The fourth wave of industrial revolution has already emerged, allowing organizations to adapt to this changing trend and preparing them to be future-ready with faster, simpler, and smarter solutions for software testing. Industry 4.0 is transforming the way companies operate that include new trends of smart manufacturing, seamless integration, information exchange, flexibility, agility, interoperability, sustainable productivity, and real-time decision making. Software development companies are slowly adapting to the Industrial 4.0 transformation; however, they need reliable and efficient testing tools/ techniques to ensure the quality is not affected.
The industry 4.0 trend is creating interconnected systems like IoT (internet of things), making the testing process even more difficult. Hence, organizations are moving towards automation and intelligent testing solutions to address the issues of quality in the new technological era. Testing is an inevitable requirement, no matter which era of industrial revolution we may be in. Let us understand in detail how the testing trends is changing and innovating in the 4.0 transformation.
How testing in Industry 4.0 looks like?
Software development in Industry 4.0 is an interconnected digital ecosystem, hence, testing should be carried out to check the efficiency, flexibility, and scalability of not just an individual device, rather its working in the connected system. It should be thoroughly tested, specifically for functionality and usability, to ensure they are working as expected. In the event of any glitch or failure, it will affect the entire system leading to frustrated users who might tend towards the competitors. Hence, it is critical to test the connected software ecosystem to offer seamless user experience, increase credibility, retain existing users, attract new users, and increase business revenue.
The industrial revolution trend has given rise to new testing approaches that will align with the advancing development technologies and yield expected results. Organizations are constantly upgrading existing versions or adapting new technologies, making it essential to test the system for any glitch while modernizing or upgrading. Hence, it becomes essential to embrace the next-gen testing solutions.
Software testing methods to dominate in the industry 4.0 trend
Creating applications faster and smarter in the agile and DevOps culture will dominate in Industry 4.0, allowing new testing solutions to make their way that will align with this new trend. There are a wide range of testing approach that will be seen in the coming years, some of them have already made their presence and will advance with time.
Automated testing: Industry 4.0 is all about automation and smart integration. Though codeless automation is already implemented by the majority of organizations, this will still remain an integral part of the 4.0 revolution. In fact, the fourth industrial revolution is characterized by automated testing along with other advanced testing methodologies. Automation helps in improving operational effectiveness, enhancing product quality, and offering seamless user experience.
Web applications: Progressive web applications (PWA) are the future, they are the major trend of the Industry 4.0. PWAs are slowly replacing the native apps and capturing a major share in the market. As the trend of PWAs are increasing, testing them becomes inevitable to ensure there are no glitches and they offer a seamless user experience. Web app testing is one of the methods that will continue to dominate in the 4th revolution trend.
Cloud testing: Industry 4.0 is all about being ‘fast’ and ‘smart’. Cloud-based testing simplifies and speeds up the process and provides access from anywhere, anytime. Here, testing is carried out using an emulator or simulator accessed over Cloud.
AI-integrated testing: AI is the next big thing in the industry, incorporating AI in testing will ease the complexity of Industry 4.0. AI-integrated testing mimics the human behavior and yields greater benefits by increasing efficiency and accuracy, and reducing, time, cost, and human errors.
Smart integrations: Smart Integration is an approach to build an ecosystem that combines functions of different technologies. Some of the smart integrations include Dropbox, Microsoft Office, etc., it is important to test if the integrations are seamless and doesn’t cause any discrepancy across the system.
IoT testing: IoT (internet of things) has emerged as a top trend in the domestic and industrial space. While domestic IoT interconnects home appliances, smart devices, wearable devices, and lot more, industrial IoT is a complex, interconnected ecosystem with software and network sensors. Testing of this complex system should be performed to check for its interoperability, scalability, performance, and network impact. All these components must be tested to ensure they yield expected results.
As the emphasize on interconnected systems are on the rise, IoT testing is increasing and predominately implemented by organizations dealing with the same. IoT is an important part of the Industry 4.0 revolution which is further going to transform various industries.
Big data testing: Industry 4.0 is set on the big data vision that tries to achieve business intelligence by collecting, segregating, analyzing, and utilizing data. It deals with enormous amount of data which should be mined to extract the required information. This whole process should be tested to evaluate the functionalities of big data applications, called big data testing. Big data testing is emerging with Industry 4.0 trend and will soon become a more common terminology.
Crowd testing: Testing in Industry 4.0 is a gigantic task requiring a huge workforce, which may not be sufficient with the numbers the industry is operating. Hence, crowd testing is going to dominate 4.0 trend, where groups of temporary workforce are hired to get the job done quickly and efficiently.
Conclusion
Organizations have to continuously innovate in order to sustain in the Industry 4.0 revolution and emerge as a successful player. Innovation in terms of software testing is essential to align with the changing technological trends and help companies to improve the software quality. As discussed, the 4.0 revolution is all about finding faster and smarter solution; the software testing industry is also evolving to adapt to this trend. Quicker and intelligent testing solutions will help companies to reduce turnaround time and speed up the deployment and delivery process. The testing trends of 4.0 industry will be mostly automated and intelligence-driven for optimal results.
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