The Future Scope of Software Quality Assurance: A Beginner’s Guide

The scope of Software Quality Assurance (SQA) is increasing with the growing demand for quality products in the market. Imagine a baby product that is not tested for quality before use.  Now picture the chaos it might create if the end-user senses it. Just like every product, the software product also requires quality assurance before it reaches the consumer or the stakeholder.  In short, the SQA is a never-ending process without which the acceptance levels of the software product seems to be far-fetched.

Importance of SQA in AI, Big Data, IoT, and Robotics

Software Application Testing & Quality Assurance is an integral part of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). The SQA is more relevant now than before with the emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data, IoT, and robotics coming into play.

In AI, where the machines are fed with training datasets coupled with logic, they are expected to predict the results on the test data. Now the responsibility to validate the results of the predictions falls right into the lap of the QA tester.

The Big Data testing assures that the data which is collected from various sources used for business use is of substantial value. It essentially makes sure that the data is complete and is of good quality.

In the field of Internet of Things (IoT), human satisfaction comes at a point when the devices interconnected are performing up to mark. The data exchange between the devices needs to be validated, checked for security and performance. This is where SQA comes into the picture to understand if the IoT devices are performing to meet the expectations of the consumer.

SQA testing in robotics is crucial. Robotics helps in automating the mundane tasks in order to make the life of humans easy. This is only possible if the testers test the results of the automated processes rigorously if they meet the expectations for better performance and functionality.

Is the scope for Software Quality Assurance widening?

There are ample reasons why we think the career in SQA testing will takeoff not just today, but also in the future. There are various myths in the industry regarding the SQA career such as:

• The SQA career is stagnant
• Development is superior to testing
• SQA testers get less pay.
• Those who cannot code take up testing as a career.

However, here are the reasons which counter the myths:

Reason 1

Developers can never be good testers. And if the developers start testing the software, the final product will lack in terms of quality. The developers will naturally believe their product is perfect. QA team and the development go hand in hand as the SQA testers essentially add a different perspective to the product and start testing with a new angle.

Reason 2

It is a general perception that the testers get less pay as compared to the software developer. However, an accomplished tester is no way inferior to the developer. What’s more the companies like Google, Microsoft even pay the testers more than the developers.

Reason 3

In the world of automation, the testers also require to write the test scripts to automate the testing process.  Testers do require coding skills.

Reason 4

SQA Testing is quite a challenging profession. It certainly keeps you on your toes. The tester essentially needs to think like a consumer while testing the product.

Reason 5

The testers have a great future especially with the emergence of the latest trends in software quality assurance such as AI, Machine Learning, Big Data, and IoT testing.

With the above reasons, we conclude that the myths are after all myths and software testing is a booming industry which is becoming more challenging and demanding than ever.