Probably the dot net boom was one of the biggest trigger for expanding the focus of testing. Functional testing which was a less glamorous job underwent a complete overhaul as a result of the explosion in the online market place. Functionality, Performance, Security, Compatibility all became specialised areas for testing and quality assurance.
The next big wave in my opinion is the boom in tablet devices that Apple iPad has triggered. With a sale of around 8 million pieces a quarter, the tablet user base of iPad alone is growing at a very fast pace. Combined with Android and Windows based tablet users, the user base is significantly large for any one not to provide customised versions of contents for this large customer base.
A large portion of such content is delivered as 'Apps' so that they leverage the capabilities of the tablet devices and provide a better user experience. This is leading to a new requirements for testing: verifying the functionality of the application in the tablet devices and verifying the conformance to the user interface standards of the tablet operating systems. For example, Apple has its own user interface standards for all Apps that are shares through its App store. Also, these devices provide API for leveraging certain capabilities of the devices or provide development platforms for developing content.
With the wide variation in hardware configuration, operating systems, User Interface Standards, and native device capabilities, the testers have a whole new set of challenges to face. To add to the complexity, many phones that run the same operating systems require a different App than their tablet counterparts, even though they are from the same manufacturer (Not true for Apple).Yet to see is the effect of the new iPhone based payment method that Apple is introducing.
With many App trying to do similar things and trying to use same device capabilities, I suspect that inter-operability also will become a prime concern in the coming days.
I test. Therefore I am.
