Every year, TestRail surveys thousands of QA professionals to better understand the state of software testing. And each year, the results tell a story of how far software testing has come— and yet, how much remains unchanged.
This year, the Fourth Edition Software Testing & Quality Report paints a clear picture of how testing teams are navigating the new challenges and opportunities brought on by increasingly faster development cycles, rising expectations, and a growing landscape of tools and technologies.
From test automation hurdles to the slow but steady rise of AI, here’s a look at what’s really shaping QA today:
QA metrics: What teams track and what they want to track
QA teams continue to rely on tried-and-true metrics to measure quality:
- 70% monitor test pass/fail rates
- 60% track the number of defects found in production.
These are important measurements of stability and risk, but they only tell part of the story.
When we dig a little deeper, and it’s clear teams want more meaningful insights. Many survey respondents said they wished they could better track metrics that tie QA work to broader business impact, such as:
- Cost per defect
- Time to resolution
- Test case traceability
And while 43% of teams track the number of automated tests created, and 42% track execution, very few have visibility into the ROI of their automation efforts.
As one respondent put it, “While pass rates are helpful, true quality measurement requires deeper defect analysis and efficiency metrics.”
Tracking these QA metrics is a great start, but it’s not always enough. Teams are looking for deeper insights into where quality gaps come from and how to close them.
Top testing priorities: Coverage, speed, and automation
When asked about their top QA priorities, 35% of respondents ranked increasing test coverage as their number one goal, a strong signal that teams are doubling down on thorough validation as systems grow more complex.
But coverage isn’t the only focus. Teams are also feeling the pressure to move faster and ship with fewer bugs:
- 20% are prioritizing reducing bugs in production
- 13% are focused on automating more tests
It’s a challenge QA teams face every year: move faster, but don’t let quality slip.
That’s easier said than done. Many teams say they’re struggling with the how behind these goals, especially when it comes to automation. Skill gaps, tooling issues, and maintenance overhead are slowing teams down.
As one respondent put it, “We want automation, but executing it effectively remains a challenge due to resource and technical constraints.”
It’s no longer just about running more tests or running them faster, it’s about working smarter. Teams want to scale efficiently, automate with purpose, and catch issues earlier in the process.
Major QA Challenges: Scaling quality
QA teams aren’t just fighting for more resources, they’re fighting for better alignment, earlier collaboration, and systems that are actually testable. Here are the top three challenges QA teams face:
- End-to-end testing across integrated systems (33%)
As systems grow more distributed, teams are hitting roadblocks when trying to validate how components work together. Stable test environments, cross-team coordination, and comprehensive coverage are harder than ever to maintain.
- Developing automated tests (32%)
Despite being a top priority, automation is still a major challenge. Teams report fragile test suites, inconsistent tooling, and a lack of skilled personnel as common blockers.
- Involvement too late in the development cycle (32%)
Many QA professionals feel disconnected from early-stage development. This late-stage involvement leads to delays, misalignment with product teams, and reactive (rather than proactive) testing.
These challenges are linked. For example, late involvement makes automation harder, and complex systems make both automation and end-to-end testing more difficult to scale. As one tester noted, “Testing efficiency is constrained not by budget but by process bottlenecks and lack of integration with development.”
The Speed vs. Quality Dilemma: Why Faster Isn’t Always Better
As development cycles speed up, QA teams are expected to support fast releases while still preventing bugs from reaching users.
But this challenge isn’t just about tools. It’s about priorities and resources. When QA is understaffed or brought in late, speed often comes at the cost of thorough testing.
- 58% of teams report that rapid releases lead to defects slipping into production, showing that speed often comes at the cost of thorough testing.
- 45% indicate that CI/CD adoption improves with QA team size, suggesting that larger teams can integrate automation more effectively.
- Most teams with strong automation and CI/CD integration report both faster release cycles (86%) and reduced defect leakage (71%), demonstrating the importance of such technologies in keeping up with modern development demands.
Fast iteration is expected, but the teams that succeed are the ones that treat quality as a shared responsibility by automating early, testing often, and aligning QA efforts with the pace of development.
5. Looking Ahead: Future initiatives and trends
Even with ongoing challenges, QA teams are planning ahead and aiming for smarter and more integrated testing.
The top future initiatives include:
- Increasing test automation (43%): Teams are exploring AI-driven, self-healing tests that reduce maintenance.
- Shifting left (39%): QA is moving earlier in the dev cycle to catch defects before they reach production.
- Prioritizing better environments and test data (35%): Better infrastructure and reusable data are key to speeding up releases as unreliable environments slow down execution and reduce confidence in results.
But teams still face hurdles:
- Keeping up with evolving tools and AI
- Hiring and retaining skilled automation engineers
- Integrating new tools into existing workflows
Bottom line
The Fourth Edition Software Testing & Quality Report shows that QA is growing more strategic, more collaborative, and more complex. Teams are pushing for better automation, earlier involvement, and metrics that measure quality. But they’re still navigating familiar challenges: scaling automation, managing disjointed systems, and proving ROI.
The bottom line? QA is evolving and the most successful teams are the ones who balance the need to move fast with the responsibility to maintain quality at every stage of development.
To dive deeper into the insights and trends shaping the future of software testing and quality assurance, download the full Fourth Edition Software Testing & Quality Report here! Learn how teams are tackling modern challenges, evolving their testing practices, and driving quality at scale.
