In this age of technology, even if you have a highly skilled workforce and well-defined goals, you need sophisticated tools to complement them to get optimal results. This applies to all the organizations but in this article, we’ll specifically talk about QA teams and what they can expect from the tools of 2020.
There is no denying the significance of test management tools. The ultimate goal it’s helping QA teams achieve for years is to deliver high-quality products with limited resources, time being the most critical one. From test scheduling to test tracking and reporting, these tools have proved to be an essential part of the QA system. With time, these tools are evolving and one major factor of this evolution is AI.
AI has been revolutionizing all the industries. Through robust algorithms and self-learning capabilities, AI minimizes human involvement in critical tasks while also making tedious and time-consuming tasks easier. However, it hasn’t been utilized to its full potential in test management. Since more industries are moving towards automation, they are looking to equip themselves with AI-based applications. This makes testing the apps for automation a business-critical activity. So, in the year 2020, watch out for the AI-based test management tools that are lined up for releases.
AI addresses the following questions regarding test management:
- Were the important test cases run at the start of the cycle?
- How critical are the open defects in the software that is about to be shipped?
- Were the most important test cases, that had issues in previous releases, covered in the progress estimated by the QA teams?
- Are proactive steps being taken to make sufficient adjustments?
- What is the defect count? How many test cases have been written and executed? What’s the defect closure rate? What does complexity look like?
AI is also playing a major role in defect management. With increasing test data, chances of manual testing errors are getting higher. AI and ML algorithms change the way bugs are fixed during software development. Whether it is auto-correction of codes or assigning bug tracking to QA teams, AI allows automated solutions without any human intervention required, significantly reducing the time-to-market.
Speaking of time to market, QA teams face mounting pressure to pace-up testing while minimizing risks and delivering high-quality products. This is why companies have started to implement a shift-left mentality. This means that enterprises are starting to implement integration and testing earlier in the development lifecycle. This enables IT teams to address issues early and find a solution to meet that need.
While this is now becoming a far more common approach to testing, it’s important to manage risk early with ongoing impact analysis, code quality review, risk-based testing and real-time risk assessments. Ideally, development teams should find a way to address testing so that it’s conducted in conjunction with development. Doing so will ensure testing time is greatly reduced given code is already defined as “ready to test” in adherence to predefined Advanced Business Application Programming (ABAP) standards.
Test management tools are going mobile. Cloud-based tools provide convenience so that you can use them anywhere, at any time. Although, server-based tools are still out there, don’t expect a lot of such tools to make an entry this year. Further easing accessibility is the introduction of mobile apps by tools such as Kualitee, Zephyr, and JIRA. These mobile apps help execute and manage tests on the go which significantly improves testing productivity. Even if you’re away, testing won’t stop.
Conclusion
The future of test management tools is bright. Starting from 2020 where AI will take over and will have a significant influence on future tools and how they will shape up. More organizations are expected to implement the “shift-left” approach that will help ensure high-quality products in the competitive development industry. This competition benefits customers the most, with high-quality products, competitive prices, and plenty of options to choose from. That’s why, to stand out, tools like Kualitee, Zephyr, and JIRA offer mobile app support so that you can execute and manage tests literally at your fingertips.
