Elliott Masie, who coined the term eLearning, has rightly said, “We need to bring learning to people instead of people to learning.” In a true sense, eLearning has brought education to people and has given them the privilege to learn anything, anytime and anywhere. It has completely revolutionized the education system and has blurred the boundaries of conventional educational structure. The online education platforms have replaced the concept of fixed learning hours with flexible learning hours, four-walled classrooms with virtual classrooms, and paperback books with digital books.

The eLearning platforms are helping billions of students continue their education in the tough times of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. As per the UNESCO report, currently, there are almost 43,518,726 learners that have been affected worldwide due to the closure of schools. The alternate or only way left for these affected learners is to adopt eLearning apps. Thus, it has become essential for eLearning platform providers to deliver high-quality eLearning apps that work properly 24/7 to deliver a great learning experience to learners.

An overview of the eLearning industry

eLearning or online learning is the way of delivering education via electronic media or digital technologies over the internet. eLearning takes into consideration various aspects like audio, video, infographics, and more to deliver content to learners. There are various types of online learning platforms, such as web learning, mobile learning, video modules, virtual classrooms, etc., that facilitate the education management, creation of educational content, delivery of content, and more.

The adoption of online learning platforms is significantly rising and is expected to grow even more in the coming years. According to GlobeNewswire, the global market for eLearning was estimated at US$250.8 Billion in the year 2020 and is projected to reach US$457.8 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 10.3% over the analysis period.

Key features of an engaging eLearning platform

User-centric features:

1. Alerts and notifications:

eLearning platforms should contain alerts and notification features to notify the users regarding important events, dates, and deadlines.

2. User-friendliness and intuitive Graphical User Interface (GUI):

Proper app navigation, easy-to-read content, active links, and intuitive GUI are some features that are essential to ensure the user-friendliness of an eLearning app.

3. Responsive design:

An eLearning platform needs to have a responsive design. The content of an eLearning app should be made compatible with all devices, like desktop and mobile. Better the responsiveness of an app, the better is the learning experience it provides.

4. Scalable:

The number of learners accessing the app can vary, and on some days, there might be high user load than the usual days. An app needs to be scalable to ensure it works well under varying user loads and delivers a great user experience (UX).

Core-technical features:

1. Real classroom simulation:

Even though online education has several advantages, it still lacks the human touch or peer-to-peer interaction aspect. Therefore, it is essential to ensure a proper communication channel is embedded in an app to simulate the feel of a real classroom.

2. Audio and video conferencing option:

As compared to an offline classroom, group study in an online mode is quite difficult. It is essential for eLearning app providers to ensure their apps have proper audio and video conferencing options to let users connect and learn together as a group.

3. File sharing option:

The eLearning app must support all types of file formats, be it pdf, xls,xlsx, doc, gif, etc. An app should ideally compress the file according to the required format when shared across sources to enable easy sharing of files online.

4. API integration:

An app should have a proper API integration and seamlessly integrate with other software like CRM, talent management, or HR database. It should ensure seamless file transfer across apps and must integrate easily with other apps.

5. Data backup and recovery option:

Data is essential for everyone, be it users or businesses, and to ensure that the data is not lost, all eLearning platforms should have easy data backup and data recovery options.

What are the benefits of leveraging eLearning platforms?

1. Enables learning on the go:

eLearning platforms have made learning easy and convenient for learners as resources such as eBooks, videos, and audios can be accessed from anywhere at any time, thus enabling users to learn on the go.

2. Supports personalization:

Unlike the offline classroom, the eLearning app can be personalized by each user as per their choice. Users can choose the type of content as per their interest, customize the theme of an app for better visibility of content, track their study hours, and more.

3. Supports various formats:

With the help of eLearning platforms, teachers can now teach students using various teaching formats, like advanced infographics, animated videos, compelling audios, and more.

4. Helps in gamification of content:

Many eLearning platforms even support content gamification and make the learning process more engaging. By using video game design and other gaming elements, an eLearning app can be gamified, which maximizes users’ enjoyment and captures their interest, and keeps them engaged with an app.

5. Saves time and cost:

eLearning platform saves a significant amount of time and cost. Since every learning material is available at just the click of a button, there is no need for the users to travel or buy other resources for learning.

Some of the leading eLearning platforms for learners to know in 2022

• Blackboard Inc

• eDX

• SumTotal Systems

• TalentLMS

• Udemy

Common challenges of eLearning platforms

1. Unclear Audio/Video:

Multimedia tools such as audio and video tools play a vital role in keeping the students engaged. However, if the audio or video is not clear or gets stuck in between due to technical issues, it can annoy the learners. Thus, it is essential for eLearning app providers to ensure the proper functioning of video or audio features of their apps.

2. Lack of proper app navigation:

Poor app navigation or excessive scrolling to reach the main content can affect users’ interest. Thus, all eLearning app providers must ensure their app contains proper and easy navigation to keep the user engaged.

3. Slow loading speed:

Faster the loading speed of the application better is the CX. Slow loading apps negatively affect the interest of the user. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that the eLearning app loads fast and works properly under all conditions.

4. Frequent app timeouts:

Frequent timeout of an eLearning app annoys the learner as it breaks the flow of reading/learning. Therefore, eLearning app providers must ensure their apps do not cause frequent timeouts.

5. Incompatibility with browsers/devices:

Another challenge with eLearning apps is their incompatibility with various devices and browsers. Since learners use various types of devices and browsers, eLearning apps should be made compatible with the maximum possible kinds of devices, browsers, and operating systems.

6. Broken links/Inactive buttons:

One of the most common challenges users face with eLearning apps is broken links or inactive buttons. Due to this challenge, users often face difficulty in performing the desired action in an app. Thus, businesses should ensure their links are properly working at all times and all buttons are clickable to deliver a great UX.

7. Content-related challenge:

Content is the king, but if it contains spelling mistakes, wrong font size, or improper font colors, it can hamper the UX. Thus, businesses should ensure their apps contain proper content in an aesthetically correct format.

8. Inappropriate Graphical User Interface (GUI):

GUI of an app can make or break the user’s impression as it is the first thing that the user visualizes while accessing the app. It is essential to ensure that the eLearning app has a great GUI to deliver a great experience to the learner.

9. Poor Internet connectivity:

Consistent internet connectivity is essential to provide an uninterrupted learning experience to the user. If the app does not support the internet properly or causes trouble while connecting to the internet, there is a high chance that users might abandon the app.

Clearly, various challenges are commonly seen in an eLearning platform, but these challenges can be effectively overcome by leveraging end-to-end testing of eLearning platforms.

11 major software testing types to leverage for eLearning businesses

1. Functional testing:

eLearning apps contain several features and functionalities that must work properly to deliver a great learning experience to the user. This is where the need for functional testing for eLearning apps comes into the picture. In this software testing type, the basic or core functionalities of the application are tested to ensure it works properly.

Benefits:

• Ensures the app contains no broken links

• Ensures all the features of the app function correctly

• Ensures core functionalities of an app work properly

2. Integration testing:

Any kind of integration issue in eLearning apps can hamper the learning experience of users. It is essential for eLearning app providers to ensure proper integration testing of software modules, payment gateways, APIs, etc.

Benefits:

• Ensures integrated modules work properly

• Ensures seamless integration of payment gateway, CRM, HR database, and more

• Reduces the risk of app failure

3. Graphical User Interface (GUI) testing:

All eLearning apps should have a proper user interface to keep the users engaged and to provide a seamless learning experience. Businesses should leverage GUI testing to ensure all the GUI elements of their app, such as text boxes, menus, links, buttons, etc., functions properly.

Benefits:

• Validates visual elements of app functions properly

• Improves the readability and quality of an app

• It keeps the user engaged and provides a great UX

4. Non-functional testing:

Non-functional testing is a software testing technique wherein non-functional aspects of the software are tested to ensure its effective performance, reliability, scalability, security, and more. The non-functional requirements of an eLearning app include its user-friendliness, high security, effective performance, etc.

Benefits:

• Validates the reliability, security, performance, and scalability of an app

• Improves app performance

• Ensures better user engagement with an app

5. Usability testing:

eLearning apps should ideally be user-friendly and must contain proper app navigation, and concise content with appropriate font size, color, format, layout, etc. The content placement should be appropriate so that the user does not have to scroll through a maze of content to read the desired information. Thus, eLearning apps should be tested thoroughly by leveraging the usability testing method. This software testing method ensures that the application is easy-to-use and contains proper navigation.

Benefits:

• Ensures an easy-to-use interface

• Checks proper app navigation

• Ensures appropriate placement of text, images, and other multimedia in an app

6. Performance testing:

Performance issues in an app like slow loading speed, frequent app timeouts, sudden app crashes, etc., hampers the learning experience of the user. Businesses should ensure their apps are free from all performance bottlenecks and perform seamlessly under conditions like fluctuating networks, user load, bandwidth, etc. Thus, eLearning app providers should leverage performance testing to deliver scalable, reliable, and high-performing eLearning apps.

Benefits:

• Ensures reliable, scalable, and high-performing apps

• Ensures the app is free from all performance bottlenecks

• Improves load handling capacity of app

• Ensures the app does not crash or behave abruptly under high user load

7. Accessibility testing:

eLearning apps should be accessible to all people, including people that have certain disabilities like hearing loss, impaired vision, cognitive disabilities, etc. eLearning businesses should leverage accessibility testing to ensure their apps are accessible to all including students with certain disabilities. This test also ensures that the app follows all accessibility guidelines like W3C’s WCAG 1.0/2.0/2.1/2.2, BITV 1.0, Section 508 & Stanca Act, etc.

Benefits:

• Ensures equal access to the app to all

• Ensures app complies with web accessibility guidelines

• It helps in expanding the user base

8. Security testing:

Rampant cyberattacks pose a great threat to the security of an app, data, and reputation of the business. Since eLearning apps contain users’ sensitive data, like personal identity, banking credentials, phone numbers, etc. must be protected at any cost. Therefore, eLearning app providers should leverage security testing to safeguard their apps from cyberattacks.

Benefits:

• Protects apps from cyber-attacks by identifying security loopholes

• Safeguards customer sensitive data

• Reduces business risk

9. Globalization and Localization testing:

Every business wants its app to be successful in the global and local markets. Therefore, businesses should leverage globalization and localization testing to ensure their app complies with the language and functionality requirements of the local users in specific regions and delivers a great learning experience.

Benefits:

• Ensures app compliance with local as well global standards, such as L10N and I18N

• Validates an app display correct time and date formats as per the location

• Ensures rapid and successful rollout of product across geographies

10. Compatibility testing:

Users access the app on various types of browsers, operating systems, and devices. It is essential for eLearning app providers to leverage compatibility testing to ensure their apps are compatible with all kinds of browsers, devices, networks, operating systems, and more.

Benefits:

• Validates compatibility of the app across devices, browsers, OS, and networks

• It helps in achieving compatible apps.

• Delivers a great UX as users can seamlessly access the app

11. Compliance testing:

eLearning businesses should ensure their apps complies with certain laws and regulations like the data protection rules, Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM), GDPR compliance, etc. Compliance testing is a special software testing technique that helps businesses ensure their app complies with all legal rules and regulations. It saves them from heavy fines imposed due to non-compliance.

Benefits:

• Validates regulatory compliance of apps

• Saves businesses from heavy fines that are imposed due to non-compliance

• Uplifts brand image as customers like to use apps that are legally complaint

Conclusion

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the adoption of eLearning apps. Today, students worldwide are using eLearning apps to continue their education in these challenging times. The effective performance, proper functioning, and robust security of eLearning apps have become essential to delivering a great learning experience to learners worldwide. eLearning businesses should leverage end-to-end software testing from a next-gen QA and independent software testing services provider for quality eLearning apps and a great UX.

The post 11 Major Software Testing Types To Leverage for eLearning Businesses first appeared on TestingXperts.

Today’s businesses leverage technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Natural Language Processing (NLP), Robotic Process Automation (RPA) for automating their tasks and other business processes. Though these next-gen technologies have helped businesses achieve their goals, as we advance, companies need to upgrade themselves by adopting Intelligent Automation(IA), which typically combines the power of AI, ML, RPA, and other advanced technologies.

Content 1. An overview of Intelligent Automation 2. Differences of Intelligent Automation with RPA and Hyperautomation 3. Why should businesses leverage Intelligent Automation? 4. How Intelligent Automation is transforming the BFSI industry? 5. An overview of Intelligent Automation Testing types 6. Conclusion

An overview of Intelligent Automation

Intelligent Automation, also known as cognitive automation combines advanced technologies like: – RPA, – BPM, – AI, – ML, – Analytics, – OCR, – ICR, – Process mining to create end-to-end business processes that think, learn, and adapt on their own. Moreover, this intelligent automation accelerates digital transformation, automates repetitive tasks, ensures freeing up resources, improves operational efficiency, and effectively simplifies various business processes.

Differences of Intelligent Automation with RPA and Hyperautomation

Why should businesses leverage Intelligent Automation?

Streamlines back-office processes and increases efficiency:

Intelligent automation can speed up business processes and streamline tasks per business needs, ultimately increasing process efficiency.

Improves customer service:

This technology helps businesses get real-time access to customer information, accelerate the resolution of customer requests, and help identify additional product/service needs.

Frees-up employees for higher-value work:

Improves governance and fraud detection:

Interprets big data:

Helps in decision-making:

Reduces cost & saves time:

How Intelligent Automation is transforming the BFSI industry?

Intelligent automation is now leveraged across industries and impacts the BFSI sector significantly. Since the BFSI sector plays a vital role in the economy, there is constant pressure on BFSI institutions to improve business performance and lower operational costs. Due to the complexities of data, increased regulatory scrutiny, back-office inefficiencies, and outdated legacy systems, the BFSI sector faces many challenges. The BFSI sector needs to leverage intelligent automation testing to overcome these challenges. This technology helps BFSI institutions reduce costs, boost overall business performance, and deliver a great experience to employees and customers.

1. Banking Sector:

• Frees up banking team for higher-value work: Employees in banks have to regularly deal with repetitive and time-consuming tasks such as entering customer details, KYC process, etc. But, with the help of IA, various tasks can be automated and completed with much accuracy and at a faster pace. This frees up employees and allows them to focus on other high-value tasks.

• Allows customers to open a bank account remotely: Gone are the days when customers need to visit the bank to open bank accounts. But, now, with IA in place, customers can open their accounts remotely. Customers need to complete online KYC, submit required documents, fill in the necessary details and open their accounts in no time.

• Eases general ledger: Banking employees have to regularly maintain and update the ledger daily, a time-consuming and critical task. With the help of IA, banks can collect, update and validate large amounts of information from multiple sources faster and more effectively.

2. Finance Sector:

• Eases the application validation process: Employees working in the finance department have to manually validate applications that consume a lot of time and effort. But with IA technologies such as OCR, NLP, Intelligent Document Processing (IDP), etc., documents can be automatically processed easily in no time.

• Helps in detecting fraudulent activities: IA solutions can continuously monitor real-time transactions and can analyze the patterns of these transactions that help in detecting fraudulent activities such as anti-money laundering, frequent deposits of large amounts, frequent withdrawals, etc. It can also alert the concerned party and help prevent financial fraud in Fintech businesses.

• Eases financial audits: Finance audits are very complex and involve evaluating financial statements, tax calculations, checking amounts payable, and more. With IA, these tasks can be effectively automated, and chances of human-prone errors can be removed.

3. Insurance Sector:

• Makes credit risk assessment accurate and reliable: IA in the insurance sector plays an important role. This technology can intelligently screen prospective borrowers and assign them a risk score based on their ability to repay loan amounts. This process further helps various institutions to make an informed decision regarding credit/loan approval/rejection.

• Ensures faster claim processing: Claim processing is a complex and time-consuming task. Typically, insurance agents need several days to gather data and process claims. But with the help of IA, claim processing and even settlements can be done faster and more effectively without any risk or manual errors.

• Provides intelligent insights: IA tracks and records customer journey and makes insightful recommendations to suggest policies suitable to customer needs based on these recommendations. This further helps customers to manage their insurance money better and ultimately enhances the customer experience (CX)

Other industries where Intelligent Automation is making an impact

1. eCommerce:

• IA utilizes the power of AI technology that records the customer data and their shopping journey and makes recommendations each time customers visit the site for shopping.

• It helps businesses to make decisions about procurement by predicting demand and supply.

• It also enables seamless checkout with their shopping carts while smart algorithms calculate the amount to be charged and ensure seamless transactions to users.

2. Manufacturing:

• Physical and digital robots driven by IA are used to perform various tasks and replace/supplement humans in the manufacturing sector.

• Digital bots help manufacturers process a large amount of data and streamline the ordering process, procurement, appointment scheduling, and alerting.

• It also enables predictive analytics, utilizes machine vision technology, and enables quality inspection that is much more reliable and detailed than humans.

3. Logistics and Transportation

• IA helps truck drivers find the fastest and most cost-efficient routes by utilizing the power of analytics and predictive insights.

• IA has made the concept of self-driving cars into reality, and even drone delivery has been made possible due to the AI technology behind IA.

4. Healthcare

• The healthcare industry is rapidly using AI and RPA technology that goes behind IA to provide better patient outcomes and services.

• AI-powered chatbots are used to make appointments with doctors and provide online consultations.

• Intelligent bots are used to perform surgeries on the head, neck, eye, etc.

• Advanced AI technologies are being leveraged to enable accurate analysis of medical images, such as CT scans, MRIs, and X-rays, which significantly reduce the chances of human error.

5. Telecom

• The Telecom sector has always been data-intensive, and IA helps manage large amounts of data effectively.

• Automated call centers powered by advanced technologies reduce wait time for customers, accelerate the customer query resolution process and enhance the CX.

• IA also helps telecom service providers improve the quality of their network operations by automating the testing, addressing, remediation, and maintenance procedures.

• Intelligent Automation plays a major role across industries and AI-powered apps and solutions must be properly tested to ensure greater outcomes for businesses.

An overview of Intelligent Automation Testing types

UiPath Test Suite based Test Automation:

AI Testing:

AI-Based testing:

RPA Testing:

Conclusion

Intelligent Automation driven by cognitive and digital capabilities is changing the future of all industries, especially for the banking, financial, and insurance sectors. This technology is one of the significant drivers accelerating business growth and ensures a great customer experience. The combination of AI and RPA’s strength in the form of Intelligent Automation is helping businesses improve the quality, speed, and productivity of processes. While some businesses have already realized its importance, others need to adopt it. If you are an enterprise looking for intelligent automation testing, TestingXperts (Tx) can be your one-stop solution.

Tx is a proud partner of UiPath and has been providing UiPath process automation leveraging various UiPath tools to speed up the testing process. Our teams have hands-on experience with the UiPath test suite and provide next-gen intelligent automation testing services to clients across industry domains. We also have an in-house AI-enabled comprehensive platform – Tx-SmarTest that systematically caters to faster releases enabled with DevOps CI/CD implementation. This platform significantly helps boost the software quality through production, which is enabled by combining AI, ML, Deep Learning, and Neural network algorithms.

The post How Intelligent Automation Is Transforming The BFSI Industry first appeared on TestingXperts.

Content 1.  Test Automation to lead the way for Agile & DevOps 2.  Usability Testing to lead the charts for user experience 3.  Big Data Testing to continue empowering businesses 4.  IoT Testing to boost digitally connected smart devices 5.  AI & ML in Testing to top the ladder 6.  Blockchain Testing to usher more prominence 7.  Cyber Security Testing to become foremost necessity 8.  RPA Testing to dominate automation in 2023 9.  Performance Testing to shift towards performance engineering 10.  QAOps to take a leap in 2023 11.  Mobile Test Automation to dominate 2023 12.  Use of Scriptless Automation to move up 13.  Connected & Multi-devices Testing to go mainstream 14.  Penetration Testing to gain more significance 15.  Hyperautomation to lead the charts in 2023

Software Testing Trends to Watch Out in 2023

1. Test Automation to lead the way for Agile & DevOps

With the latest Agile and DevOps processes on the go that brings in faster and quality releases, many enterprises continue to leverage and adopt test automation. Undoubtedly, test automation has already penetrated the industry in testing repetitive tasks quickly and efficiently. With DevOps substantiating proper collaboration between all allied departments of Dev and Ops, test automation tools continue to lead the software testing space. The proper usage of test automation tools helps to achieve faster release cycles, better quality software and deliver’s quicker ROI.

According to Globenewswire – the global automation testing market is expected to grow up to USD 29,525.87 million by the end of 2025. This growth in the automation testing market is due to the increased importance of AI and ML in the testing process which helps to reduce the testing life cycle. Test Automation continues to dominate the software world as it helps to speed up the testing process, achieve faster feedback from the customer, increases the product quality, and helps to achieve faster delivery which is essential for achieving success in today’s highly competitive business environment.

2. Usability Testing to lead the charts for user experience

With the rapid influx of mobile apps, especially the eCommerce, banking, insurance applications, etc. it has been seen that the significance of software testing has been witnessed more to effectively test these apps across operating systems, platforms, and devices, etc. Undoubtedly, today, mobile apps continue to be the major business enablers; an effective and great user interface with a streamlined usability flow is the need of the hour for all these apps. Mobile users continue to show a preference for apps that have great usability embedded in them. Poor usability can affect customer and brand loyalty; hence usability testing identifies all the flaws if any before the app is actually released into the market.

According to Statista – there are almost 3.3 million apps available on the Google play store followed by 2.11 million apps available on Apple’s App Store as of 1st quarter of 2023. For an app to stand out in the crowd, the app should provide seamless navigation and user experience to end-users. With the increased usage of mobile apps, user experience continues to remain the primary focus for all businesses and enterprises. Therefore, usability testing continues to hold more importance in determining the success of an application as it helps in assessing the application’s navigation flow and ensures to deliver a seamless and great user experience for such usability tested apps.

3. Big Data Testing to continue empowering businesses

Enterprises across industries continue to deal with huge data volumes and diverse data types. The mining of any amount of structured or unstructured data defined as Big data needs effective testing. Big data testing helps to make improved decisions with accurate data validations, and helps improve market targeting and business strategizing with informed decisions drawn from this big data analysis.

According to Globenewswire -The global big data market value is projected to grow from USD 138.9 billion in 2020 to USD 229.4 billion by 2025. This growth is due to the increased use of IoT devices in organizations, and due to the increased initiatives by the governments to enhance the usage of digital technology. Huge dependency on data across all industries requires effective big data testing to ensure quality, accuracy, and integrity of data that is essential for making informed decisions by all organizations. Specifically, big data testing helps to make data-driven decisions about various products & services which are captured and analyzed to deliver valuable insights to organizations.

4. IoT Testing to boost digitally connected smart devices

It is expected that by 2025, there will be approximately 27 billion connected IoT devices. These figures represent the massive expansion and the need for an effective IoT testing strategy. This IoT testing includes the testing of operating systems, communication protocols, along with software and hardware of the IoT devices. Most enterprises have already started identifying the need for an effective IoT testing strategy to enable efficient and well-connected smart devices that are much needed for end-users.

Especially, testing for vulnerabilities in IoT devices is an emerging business need as IoT typically encompasses all products that are connected to the internet in one way or the other. IoT systems collect data while in usage from various interconnected devices and share information with their manufacturers without the users being aware of it. Further, manufacturers in their haste to get new design features for smart products continue to overlook the complications arising out of security concerns of the system’s software and hardware.

There is a possibility of vulnerabilities seen in the hardware (chipset) of many new IoT products which is susceptible to multiple threats that need to be effectively tested. Even the software that is included in the IoT devices usually does not get any sort of security testing done while at the manufacturers end. Thus, numerous IoT devices continue to get hacked due to the susceptibility affecting the entire network of users. Hence, it is essential to get all the IoT products and devices security tested to avoid threats and vulnerabilities.

According to Globenewswire – the IoT testing market value is expected to grow up to USD 3624.23 billion by 2025. This growth in the IoT testing market is due to the increasing adoption of the smart cities concept initiated by the governments and the keen interest of organizations towards incorporating IoT in their processes. Increased use of IoT in the healthcare sector will be a new trend that can be expected due to the current pandemic. As more and more devices are getting connected and a large amount of data is transferred across these devices, a huge rise in IoT security testing services will be the new trend in the upcoming years to ensure data safety.

5. AI & ML in Testing to top the ladder

According to a leading research analyst, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is omnipresent in all spheres of technological innovations and is among the top investment priorities of CIOs. The market for AI is expected to be around $6-7 billion in North America alone. Machine Learning (ML) and user interfaces such as speech recognition and gesture recognition will advance in the future. The prediction of various tasks based on complex neural networks and algorithms will change the outlook of technology and inevitably these AI & ML based applications also need rigorous testing and validations with proper use cases to become successful.

With the world completely moved towards digital transformation, there is a lot of pressure to balance market requirements and build a system that is predictive and scalable to cater to the future needs of the software. Primarily, software testing needs to embed AI into testing which perfectly imitates human behavior using machine learning and predictive analytics. Going forward for the upcoming latest applications in the connected world needs software testing to leverage AI and ML to automate.

According to Globenewswire – the global artificial intelligence market is expected to be $92 billion by 2030. The current pandemic has led to increased use of transformative technology including AI technology. There are many areas where AI-based technology is playing a vital role. AI-based robots are minimizing contacts between humans, especially contact tracing apps are one of the greatest examples that showcase the use of AI in healthcare which is widely being used today. Also, AI-enabled drone-based delivery will be the new trend in the upcoming years.

6. Blockchain Testing to usher more prominence

There is a rapid expansion of the virtual currency named as bitcoin’s usage. A recent report by McKinsey states that Blockchain is a nascent technology with the potential to bring about step-function improvements in financial transactions. Blockchain testing helps to enable smart contracts and ensures fraud protection.

Undoubtedly, blockchain technology has revolutionized the way businesses are dealing with digital currencies such as bitcoin. These blockchain applications are not limited to the financial world and their smart contracts are being used in every field of business from the energy sector to governmental services. The wide range of blockchain applications brings in new challenges to blockchain debugging. Moreover, once the smart contract is implemented, its execution cannot be reversed, and hence, smart contract codes define how seamlessly the software performs even with the increased workloads. Hence, this entire process of Blockchain testing calls for efficient outsourced next-gen specialized testing services, for debugging the code to deliver productive blockchain applications.

According to Marketsandmarkets – the global blockchain market size is expected to grow from USD 3.0 billion in 2020 to USD 39.7 billion by 2025. By 2023, it is expected that a combination of IoT devices and blockchain technology via smart contracts will enable microtransaction between the two parties which will be an emerging trend. Moreover, a recent PWC report shows that 77 percent of financial institutions are expected to adopt blockchain technology as a part of an in-production system or process by 2020. These statistics deciphers the rising scope of blockchain technology and the need for blockchain testing.

7. Cyber Security Testing to become foremost necessity

Undoubtedly with the digital revolution, there has been the emergence of various security threats. The CIOs of enterprises continue to realize the importance of security testing of their applications, network, and systems to ensure not only secure transactions but complete protection of their customers critical data. Thus, security testing has gained a lot of importance as it safeguards the brand loyalty and prevents economic losses.

According to Marketsandmarkets – It has been observed that post COVID-19, the global security testing market size is expected to grow to USD 16.9 billion by 2025, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 22.3% during the forecast period.

This growth in the security testing market is due to various factors such as increased cyberattacks during the pandemic, increased usage of web-apps, and mobile-apps requiring high-end security, increased focus of organizations towards protecting customer data, and also the increased initiatives by governments and organizations to adopt digitization. Moreover, it is also predicted that the rise in the cybersecurity testing market is likely to leverage the implementation of the latest technologies such as DevOps, DevSecOps, and Agile in the IT industry.

8. RPA Testing to dominate automation in 2023

The Robotic Process Automation (RPA) can also be named as an extension of automation as it can be applied to anything which is in a structured form, unlike automation which needs a software product to work upon. RPA can be used with very complex processes that can be automated with AI. Specifically, it is a style of automation wherein a machine, or computer mimics a human action and helps in the completion of rule-based tasks with the help of developed robots. Hence, this robot led automation has the true potential to change the workplace and does all tasks performed by the automation testing tools.

According to Globenewswire – the Global Robotic Process (RPA) Automation Market size is expected to reach $7.2 billion by 2025, rising at a market growth of 32.6% CAGR during the forecast period of 2019-2025. This increased growth in RPA is due to its ability to help businesses remain competitive by automating their repetitive business processes. RPA in software testing is already helping testers by replacing regression and load testing, thus saving considerable time and effort.

In the upcoming years, RPA is expected to hold more importance in helping organizations to improve their way of working. RPA testing will let testers automate large and complex data through an easy-to-use interface. Modern businesses will be able to give commands to already taught robots to perform several tasks easily thus saving a lot of time and human effort. It is also expected that the use of RPA in the healthcare sector is likely to increase to provide better healthcare facilities to people across the globe.

9. Performance Testing to shift towards performance engineering

Product performance has earlier been the major segment of testing but now, it has been shifting towards performance engineering which is not an easy process. The performance engineering process involves the collaboration of hardware, software, configuration, performance, security, usability, and it ensures to deliver the highest value that exceeds end-user expectations.

As per Google, 53% of visits are abandoned if a mobile site takes longer than three seconds to load. The increased demand for fast loading and high performing web and mobile apps necessitates the need for performance testing and performance engineering to be taken up for all apps. Also, since the DevOps teams continuously deploy applications rapidly and quickly, performance engineering of these applications is in high demand for today’s applications.

10. QAOps to take a leap in 2023

The digital world is effectively in need of software applications that are released faster and with no compromise on the quality of the applications. Earlier, the need for testing teams was limited only for performing application testing, but now the importance of QA is effectively increasing. QA is playing a crucial part across all phases of products software development. Moreover, with DevOps taking a leap, this approach brings about a collaboration between the development and the operations teams with no silos. Thus, the combination of QA and DevOps brings a new practice called QAOps or DevTestOps which is likely to lead the trends.

With this practice, the testing, development, and operation teams can be on the same line by effectuating proper collaboration between all these teams. Hence, with this QAOps approach, continuous testing can be combined with DevOps, and thus assures software changes are made effective with the practice of Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD). Therefore, software testing is not practiced at indefinite intervals and the applications are delivered with quality and without delays continuously as businesses can go to market with new features more quickly than before.

11. Mobile Test Automation to dominate 2023

Mobile phones have become a very popular medium and this has enhanced the rise of mobile applications. Enterprises are choosing the pathway through mobile apps as an easy way to reach users. And, to ensure that mobile apps work efficiently for users, automation testing for mobile applications is essential.

Moreover, with the rising mobile app market, the need for mobile testing with automation tools becomes crucial. Considering these effective needs, there are many automation testing tools for mobile applications which can be leveraged to enable flawless and high-quality mobile apps.

According to Globenewswire – the global mobile application market size was valued at US $126.04 billion in 2019 and is expected to expand up to US $408.13 billion by 2027, at a CAGR of 18.6% over the forecast period of 2020-2027. Also, the mobile application testing services (MATS) market is expected to reach USD 8.23 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 15.37% over the forecast period of 2020-2025 as per a leading research analysts data. These statistics depict the increasing use of mobile applications worldwide followed by the increased need for mobile application testing.

The driving factors behind the growth of the mobile test automation market include increased competition among app developers, and the organizations demand for faster and quality releases, and the increased focus of enterprises on improving customer experience which is all ensured with effective mobile app testing by next-gen mobile app testing services.

12. Use of Scriptless Automation to move up

Software testing is effectively seeking many advancements and improvements continuously. Every change and advancement in this field is helping the teams in releasing applications faster with effective quality assurance. Among the many such advancements, scriptless automation is one of the important trends to look in 2023 that is likely to reduce human efforts and help in accelerating the app quality to achieve quicker ROI.

With Scriptless automation, there is no more the issue of coding for test engineers for automating test cases. This is an effective advancement that will help to deliver quality results faster by reducing the coding time. Today, more and more organizations have started using scriptless automation tools as it allows the teams to save time involved in writing long scripts and codes, and drastically reduces the efforts involved in manually testing the product. Also, since scriptless testing tools bridge the gap between non-technical and technical teams, it is widely being adopted by many organizations and therefore scriptless automation testing tools continue to remain in the list of latest software testing trends to be watched out for in 2023.

13. Connected & Multi-devices Testing to go mainstream

The use of mobile devices is effectively increasing today, and this is increasing the need for automation testing on a range of devices. However, this is not only limited to mobile devices, it is for many devices such as wearables, smartphones, smart speakers, health monitors, etc. Thus, this year, multi-devices automation testing for over a range of devices will take mainstream.

As per Statista – By 2025, there will be more than 75 billion Internet of Things (IoT) connected devices in use. These IoT connected devices not only include smartphones but includes a wide range of connected devices such as smart home security systems, wearable health monitors, biometric scanners, smart bicycles, smart fire alarms, medical sensors, etc. and all these devices should be end-to-end tested leveraging digital testing services to ensure their quality and seamless usability.

14. Penetration Testing to gain more significance

Across all industry sectors, today the networks, apps and infrastructure continues to face cyber threats and attacks due to the vulnerabilities they are prone to. Especially, the mobile and web applications have the most chances of facing vulnerabilities such as hacking as cyber attackers continue to cause lot of economic losses to many businesses. Thus, organizations need to implement successful security strategies for achieving systems that are secured and work efficiently for achieving business goals. And, to do this, it is necessary to include penetration testing into software testing practices. With this testing practice, it becomes easier for the teams to validate the effectiveness of the systems and app’s security controls and identify the risks that are exposed to vulnerabilities.

According to PR Newswire – the Penetration Testing Market is projected to grow up to USD 4.5 billion by 2025, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 21.8% during the forecast period of 2020 to 2025. The major growth drivers that led to the growth of the penetration testing market are increased sophistication of cyber attacks, increased measures taken by enterprises to safeguard their applications, systems, and networks. Also, since the use of AI and ML is increasing in today’s world, it becomes essential to perform penetration testing to ensure the safety of IT infrastructure. Therefore, penetration testing continues to stay in the list of software testing trends in the year 2023.

15. Hyperautomation to lead the charts in 2023

Automation has already created a lot of buzz for many years as businesses are automating time-consuming, repetitive human tasks with the help of machines and technologies to save their time, cost, and free-up humans for more valued tasks. But, now the business world is ready to take automation to next level with hyperautomation. This new process of Hyperautomation starts with RPA at its core and uses advanced technologies such as AI, and ML, in combination with packaged software and automation tools to automate processes and augment humans.

Hyperautomation can be used in the banking and insurance sectors to automate tasks such as loans, mortgage, and insurance processing, that can help in the instant sanction of loans by simplifying the legal documentation and other processes. Hyperautomation in the automobile sector is already helping by placing the robotics arm in an assembly-line which fastens the assembling process and increases productivity. Hence, it is predicted that hyperautomation is soon to lead the charts of software testing in the forthcoming years.

Conclusion

As we continue to live in a world driven by technology, it becomes important for businesses to keep themselves updated with the upcoming software testing technology trends. New-age technologies like AI and ML have been there in the industry and will continue to be the trend for upcoming years, while mobile test automation is expected to dominate the market along with hyper-automation which is likely to lead the charts in 2023. Leverage next-gen software testing services to ensure your products are fully functional and deliver great CX to your end users.

The post 15 Software Testing Trends to Watch Out in 2023 first appeared on TestingXperts.

Content 1. An overview of the current banking industry 2. What are today’s customers looking for in banking apps? 3. Latest statistics depicting banking apps usage dominance during the pandemic 4. Why should banking systems leverage Quality Assurance (QA) testing? 5. 10 Reasons why QA testing should be leveraged by banking systems 6. Conclusion

An overview of the current banking industry

There has been a lot of buzz regarding digitization and the use of new-age technology in the banking sector in recent years. Undoubtedly, the current pandemic has led to the increased usage of banking mobile apps and web apps. According to Sensor Tower, there have been nearly 1.24 billion downloads of finance apps in Q2 2020, 840 million of which were made through Google Play, compared to 395 million through the iOS App Store. This statistics depicts the increased interest of customer towards banking applications.

It is predicted that to achieve more digitization in banking systems, the use of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, cloud services, and blockchain is expected to rise. The customer experience (CX) and customer data security continue to remain the primary focus for the financial sector for which banking systems are looking for ways to improve their applications, simplify customer journey, and provide them with a seamless omnichannel experience. Hence, we are sharing some of the important features which today’s banking customers are looking for in digital banking apps.

What are today’s customers looking for in banking apps?

● Customers prefer banking applications to be instantly loaded, easy to operate and smooth transactions processing to deliver them a simplified and great user experience

● Experts believe that banking through mobile devices is much safer in comparison to open websites. Thus, today customers are looking for more secure and reliable banking applications that deliver a seamless transaction experience

● Due to the current pandemic, irrespective of the person’s age, everyone continues to focus on online banking having easy interface and quick access to various transactions features

● Customers also prefer apps to load faster and balance loads of users and remain flawless with no downtime while in use

● Customers want their banking apps to notify them of their balances and other important notifications to ease their banking process and get informed messages

● Mobile app ATM Connectivity to enable access to ATM via scanning is one upcoming trend that people are looking forward to

● Banking application features such as voice payments and image recognition are some more features needed by banking app users

Latest statistics depicting banking apps usage dominance during the pandemic

● According to Globenewswire, the global mobile banking market was valued at $715.3 million in 2018 and is expected to reach $1,824.7 million by 2026, registering a CAGR of 12.2% from 2019-2026

● According to Statista, 90% of users in the U.S. use mobile banking apps to check their balances, 79% do it to view recent transactions, 59% to pay bills, and 57% to make transfers. These statistics depict that a large set of the population uses mobile banking services and thus, the great UI of the mobile application is the need of the hour

● According to Statista, the average weekly usage of fintech apps in Japan went up by 55 percent, in South Korea it went up by 35%, and in the United States by 20% between December 29, 2019, to March 1, 2020, which coincides with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic

● According to the World Retail Banking Report 2020 (WRBR) published by Capgemini and Efma, the report states that over half (57%) of the consumers now prefer internet banking, up from 49% pre-COVID-19, and 55% prefer banking mobile apps, compared with 47% previously, the stakes have risen further as the COVID-19 context continues to move consumers towards digital banking

With the sudden spurt in the usage of digital banking apps, it becomes important for banking systems to ensure their mobile and web apps are digitalized and deliver a great user experience by leveraging Quality Assurance (QA) best practices.

Why should banking systems leverage Quality Assurance (QA) testing?

As technology is evolving, financial institutions are rapidly adopting digital technology and are moving towards digitization. The banking industry now heavily depends on technology and various types of banking applications, which need to perform seamlessly to provide a great experience to the customer.

Since banks deal with crucial customer data and heavy transactions 24/7, it becomes essentially important for banking systems to have the right QA strategy in place. QA testing helps to improve the quality of these banking products before releasing them to the market to ensure the product is defect-free, enabling seamless transactions and deliver a great customer experience. Hence, it is essential for banking systems to leverage QA testing to get high-quality and flawless mobile apps.

10 Reasons why QA testing should be leveraged by banking systems

1. Numerous underlying app layers require QA testing:

Banking applications usually have a multi-tier architecture or N-tier architecture. The most common 3 tier architecture has three layers namely presentation, application, and database layers. Since the API layers contain the logic of an application and directly touches both the data layer and presentation layers, it requires end-to-end QA testing.

With the advent of Open APIs, new business opportunities are delivered at the core of banking services. Thus, to enable such services, the back-end and middleware systems must be prepared to support open APIs which involves complex integrations. Hence, it becomes mandatory to validate all these underlying layers through API testing with a robust quality assurance process involved.

2. Integration with third-party apps & payment gateway needs end-to-end validation:

Banking systems require large scale integration with third-party apps such as eCommerce apps, gaming applications, food delivery applications, etc. To ensure that applications are well integrated with third-party applications and function properly, it is essential to conduct Integration and functional testing of banking systems.

Many times, we hear of cases where customer’s money gets stuck in the payment gateway and leads to transaction failure or pending status along with the deduction of money from their respective bank accounts. These type of glitches annoys the customer deeply. Hence, to ensure that your banking systems have stable payment gateway integration that provides a seamless transaction experience to customers, an effective QA testing is essential.

3. Server downtime/outages require testing:

Many times, banks face server issues or downtime which affects the working of banks and customers as well. Server downtime or outage leads to delayed payments or failed transactions which in turn causes loss to banks and customers get annoyed as well. Therefore, banking servers and applications need to be quality tested and assured to avoid server outage and ensure high performing applications under all load conditions.

4. Data security from cyber-threats need security testing:

Banks deals with crucial and confidential customer data and therefore the safety and privacy of data are of utmost importance. Banks ensure all possible efforts to save the data from cyber-attacks. But, as technology is evolving, hackers are using all possible means to hack customer data many-a-time.

Therefore, it is very essential to conduct vulnerability testing of banking systems to see there are no security loopholes in the system which can be exploited by cyber attackers.

5. Regulatory compliance necessitates QA testing:

Financial institutions have to comply with certain rules, compliances, and regulations. Therefore, all banking systems need to be QA tested to validate that they are not missing on any open banking API terms and conditions.

6. Cloud-based banking solutions need proper testing:

With the increasing surge of cloud technology, banks are moving their infrastructure to the cloud. Most of the banks have adopted a hybrid cloud model, where they have considered the private cloud for most critical processes and applications, and the public cloud for non-critical processes and applications.

Successful cloud implementation is still a challenge for many financial institutions. Hence, cloud app testing helps in ensuring the smooth functioning of cloud-based banking solutions by ensuring the successful implementation of cloud solutions. This cloud testing process also ensures that data is migrated successfully without any loss, while data migration takes place for the banking systems.

7. Application compatibility requires compatibility testing:

A large population of customers accesses banking applications on different mobile devices, operating systems, and browsers. Therefore, it is essential for banking systems to ensure their banking apps are compatible with various devices, OS, etc. Therefore, mobile app compatibility testing should be leveraged.

8. Seamless app navigation requires usability testing:

As users access the mobile or web apps, they must navigate to the exact page the user is looking for and should deliver easy and simple navigation through the app. Thus, to ensure the app allows easy and proper navigation and gives accurate output against the input given by the user,usability testing of banking applications and web apps is necessary.

9. Equal access of app to differently-abled people necessitates accessibility testing:

Since banking services are availed by almost every section of society which includes a differently-abled population as well, hence it becomes a mandate to have such applications that follow all accessibility regulations and enables easy access to a differently-abled population to ensure inclusivity and to fulfill societal responsibility.

10. Effective AI implementation requires AI Testing:

The banking sector is constantly striving to adopt AI to enable advanced data analytics, reduce fraudulent practices, and save considerable cost and time. According to an April 2019 report from IHS Markit, the business value of AI in global banking will reach $300 billion by 2030. Thus, AI testing of the banking system is essential to help the banking sector enable effective AI implementation to ensure innovation and deliver exceptional customer experience.

Conclusion

Today, the banking industry is rapidly evolving and moving towards digitalization. Banking applications are an essential part of the banking industry and these applications need to deliver an unmatched experience to customers in terms of quality, performance, usability, reliability, security, etc.

Hence, banking systems should leverage quality assurance to ensure seamless banking apps are enabled for their customers to deliver a great customer experience. Therefore, banking systems require robust end-to-end digital testing of their systems by next-gen testing services provider to get high-quality banking applications to deliver a seamless user experience.

The post What Makes Quality Assurance Essential for Banking Systems? first appeared on TestingXperts.

Content 1. Big Data Analytics in Healthcare 2. 7 key benefits of using Big Data Analytics in Healthcare   2.1 Improves patient healthcare   2.2 Predicts patients at higher risk quickly & efficiently   2.3 Eases patient diagnostics with EHRs   2.4 Ensures to reduce overall healthcare costs   2.5. Delivers greater insights into patient cohorts   2.6 Enables improved healthcare with fitness devices   2.7 Generates real-time alerting 3. Conclusion

In today’s world, it is a fact that digitization has been adopted across industries such as telecom, banking, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, FinTech, EdTech, etc. The adaptation of digitization of healthcare has more significance than other sectors as it contains the medical data related to patients, their diagnosis, treatment schedules, imaging results etc. which generates huge volumes of data which has been collectively named as big data.

Big Data Analytics in Healthcare

Typically, this big data refers to the abundant health data amassed from numerous ways of electronic health records (EHRs), medical imaging, genomic sequencing, X-rays, and diagnostic reports, etc.

Importantly, big data has changed the way doctors and healthcare professional use, manage, and analyze this critical data to ensure better patient outcomes. Interestingly, to analyze these numerous amounts of big data, effective techniques of statistical analysis is required.

This statistical analysis or the big data analytics helps to predict hidden information and this healthcare analytics has the potential to deliver numerous advantages to patients.

Big data Analytics Stats

According to Allied Market Research, Big data analytics in healthcare is the complex process of examining big data to discover information including hidden patterns, market trends, unknown correlations, and customer preferences, which can help organizations to make informed clinical and business decisions.

The global big data analytics in healthcare market size was valued at $16.87 billion in 2017, and is projected to reach $67.82 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 19.1% from 2018 to 2025.

Hence, by using new technological improvements like Big data analytics, the enormous volumes of big data in healthcare are converted into useful, and actionable information that continues to deliver great insights to doctors, healthcare providers and patients in an effective way. The usage of big data analytics in healthcare brings about lot of positive and life-saving patient outcomes. Leveraging big data analytics in healthcare brings in many more benefits which have been detailed below.

7 key benefits of using Big Data Analytics in Healthcare

1. Improves patient healthcare:

The significant benefit from the knowledge derived from big data analytics delivers greater clinical insights to various healthcare providers. These cutting-edge analytics improves patient care in the healthcare system as this data facilitates doctors to prescribe effective treatment and make clinical decisions more accurate further eliminating any ambiguity involved in the treatment.

Big data analytics seems to bring in a change in healthcare which is moving towards bringing in better patient outcomes as the data is used to discover which practices are most effective for patients.

2. Predicts patients at higher risk quickly & efficiently:

While considering the population-wide data for a particular area, specifically predictive analytics pinpoints which segment of the patients are at higher risk for diseases and hints for early intervention to protect them. This sort of prediction is more suitable for depictions with respect to certain chronic diseases.

Predictive analytics is drawn by aggregating data that are related to a variety of factors which includes patient’s medical history, demographic area data, socio-economic profile data, patient’s comorbidities existing in the area, etc.

3. Eases patient diagnostics with EHRs:

This is the most widespread application of big data in enabling effective patient diagnostics with every patient having their own electronic health records (EHRs). This EHRs includes the demographics, medical history, allergies of patients, diagnostic test results of current and previous illnesses along with other details.

These EH records are shared through secured information systems and are easily accessible by doctors and other healthcare professionals. They can access these files and the personal data cannot be modified but the diagnostics and treatment can be updated by the doctors. The EHRs can also trigger notifications alerting the patients about their forthcoming doctors or diagnostic visits and even track their prescriptions.

4. Ensures to reduce overall healthcare costs:

Healthcare providers can leverage the electronic health records (EHRs) which significantly helps to identify large patterns that lead to a greater understanding of patient’s health patterns. This in turn can essentially help cut costs by reducing unnecessary care or hospitalization.

Typically, the greater insights this analytics data gives to physicians truly translates to better patient care. This data also pinpoints them for shorter hospital stays, and in some cases for fewer admissions or re-admissions. This further helps patients with healthcare cost reduction due to lesser hospitalizations.

Moreover, by using predictive analytics, the data helps to estimate individual patient costs and helps to maximize healthcare efficiency enormously by carefully planning the treatment.

5. Delivers greater insights into patient cohorts:

By analyzing healthcare big data, it draws a greater insight into patient cohorts that are at greatest risk for various illnesses, and in a way helps to take out some proactive prevention measures.

Interestingly, this sort of analytics data can effectively be used to educate, inform and carefully motivate patients to take the responsibility for their own wellbeing. Moreover, by bringing over the clinical data together, it helps to bring in more effectiveness into the patient treatment plans which ensures better patient outcomes.

6. Enables improved healthcare with fitness devices:

Today, many consumer fitness products are available like Fitbit, and Apple Watch, etc. which keep a track on the physical activity levels of the users. The data thus collected by numerous devices used by people is sent to cloud servers, which is categorically being used by physicians to know the overall health and can even accordingly plan for individual’s wellness programs.

This analytical fitness products user data is analyzed which can be accessed by physicians to know about their physical activity levels and the data can also be used to know about specific health-related trends.

7. Generates real-time alerting:

There are specific medical healthcare decision support software that analyzes medical data on the spot that deliver real-time alerting to help healthcare providers who in turn use that real-time data to deliver better prescriptive decisions.

Doctors, in order to reduce the patient visits to hospitals are insisting on patients to use wearables which will collect patient’s health data continuously and sends the data to cloud. This data is accessed by doctors to prescribe medicines based on the results and values.

Conclusion

In today’s competitive world, latest technologies like big data analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning are being used by healthcare organizations to gain real-time patient insights with huge data available in place.

Specifically, by using big data analytics in healthcare, it empowers with actionable insights on patient’s data and outcomes and ensures to reduce overall healthcare costs, predict high risk patients more quickly, generate real-time alerting and so on.

Healthcare solutions providers must ensure that their applications are high-performing and delivering great customer experience by enabling end-to-end digital testing of these healthcare solutions by leveraging next-gen testing services (www.testingxperts.com).

The post 7 Key Benefits of Big Data Analytics in Healthcare first appeared on TestingXperts.

Contents 1. What is software testing life cycle (STLC)? 2. What are the Phases of the STLC? 3. Why should Businesses take up Software testing? 4. What are the Main Types of Software Testing? 5. What are the Important Functional Testing types? 6. What are the Important Non-functional Software Testing Types? 7. Types of Software Testing Performed by Various Teams 8. How to Achieve Effective Software Testing? 9. Conclusion

Wikipedia defines software testing as an investigation conducted to provide stakeholders with information about the quality of the software product or service under test.Software testing can also provide an objective overview along with an independent view of the software to allow the businesses to appreciate and understand the risks of software implementation.

QA testing is taken along with the development phase for the most commonly used agile and DevOps methodologies to ensure faster releases and quality software.

Primarily, this intricate software testing process identifies errors and bugs in the system and effectively evaluates the functioning of a software application. It also checks whether the developed software has met the specified requirements as outlined in the requirements and ensures that quality output is delivered.

What is software testing life cycle (STLC)?

What are the Phases of the STLC?

Why should Businesses take up Software testing?

At this crucial juncture, the prominence of software testing comes in.

1. Product quality:

2. Product functionality:

3. Security testing is a priority:

4. QA Cost-effectiveness:

What are the Main Types of Software Testing?

Functional testing

Non-functional testing

Manual Testing

Automated testing

System testing:

What are the Important Functional Testing types?

Unit testing:

Smoke Testing:

Sanity testing:

Integration testing:

Ad-hoc testing:

Interface testing:

Regression testing:

Black box testing:

White Box Testing:

Gorilla testing:

User acceptance testing:

What are the Important Non-functional Software Testing Types?

Documentation testing:

Performance testing:

Soak Testing:

Load testing:

Stress testing:

Reliability testing:

Usability testing:

Security testing:

Penetration testing or Pen testing:

Accessibility testing:

Agile testing:

Monkey testing:

Types of Software Testing Performed by Various Teams

Software Testing Types Performed by Manual Testers

Software Testing Types Performed by Performance Testers

Software Testing Types Performed by Automation Testers

Software Testing Types Performed by Developers

How to Achieve Effective Software Testing?

Conclusion

The post Types of Software Testing You Should Know first appeared on TestingXperts.

Contents
1. What should Retail industry CEOs Look for in 2022?
2. What are the Generic Challenges Faced by Retail Businesses?
3. What are the Common Software (Application) Challenges Faced by Retailers?
4. Software Testing for Retail
5. What are the testing services required for Retail Apps?
6. What are the Benefits Retailers Get with Effective Software Testing?
7. Conclusion

In recent years with rapid digitalization across business sectors, the Retail industry has been the most impacted by these digitization moves. The Retail segment mainly delivers an omnichannel experience. This includes a user-friendly and stable customer experience at the front end and a load of transaction data at the back-end. The retail segment software includes inventory, CRM apps, data warehousing, e-commerce channels, supply chain management, and Point of sale (POS) systems, etc. Undoubtedly, the effective working of retail software drives the return on investment (ROI) for retailers.

Especially, for the retail industry, the customer experience is at the center of their business. A poor quality experience at the storefront or with mobile apps that process the payment transactions would greatly impact customer experience and affects their business bottom line!

Also, the retail marketplace centered over POS needs to satisfy customers by delivering effective user experience. This can be achieved by a specialized POS testing process, else it has a significant impact on overall retail business outcomes.

What should Retail industry CEOs Look for in 2022?

• Digital readiness to deliver an exceptional customer experience (CX)

• Deliver high-quality solutions to best meet consumer behavior with early-to-market

• Data and insights-driven approach to digital eCommerce and omnichannel presence

• Focus on products for better performance and sustainability by adopting proper market approaches to appeal to the audience (especially Millennials & Gen Z)

• Process automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and data analytics to help eCommerce & retail businesses achieve more by enhancing solutions with improved CX

• Introduce effective business models that drive higher ROI and, at the same time, innovate with new services and offerings to meet ever-growing customer demand

Today, the retail sector is constantly changing and there are new challenges faced by all players. The challenges are faced at both the business as well as application level. These challenges should be properly fixed to ensure retail business success.

Overview of Present Retail Sector

For today’s businesses, the online channel has evidently become the most effective platform to perform their business transactions. Every business domain continues to take the complete advantage of online marketing to enchant their customers. Evidently, internet retailing has become a modern pathway for shopping to many internet surfers and online users. The increase in the usage of mobile phones, e-commerce, and internet services has truly simplified shopping means and effectively multiplied the scope of online shopping.

Over the past few years, online retailing is trending and accounting to over 1.5% sales across the globe. This is because of the available easy shopping ways being enabled through mobile apps, online channels and the availability of umpteen online payment and transaction methods. Among the many industry types that are emerging today, retail is one of the finest and fastest-growing sectors. It is the industry where products or services are provided for consumers by following a set of selling methods or practices. Also, it is the sector that is experiencing year-over-year progress.

The main reason why the retail sector is receiving the prominence is due to the changing lifestyle of the people and the increased dependency on obtaining services and products with ease. The need for retail services is tremendously increasing and the statistical report prepared for the total worldwide retail sales is a clear example with a total number of retails estimated over trillion dollars for the coming years.

As per the Global Retail Industry Analysis, in 2017 the retail industry was valued at USD 23,460 billion, but this effective number has been gradually increasing and during the period 2018-2023, it is aimed to reach USD 31,880.8 billion. This is because the retail markets have become more competitive and are excelling to target many developed and small countries to expand their consumer base. Also, the retail giants are preferring the online mode to follow their consumers and provide them the best offers that can result in future sales and increase their brand reputation with the usage of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Internet channels help in increasing the production and as well introduce several other complications for the retail sector. It has become essential for the retail sector to choose mobile technology and leverage proper infrastructure to deliver the best customer experience.

Though the retail segment has been expanding in recent years, it continues to face certain challenges that have been categorized as generic challenges and application-level challenges.

What are the Generic Challenges Faced by Retail Businesses?

• Challenges faced while embracing in the facet of digital transformation across lines of business
• Maintaining customer loyalty continues to be an important challenge for the retailer's success
• Delivering a good customer experience is a major factor to uphold their brand and protect their business
• Keeping up with the ever-changing customer expectations is another critical factor of concern
• Seasonal trends influence customers, and retailers need to balance to upkeep their customer shopping experience both online and offline
• Adopting new technology solutions for the retail industry is an important challenge to deliver secure and safe transactions
• New innovation trends of Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning (ML) continue to have a great impact on the retail sector

What are the Common Software (Application) Challenges Faced by Retailers?

• App performance issues negatively affect customer experience and damages brand loyalty
• Security glitches while processing transactions across e-commerce channels also disengages customer from using them
• Customers continue to abandon apps due to payment processing delays
• Increased/Heavy app loading time also adversely affects customer experience
• App usability plays an important role, as complex navigation flows will refrain users from using i

Software Testing for Retail

Primarily, in e-commerce websites and apps, any sort of design issues can greatly hinder business growth. As customers demand the latest features, the online channels failing to deliver these, suffer from customers disengaging.

Any sort of performance and security issues prevailing in online shopping apps adversely affects the customer experience. Hence, in order to overcome these challenges, retailers must adopt effective software quality assurance. The Next-gen software testing services will ensure and deliver a great customer experience.

What are the testing services required for Retail Apps?

An Overview of the Retail App Features and the corresponding testing service required to achieve Quality at speed

• Retail apps are generally integrated with several external hardware and software peripherals. There is a need for thorough functional testing and non-functional testing services
• Retail apps user interface (UI) and business processes change frequently. Hence they need thorough testing with automated regression testing
• Retail apps are integrated with various payment systems which need payment gateway integration testing
• Security testing is essential as customers across their digital journey need fast, effective, safe and secure transactions
• Retail apps require a digital assurance and testing strategy which can be applied to ensure apps perform stably under varying loads
• E-commerce channels should deliver great user experience for which usability testing should be taken up
• Retail apps testing needs embracing Test automation frameworks to test various scenarios of the application with test automation tools
• Test automation helps to deliver faster releases within shorter timelines which helps software developers and QA teams to deliver faster.

What are the Benefits Retailers Get with Effective Software Testing?

Benefits to customers

• Improves customer experience across the e-commerce channel as the application becomes glitch-free
• Quicker development is ensured as defects are identified early in the SDLC
• Improves business outcomes as new features are thoroughly tested before go-to-market
• Enhances user experience with great UI and stable performance with load testing across the e-commerce channels
• The application becomes accessible to one and all and achieves accessibility norms

Benefits to Businesses

• Considerable cost savings assured as faster releases are ensured by embracing test automation
• Reduced time to market as faster releases are achieved with DevOps Continuous integration and continuous development (CI/CD)
• Reduced human intervention as test automation is leveraged
• Efficient and comprehensive reports deliver quality insights
• Faster time to market results in a quicker return on investment (RoI)

Conclusion

Retail business use cases are not identical as the retail industry cannot be generalized, unlike other sectors. There is a huge challenge involved in combining retail software with wide integrations all through. This all requires attention to detail and an effective focus on quality.

Hence, testing e-commerce applications is critical to drive online sales and deliver a great user experience. It also makes sure the website or the apps on mobile devices are globally available and accessible to all. Therefore, an effective end-to-end digital testing is essential for retail software.

Leverage our experts with domain knowledge in digital testing to achieve quality retail software. Connect with our automated testing services team.

The post Why Software Testing is Critical for Retail Sector? first appeared on TestingXperts.

Contents 1. Need for Cloud Migration 2. When to move your workloads and applications to the cloud? 3. Cloud Migration Tips to Follow 4. What are the best Cloud Migration tools? 4. Conclusion

Need for Cloud Migration

When to move your workloads and applications to the cloud?

Cloud Migration Tips to Follow

1. Analyze your App to Determine Cloud Type:

2. Plan Cloud Migrations Carefully (Hybrid/Public Cloud):

3. Evaluate in Detail Cloud Economics:

4. Perform Security, Compliance & Governance Assessments:

5. Pilot Test Cloud to Move in Phases:

6. Embrace Automation:

What are the best Cloud Migration tools?

VMware/CloudHealth Technologies:

Turbonomic:

Azure Migration Tools:

Cloud Endure:

Micro Focus PlateSpin Migration Factory:

AWS Migration Services:

Dynatrace:

Conclusion

The post What are Cloud Migration Tips CIOs Must Consider? first appeared on TestingXperts.

Contents 1. Why Mobile App Testing 2. What Factors to Consider for Mobile Application Testing? 3. What are the tips to select best mobile app testing tool? 4. What are the popular tools for mobile app testing? 5. Pitfalls to avoid with Mobile App testing 6. Conclusion

Why Mobile App Testing

What Factors to Consider for Mobile Application Testing?

1. Stable Network Bandwidth and Carrier Networks:

2. Great User Experience (CX):

3. Impressive Performance:

4. Effective End-to-End Security:

5. Stable Across Operating Systems:

6. Delight with Usability:

7. Compatible Across Devices:

8. Uniform Scalability:

9. Wide Localization:

What are the tips to select best mobile app testing tool?

What are the popular tools for mobile app testing?

Appium:

Robotium:

Test Project:

Testdroid:

Calabash:

Pitfalls to avoid with Mobile App testing

1. Avoidance of UI/UX guidelines:

2. Incoherent use of testing methods:

3. Too much emphasis on automation:

4. Lack of strategic planning:

Conclusion:

The post What Factors to Consider for Mobile App Testing? first appeared on TestingXperts.

For Industry 4.0, disruption is the best word to define it with significant factors of dominance around Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), Internet of Things (IoT), Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Cloud Computing, Cognitive Computing and Artificial Intelligence (AI). This fourth industrial revolution is also characterized by IoT and Internet of Services (IoS) concepts into digital manufacturing which enables smart factories with integrated production systems to be well placed in digital ecosystems. software testing methods

Contents 1. Role of Software Testing in Industry 4.0 2. Next-Gen Software Testing Methods to Dominate Industry 4.0 3. IoT Testing 4. Big data testing 5. Adoption of AI in Testing 6. Crowd Testing 7. What are the benefits for Enterprises with the Industry 4.0 in Place? 8. Conclusion

According to the market research report, Industry 4.0 Market, the market was earlier valued at USD 66.67 Billion in 2016 and is expected to reach USD 152.31 Billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 14.72% between 2017 and 2022.”

Significantly, the major innovation lies in CPS enabling new means of communication among devices, production assets, and information systems to work in an orchestrated and decentralized way in real-time. As innovation continues to occur at rocket speed, enterprise CXOs continue to face issues with the flexibility of products and compatibility issues of devices, along with various other limitations to enable stable and high-performing IoT connected systems. In order to overcome these challenges of Industry 4.0, the software testing process comes into place!

Role of Software Testing in Industry 4.0

It is a facet of testing the world of connectedness with IoT gadgets, virtual reality, wearables with real-time associations along with testing of the intervened digital ecosystems. Software testing involves the process by which scalability, flexibility, and tangibility of the connected devices is achieved.

The functionality and usability of these connected devices should be tested thoroughly to ensure effective working in the digital ecosystem. Extensive testing is fundamental to ensure successful IoT product launches into the market that delivers value.

Moreover, these IoT devices are connected to various apps on smartphones, tablets or laptops; each with different operating systems, versions and different devices for which crowd testing can be a good fit. Some of the other critical next-gen software testing methods include Smart wearables testing, IoT testing, Big Data testing, and usage of AI in testing. A recent report by Markets and Markets states that “The IoT testing market size is estimated to grow from USD 302.9 Million in 2016 to USD 1,378.5 Million by 2021, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 35.4% from 2016 to 2021.”

In addition, the current business trend shows constant upgrading and modernizing of businesses to provide the best products which have a wide scope for the future. And, to reach this goal, the best way is to perform robust and continuous software testing. End-to-end software testing helps enterprises to be flexible to face the challenges and respond to the ever-changing market needs. This effective software testing can be achieved by embracing the below listed next-gen software testing methods that are bound to dominate the industry 4.0.

Next-Gen Software Testing Methods to Dominate Industry 4.0

1. IoT Testing:

The IoT ecosystem encompasses mainstream applications including home automation, smart appliances, wearables, health and fitness apps and more. The industrial IoT (IIoT) embraces the same concepts of Industry 4.0 and includes the integration of some of the more complex devices and systems with networked sensors and software. Evidently, IoT testing involves various types of tests across all system components.

The various types of IoT testing required to enable scalability, performance, and security of smart (connected) applications involves Edge testing, Protocol and device interoperability testing, Security and privacy testing, network impact testing, performance, and real-time testing, and end-user application testing. IoT testing also involves the performance testing of software-hardware components of devices, Compatibility testing across multiple domains, user-experience testing and exploratory testing.

2.Big data testing:

With the influx of millions of connected devices, IoT triggers a massive inflow of Big data. The data consists of structured data, unstructured data, images, contextual data, and real-time data. Big data should be augmented to effectively store, manage and extract value from continuous streams of IoT sensors data.

Sensors, in reality, send gigabytes of data that can be used by big data technologies to process it and deduce valuable insights to help in quick decision making. Therefore, it has become a clearneed to  test big data and gain insights from patterns to understand data behavior.

3. Adoption of AI in Testing:

The usage of AI technologies like deep learning and machine learning algorithms help derive insights rapidly from IoT connected devices. The IoT continues to proliferate as connected smart devices become critical for individuals and businesses. The IoT market is projected to be worth $1,490.31 billion by 2024, this explosive growth is set to continue more in the coming years. IoT allows the flow of data between devices, and AI can be helpful.

Evidently, as much of the IoT application is composed of services outside the control of the application, an effective way of test automation strategy is to embrace AI and ML (Machine learning). It requires intelligent models to auto-generate tests using AI and ML that allow teams to analyze data from testing and to identify patterns. Moreover, AI is expected to be the key enabler to the growth of the future IoT revolution with digital ecosystems all around and is expected to take it to a new level.

4. Crowd Testing:

Crowd testing is an effective technique that is applied to a system under test. It basically involves the testing of software on a large number of devices, browsers, and operating systems and significantly, all tests are executed in parallel by different testers. This sort of testing not only involves testing the software configurations, but it also involves the APIs testing with other connected devices. Crowd testing tests on various markets, regions and on a variety of devices which helps to get an understanding of the functionality and usability of the system under test in various conditions.

Generally, in crowd testing the client, the organizer of the test, and a pool of crowd testers are involved. Today, crowd testing is gaining importance in the world of connected devices esp Industry 4.0 with a range of benefits. The benefits with Crowd testing are huge, as it helps to coordinate with the testers on different environments, on various languages, and with different professionals having access to various devices across regions.

What are the benefits for Enterprises with the Industry 4.0 in Place?

Improves real-time Decision making:

By updating to industry 4.0, enterprises can improve their real-time decision making by collating, comprehending, and streamlining the data from various sources, such as from network sensors, customer-management systems, production equipment, etc. to efficiently track them and utilize in the best possible manner to deliver good insights to the management.

Improves and Eases Routine Tasks:

 With the help of AI and ML algorithms in place along with IoT in today’s industry 4.0, it becomes easier to interact and perform tasks better with smart devices. This way of smart devices increases productivity and ensures better life style and also improves user experience by easing and simplifying routine tasks.

Enhances connectivity across departments:

For any enterprise, working in-collaboration is an important need to meet the product standards. This can be exclusively achieved with Industry 4.0, as the universal data-integration networks help to increase the connection among suppliers, departments, and partners. This will effectively improve communication between the stakeholders in a large way.

Accelerates development and product delivery: 

The IoT provides a high-quality environment where any development from any industrial environment can be achieved to ensure faster release to production. The smart machines not only act as the best resources, but they are excellent to analyze and capture the data than humans. These industry 4.0 practices will effectively drive faster business decisions with more accuracy and also ensures better and quicker product delivery.

Helps to understand Customers Better:

Data analytics usage in industry 4.0 effectively helps companies to understand more about what customers expect. This will help the enterprises to develop the product as per the customer needs and strengthen customer interactions. As the products get developed as per the customer requirements, this will effectively help the enterprises to improve their customer base.

Conclusion

Significantly, in the coming years with industry 4.0 invasion, software testing will continue to play a significant role. There is an enduring need for all these digital ecosystems to work seamlessly to deliver true benefits. As the digital ecosystems are widespread, they need an elaborate IoT Testing, Big Data Testing, Testing with AI, and Crowd Testing methodologies, for which a next-gen Specialist QA services provider should be partnered to thoroughly test Industry 4.0 applications.

The post Is Next-Gen Software Testing a True Influencer of Industry 4.0? first appeared on TestingXperts.