Over the last several years, there has been an explosion of change in the software development world, and one area that has stayed on top is testing. Not so long ago testing was only a little step sitting uncomfortably at the end of development just to “make sure things are not terribly broken”. Now, testing has become an intrinsic part of the development process and so do the quality assurance skills since, it has highly changed its nature as the software progressed.
The Changing Role of Testing
Ten, twenty years ago most software testing was manual—someone clicking through screens, identifying bugs and verifying that things work as expected. Now make no mistake, manual testing is still relevant; however, the rise of agile development and continuous Integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines has changed how we look at testing. Testing these days must be done quickly, automatically and within the development process itself.
Employing the use of modern testing is not just about bugs, it’s about ensuring quality at Teach stage. This encapsulates automated unit tests, integration testing, end-to-end testing and even performance issues. Over the years, testing had to evolve to keep pace with increasingly complex software systems and testers — one wanted more tech-savvy than ever.
Automation and Specialist testing roles rise
It led to a trend in the demand of automation testing tools such as Selenium, Cypress, and Playwright. Automation frameworks — Developers can use automation frameworks to run tests automatically, thus saving time and reducing human mistakes. Yet, these tools need the hands of a skilled person. It goes beyond just recording a few clicks and letting the software do the rest, setting up automated tests — in fact automating them properly takes a depth of understanding both of the software being tested itself and an understanding at least superficially of how that works below.
So, it gave rise to a new battalion of testers that identify themselves as SDET or Software Development Engineer in Test. SDETs differ from traditional QA in that they are usually very programming heavy, and work closely with the dev team to write tests for even the most complex scenarios.
They are equally comfortable coding or designing a set of test cases. This makes them highly valuable within the development process.
The Current Demand for Testing Profiles
The same automation alongside the demand for testing to be done at advanced levels has made testing specialists the hottest professionals in the tech industry. More and more firms understand that delivering quality software is not just an essential but a most critical aspect of their reputation and user satisfaction. More people than ever are seeking people with capacity beyond mere clicking around an app. Employers want individuals capable of developing test automation frameworks, making them part and parcel of the CI/CD pipeline, and working with developers to ensure quality becomes part of every line of their code.
Moreover, the demand is highest for SDETs followed by automation engineers and Performance testers. The traditional manual QA role is not completely going away but is evolving into something broader. Testers are now expected to have a solid understanding of coding and scripting as well as experience working with tools like Jenkins Docker and Kubernetes to help streamline testing within development workflows.
Why It Matters More Than Ever
This heavier spotlight on testing has naturally come about with a change in perspective. Testing is not an event at the end of development anymore; it is something that runs all through development. It is not just finding a bug and rectifying it before it goes to production but also ensuring that the software will meet the high user standards of modern times. For companies, the investment in skilled testers means minimal bugs, faster releases, and satisfied customers. For developers, it means building software that they can be pleased with, knowing that it has been tested meticulously. And for the testers, it is a possibility to improve their skills and become integral parts of a modern development team.
Immediate Future
With the tech industry continuing to boom, it seems that the need for capable testers and test engineers will not be decreasing anytime soon. In fact, it’s coming to be understood that a strong testing strategy is a form of competitive advantage. For those who wish to take the plunge into the world of test automation, there are sunny skies on the horizon, with lots of opportunities to shape the quality of the software people use every day.
So, if you are a developer who wants to upgrade your testing skills, or if you are considering changing your line of work into testing, this is the time to do it. The software testing world is the most exciting, interesting, and promising these days.
