intensive growth of the software development process needed more comprehensive ways of testing. The incremental and iterative approach employed by agile testing helped in achieving this goal. Iterative way of testing paved way for automating the tests that were repetitive in nature.

The Automation Era

With the advent of the new millennium, multiple new approaches surfaced which gave a complete makeover to software testing. These approaches revolutionized the approach to testing. Testing was now deemed as an integral part of SDLC at every step. Quality assurance and control in every phase gained importance.

Automation took testing to an entirely different level. With a plethora of automated testing frameworks, the testers were further empowered to carry out their tasks with improved efficiency. Automation helped in performing regression testing and sanity testing with speed and accuracy.

This era also saw the need for scaling up the testing process. Crowdsourcing and Cloud testing aided the business in managing testing of the products at a faster pace, with less investment in infrastructure in terms of resources.

The Era of Continuous Testing

The business dynamics started changing and customers expected to see an intermediate working model of the end product. Hence, the demand for frequent and intermediate software releases went up. 

Improved network infrastructure provided high connectivity and improved speed of deployment and testing across multiple platforms. This aided frequent deliveries which inadvertently added to more testing work.

Concepts like Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment became popular. Along with these, continuous testing also gained importance.

Rise of DevOps and CI/CD led to shorter delivery cycles. Careful assessment of risks in real time became the need of the hour. Risk assessment and handling had to be done at all the stages of the software development life cycle. Continuous testing helps in handling such risks by managing the bugs before every software release.

The business stakeholders demanded intermediate release with tight timelines, without making any compromises on the quality of the end product. To keep pace with these demands, continuous testing needed to evolve to be more efficient. That’s where the use of Artificial Intelligence in the testing process steps in.

The Artificial Intelligence Era

In simple words, Artificial Intelligence is the machine’s capability of imitating human behavior by perceiving, understanding and learning. 

The algorithms for AI are based on predictive analysis of data. This also means that AI testing heavily depends on data. 

There are many AI-powered testing tools available today that help in unit testing, API testing, UI testing, etc. A classic example of the usage of AI in testing is visual testing.

Webomates Way of Testing

Evolution is a continuous process that brings about change, for good. With every step of improvement, the desire to do better further heightens. The learning based on past experiences, both failure or success, helps in improving the process. 

At Webomates we have optimized testing through combining our patented platform that uses multiple channels of execution like Automation and AI with crowdsourcing and manual testing. We accelerate peace of mind at deployment, at a significantly lower total cost.

Notes from previous experiences bring out another interesting aspect, testing has to be treated as a strategic initiative and not just as a tool to verify and validate the product. Usage-based testing is the need of the hour. Our usage-based model gives full flexibility to the customers. Our 24-hour execution model using multiple channels is unique in itself, thus providing an edge when it comes to comprehensive testing. We provide Quality check report with triaged defects within 24 hours of test execution.

If you are interested in learning more about our revolutionary cloud based testing platform Webomates’ CQ service please click here and schedule a demo or reach out to us at info@webomates.com

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Tags: Agile Testing, Crowdsource Testing, Exploratory testing, Manual Testing, Regression Testing