Introduction
The world of Software Testing is changing on a daily basis. The way the testing team used to do testing one or two decades ago is completely different as compared to the way it is conducted now. Earlier testing practices were predominantly manual testing which could be error-prone due to human error. But now there are many automation testing tools available in the market which could not only speed up your testing phase but also they help us in gathering the accurate test results.
This is one of the best examples of the evolution of software testing after the manual testers have learned from their mistakes. In other words, since manual testing could be error-prone, therefore, after learning from this experience the legends invented the test automation tool in order to procure concrete test results.
I would rather say that 100% test automation is not the overall solution to achieve the best testing results but the extent of manual and automation testing for a particular test assignment must be chosen wisely.
Next, it depends on the type of software testing methodology. Suppose if you are working in the SDLC i.e. Software Development life cycle model, then the testing team has given the complete phase with a definite duration. The testing team in SDLC model should choose what they actually need for the testing. They should evaluate the test cases which could be automated as well as the test cases which could be executed manually in order to achieve the best testing results.
On the other hand, if the project is using the Agile methodology then the testing team may not have the privilege to design the automation framework from scratch and automate the testing for the current sprint. I would rather say that there could be two possibilities in the agile model to counter such a situation. If the project has well invested in the automation framework, then in the upcoming sprint such a framework could be used and test cases could be automated in the very short duration. If the same project does not have the automation framework developed before then there is no way, the quick automation could be achieved but the manual testing to meet the sprint testing deadline is highly recommended.
Software Testing methodology is getting evolved every day and no one can say that we will always stick to SDLC or Agile model but there are hybrid methodologies as well. For example, if a particular project is very complex then it is wise to break that project into multiple modules and depending on the best feasibility some of these modules could adopt SDLC whereas another module can follow the Agile methodology. At the same time, some of the test cases could be executed manually and others could be automated. If there is need to do the integration testing among upstream and downstream modules for an application or system, then it is wise to test the integration or connection manually as automation sometimes could not be the best choice.
Again, I am speaking of my experience but like many, I have seen failures as well and I have learned from those failures. As a QA manager, I always make sure that these mistakes should not get repeated by any of my team members.
Software Testing is a very innovative Job and I would say that without testing or sign off from the testing team on a particular project, that project could not go live. Therefore, the testing team owns a great responsibility which directly impacts the organizational reputation towards the software product. Software Testing being innovation Job requires the experience testers which could add value to the actual project methodologies after judging the current testing approach with the failures they might have faced in the past. No tester would like to repeat the same mistake again and again. Thus the testers learn for their failures and guide the team what not to do. They help to decide the appropriate testing approach and this is how the future of testing is decided for any project.
Not only this, if the approach happens to be very innovative when it could be commercialized or I would rather say, it can become standard practice. Some of the standard functional testing approaches are BDD (Behaviour driven testing), Data-driven testing, etc. After these testing practices have become standard, we got the dedicated testing tools developed which help us to achieve our required testing goal in a very short span. This is how the future of testing has decided and it will go one with the flight of innovative ideas from veteran testers.
In the big organizations where the sprint size is very small and within the user story the tasks of development and testing have to be completed in a very short span. The testing team decides if it can re-use the existing test cases no matter if they are automated or manual but the test result should be accurate with the highest possible test coverage. If the current project testing requires to test the bulky data from an API or it is a data migration project, then manually comparison may not be a good idea due to bulky data, instead, a test script should be developed to execute the data file as a batch and procure the automated test report. Such an approach of testing is a dynamic approach which involves a mix of manual and automated testing.
Conclusion
The software testing field has still a lot of scopes to discover new testing techniques in order to provide shape to the Future of Testing. The advancement of artificial intelligence needs to enter and contribute to software testing. The automation testing should also possess the artificial intelligence to contribute to the software testing by disclosing the areas which are not captured during writing or executing the test cases. This will definitely be an add-on which will fit in the best way to the short span sprint and provide a new dimension to the agile methodology.
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