Software Industry experts share their predictions for new trends, changes, and developments in the software industry in 2016.

5. “As the role of IT changes, the operations and
DevOps experts will be expected to not just
ensure application quality but also perform data-
driven decision making. APM will be increasingly
supplemented by analytics and machine
learning – whether in product or via integrations
– to help with contextual decision making.”
1. Data will drive decisions
Priyanka Tiwari
Product Marketing Manager, SmartBear
@tiwari_piya

6. “Test automation will become — as it has been
doing — the most important process for any
software testing team. Companies that invest in
this procedure have a major gain in quality, being
very targeted by the market.”
2. Automated testing becomes
critical
Luiz Eduardo Martins
Quality Analyst,
Unimestre

7. “DevOps will be challenged as quality and security
take center stage…With high profile security
breaches a regular occurrence and companies being
challenged to produce code, code reviews, and
artifacts for events that were initiated years ago —
like the VW emissions scandal — team code review,
archiving, and traceability will take center stage!
Prove it or lose it (in court).”
3. DevOps teams will prove it or
lose it
Kevin Gillis
VP of Products, Development & Testing, SmartBear
@kevinrgillis

8. “Testing will continue to be fractured, with some
organizations managing cost and offshoring,
others integrating test and developing
('automation'), and others attempting to
integrate the liberal arts and critique.”
4. Testing will continue to be
fractured
Matthew Heusser
Managing Consultant, Excelon Development
@mheusser

9. “We will continue to see movement towards Git
and repository management systems in 2016.
With this movement, large enterprise companies
will need to verify that the code review
capabilities meet the needs of their organization.
They will need to think beyond “Do my
developers like it?” to “What happens when
we’re audited?”
5. Continued movement toward
Git and repository management
Justin Collier
Product Owner, SmartBear
@Justin_CCollier

10. “As the whole world of e-commerce grows at
crazy fast levels the need for fast, accurate
monitoring and agility will become the true front
stage stars. The quicker you can move the
further you will go.”
6. Increased demand for fast,
accurate monitoring
Mark Gassner
Director of Technical Operations, Global-E
@MarkGassner

11. “As app store approval processes become more
stringent, mobile app testing will continue to
grow in prominence.
As a result, releasing into the wild and waiting
for customer feedback to fix issues will become
more difficult. “
7. Mobile app testing grows in
prominence
Nikhil Kaul
Product Marketing Manager, SmartBear
@kaulnikhil

12. “2016 is when DevOps stops being a buzzword
and starts delivering value.”
8. DevOps becomes more than a
buzzword
Andrew Fullen
Studio Manager, Sogeti UK
@UK_Sogeti

13. “With influential members officially onboard, the
Open API Initiative will further cement the
importance of API description formats in 2016,
driving the importance of Swagger to much
larger levels.”
9. Open API will cement the
importance of API description
Tony Tam
Vice President of Products, Swagger, SmartBear
@fehguy

14. “2016 will keep trending towards SOA
architecture and cloud technology with endless
opportunities.”
10. SOA architecture and cloud
technology grows
Hrishi Potdar
Senior QA Engineer
Dell

15. “2016 will finally be the Year of Security, with
Fintech and Healthcare entering the API and app
space in a big way... I think the lessons learned
from so many breaches in the last few years will
push companies to find better solutions for
security testing and implementation.”
11. The “Year of Security”
Lorinda Brandon
Sr Manager, Digital Product Mgmnt, Capital One
@lindybrandon

16. “Automated testing is going to grow by leaps &
bounds. Our engineering department is making a
significant push to be extremely platform centric.
Facilitating that is going to require very robust
automated testing to ensure that the critical
core software is as bug-free as possible. “
12. Automated testing grows by
leaps and bounds
Scott Doelling
Honeywell Fire Systems Americas
Test Automation Lead

17. “There will be a continued drive in the market
toward skilled testers that can be dropped into
small development teams and be effective
quickly. In practical terms, this means people
that have some programming ability, general
technical knowledge, very developed testing
skills, and probably the ability to teach testing to
others.”
13. Continued drive toward
skilled testers
Justin Rohrman
Consulting Software Tester, Excelon Development
@JustinRohrman

18. What changes do you
expect to see coming down
the road in 2016?
Share your predictions with us on
Twitter: @SmartBear!

19. Keep up-to-date with the
latest in the world of
software development,
testing, and monitoring in
2016.
Visit blog.smartbear.com.