5 Latest Test Automation Trends to Looks for in 2021

There are always new trends popping up left and right. Whether it be a tricky new dance or maybe a new way to cook food. Trends are new or old ways to do things that have suddenly gained the interest of the public.

These trends can be found everywhere, an example would be in the world of test automation. This is a technically advanced sector full of programming, bug fixes, and a ton of patience. Test automation is the utilization of separate software to test the performance of a program.

Test automation may seem unnecessary to some due to the possibility of manual testing. However, manual testing takes a lot of time, money, effort, and even manpower. Test automation uses established programs to do the double-checking for you.

Automation testing has been around for quite a while and it only increases in popularity over time. These processes are an attempt to improve in terms of efficiency and quality.

What is Test Automation?

Whenever a program is finished or “Ready for service” it means that it will function as expected. These programs have gone through thorough trials and have come out successfully. There are two ways to check for bugs or malfunctions — manual and automated.

As their name suggests, manual testing involves a slow-paced trial and error process from a patient employee. Meanwhile, automated testing involves the use of an already established program or software. Each has its strengths and weaknesses.

There are a lot of ways to test for improvements and bugs and some of them are incredibly repetitive and tiresome. For such tasks, an employee may find themselves constantly repeating the same steps over and over again.

Automated testing is highly encouraged for better accuracy and speed. If you run a program then an employee won’t have to be subject to hours and hours of repetitions. Additionally, using a program will probably have the testing accomplished at a faster pace.

On the other hand, manual testing ensures that every process has been examined. If a failure occurs then there will be someone to be held accountable. Unlike in automation testing where you can’t punish the program, at most you can hold the service provided accountable.

If you have to deal with a lot of testing and want to make sure that your programs are squeaky clean then you might want to learn automation testing. Learning this kind of process unlocks a whole new kind of testing.

This allows you to perform repetitive tasks easily as long as you have set up your initial scripts for the tests. You can reuse the scripts when testing other software as well.

Automation testing is constantly evolving with new companies and trends to support this area of expertise. You may not want automation testing for every process out there but at least you gain the option.

Automation testing is a whole new software-centric world that has programs doing the dirty work for you. Still, it’s recommended for people who want to pursue software testing as a career to learn manual testing methods first. Being able to understand the fundamentals of testing will be easier for them to learn automation testing.

Trends in Automation Testing in 2021

As mentioned, automation testing is constantly growing and adapting to the needs of society. New knowledge is also adding possibilities to the field of automation testing. Here are a few trends that might excite your bug-fixing heart.

1.   Well-Established Automation Tools

Just like in any other sector, there will be companies or organizations that are known for being a “top dog”. For phones that may be Apple and for fast-food chains you might have a bunch of companies like Mcdonald’s, KFC, and Shakeys.

All in all, there will be organizations that have their names carved as the ones to be admired. The same goes for automation testing, and there are quite a few staple tools.

• Selenium
• Appium
• Cucumber
• HPE Unified Functional Testing (UFT)

These are tools that have made their name in automation testing. Selenium for example is one of the best-regarded automation testing tools. It is a free tool that shines when it comes to web application testing.

Selenium is most known due to the number of users constantly utilizing its service. Selenium is a powerful open-source platform that can be used for a bunch of systems and processes.

2.   Hyper-Automation or Intelligent Process Automation

This processor trend goes by many names and is yet to have a clear identity. Despite the lack of labels, this trend is one of the biggest trends of 2021. Hyper-Automation involves intelligent business management software that continuously tests processes.

The easiest way to understand hyper-automation is by imagining a digital version of the organization and having that continuously grow, test, and improve. This kind of AI-driven trend results in automation which has little to no human assistance.

No longer needing human assistance means that processes can continuously occur at an incredible rate.

3.   Cloud-Based Cross Browser Testing

There are many ways to test websites or applications and one of the trends involves cloud-based cross-browser testing. That may seem like a mouthful but this trend is easy to understand.

Cross-browser testing is the process of testing if a website functions as intended when being accessed through different browsers. These may include the common Google Chrome, Firefox, or even the less used Safari.

Cross-browser testing makes sure that users can access the information or service you are presenting despite being on various devices. Other than different browsers this also includes other smaller devices like smartphones or even assistive tools.

Having the testing being cloud-based allows for maximum efficiency and the job to be accomplished in a snap. Cloud testing is the assessment of a website’s scalability, security, reliability, and overall functionality.

4.   AI-Driven Testing

AI or Artificial Intelligence is a sector rich with possibilities and potential. AI opens a whole new realm of “possible” for a bunch of other sectors. AI involves a program functioning as a human.

Just like humans these programs take in data and process the information. After a certain point, these programs then decide on an appropriate course of action. This kind of machine learning can be done for any task provided it is guided correctly. Here is the tool to track employee productivity.

AI allows for automation testing to grow in a whole new and independent no human direction. AI could act as the programmers, testers, and even customers as they test out various processes.

5.   Mobile Application Testing

The world of mobile devices is constantly expanding. With faster and better smartphones showing up everywhere it is expected that more and more processes should factor in mobile devices.

Mobile applications are a great source of information, utility, and even income. Automated testing is making ground in terms of applications getting tested and improved. This is a new direction of testing that has great promise.

A bunch of testing tools are already mobile-friendly and even more tools are being developed to focus on mobile applications. There are a lot of statistics that point towards the future growth of mobile devices.

Key Takeaways

Websites, programs, applications, digital processes, no matter which is being discussed, are crucial to a ton of businesses and companies. Some of these websites even teach students their lessons and inform them of their rights.

To summarize, these functions are crucial to a lot of people and they need to be reliable. Reliability can only be found after a certain threshold of testing has been reached. This testing threshold can be achieved in many ways with different tools.

One of the most efficient methods would be automated testing. These testing methods are efficient, reliable, and quick in comparison to the manual method. This is a rapidly growing sector with a bunch of new trends.

You may want to look into any of these trends and see if they can work for your website or company. The future is now and you don’t want your future to be in jeopardy because of something you didn’t do now