Review: Future of Quality Assurance

I agree with this author.
https://thenewstack.io/quality-engineering-the-future-of-qa/

Quality Engineering within each Development Life Cycle phase

Since 2005, I could see "software tester" being eliminated from teams. It's the reason why I shifted from "tester" to "developer" back in 2008. I didn't expect the need for a test automation team to emerge. However, I still think that even such teams will no longer be necessary as development teams grow with understanding on how every part of the development process impacts a product's quality.

In addition, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) will create a new path for developing automated "testers" who can simulate the behavior of product users and provide instant feedback to developers. In manufacturing or other assembling facilities, robots will become more like droids.

Regarding quality engineering, the biggest challenge I see today is with the technical leadership having a slow adoption of implementing this "quality" mindset into development teams. This leadership issue is one of the reasons why excellent developers (who already have this mindset) tend to leave and start their own companies. "Quality" developers see an opportunity to create a product (or service) that is better than an existing one. So why wait for technical leadership to see these opportunities?

Test Teams to Test Companies

Some development teams are already leading the charge with implementing the quality engineering principles and leveraging test companies instead of employing testers (or creating their own test teams). An example of an organization to leverage is TestProject.

Here's an example of how they help developers get up to speed with testing their applications (particularly web applications).
https://blog.testproject.io/2018/12/18/net-core-test-automation-selenium-page-object-page-factory/

Here's another company to leverage: TestIM

Going with this development strategy (of leveraging test companies instead of creating own test teams) will save time and money, but with savvy technical leadership.

Expert Users - the new Quality Experts

In the near future, the "User" will be the Tester, Quality Assurance Engineer, or whatever title you want to give to a person who makes sures that a product is working as expected (or beyond expectations). Rightfully so, a product is only as valuable according to the measure given by its user. It's just logical to move towards lean-agile development methodology where it's basically the developer (innovator) and user (expert) creating and maturing the product.

Closing Thoughts on Our Future

Our world will shift from a "buy-sell" model to a "use-improve" model. Therefore, relationships will no longer have a clear line between "business" and "personal" types, but all relationships will carry both types. Every relationship will be "personal" and "business". All experts will need to specialize in developing something and all innovators will need to be experts in using something.