Changes in software testing: Then and now

 In traditional software development mechanisms, we undergo a waterfall model for software development wherein the design and development happens first followed by the testing. In such cases there might be one or two releases in a year and that too a customer can choose to upgrade or not to upgrade to such new product updates. It arises a fixed set of test requirements which can be identified and implemented while the design and development phase happens.

The emergence of Cloud and other web 2.0 technologies made a revolution in the way we develop, deploy and use software. Now we have software available at our finger tips through the preferred browsers anytime anywhere. When you logout and login again in the same software, you might see that some update has happened seamlessly without your knowledge. These SaaS (Software as a Service) applications have very rapid release cycles and generally follow Agile model for software development.

This arises unique set of requirements for these kinds of new generation software developed, deployed and used on browsers. They are often available for use just by submitting your personal particulars such as name without the need for installation and set up. Moreover, pay for what you use and not for the entire software. You can decide a subset of functionalities that you may want to use in that software and then pay for that subset, not for everything. Further, it is interesting to note that, users of Cloud, share the resources available. i.e. one Cloud database may contain information from multiple clients. This is known as multi-tenancy.

For testing, this introduces a unique set of challenges such as security testing, multi-tenancy testing, elasticity testing, load testing, elastic scalability testing, live upgrade testing, browser compatibility testing etc. Added to the new requirements, these need to be performed in a very short release cycle. Finally, these software undergo rapid changes in the portals causing more headache for automation script maintenance.


Disclaimer: "The opinions and positions expressed are my own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Progress Software"