Over the past decade, Quality Assurance has seen a significant shift in the IT industry, both in terms of frameworks or process models (Agile, DevOps, CI/CD, etc.) and technological advancements (AI, blockchain, Big data, etc.). A reflection of this dynamic transformation has also been exhibited by the increase in QA expenditure as a proportion of the IT budget since 2012.
However, as opposed to the predicted levels, the actual QA expenditure has remained steady for a while and, in fact, has reduced lately. The IT budget shows a drop in the proportion spent on software testing to 22% in 2020 from 35% in 2015. This reduction can also indicate that as digital businesses are growing, firms are becoming more QA efficient.
Nonetheless, this decrease in proportion does not fully indicate that companies are efficiently spending on software testing. In fact, it can be said to be the opposite, which is evident from the survey that highlighted how developers spend 35% of their time just writing tests. So, software developers are not effectively utilized; instead, their services are diverted towards testing if required.
It was also seen that during this current economic downturn, when IT spends have decreased, QA budgets again took a hit. This cut in the QA budget implies that businesses should further reduce the existing proportion of QA spending (22%) in the IT budget. This reduction must be done in those areas that do not significantly impact the IT budget but are sufficient to provide cost-efficient QA solutions.
All around the globe, businesses face similar challenges regarding software testing pertaining to efficiency and cost containment.
Most of these cost-related challenges are prevalent in every industry in the digital engineering sphere and poses a hindrance for them towards providing seamless solutions to their respective users.
Some challenges include:
To compete in this ever-growing market, businesses need to meet the demand for faster delivery of products. Theoretically, the adoption of Agile and DevOps is a standard approach to shorten the SDLC.
However, it is observed that most business operations have a considerable mismatch between a faster development cycle, incorporating frequent updates and a robust testing process. This disparity in processes puts tremendous pressure on QA teams, and they end up running several test iterations, thereby increasing QA costs as well as product delivery timelines.
Digital and technological innovations are important driving factors for companies looking to embrace advanced quality engineering practices. However, not every industry is on the top of the digital or tech curve. Many sectors like healthcare, manufacturing and transportation are still enroute the path of digital transformation.
Being slow on this digital transformation can lead to inefficient product delivery, resulting in more product updates and multiple testing cycles. All these finally result in a situation where enterprises end up doing additional software testing and increasing their testing expenditure.
Achieving code quality comes at a high cost. Among all kinds of tests, unit tests form the most fundamental level of testing and require a top level of protection against regressions. Therefore, more resources are needed to write these tests.
To cut down on their QA spending, enterprises often divert their resources (especially developers) to testing. As per a survey, developers spend about 20% of their time writing unit tests because hiring dedicated testers would increase their cost in salaries and the training imparted to testers.
One of the most pivotal stages of the software testing life cycle is setting up a testing environment. From resource planning to understanding the complex test configuration, there are numerous challenges in setting up suitable testbeds that lay underway.
Businesses need a lot of QA expertise and experience in the field of technology assurance to overcome most of these challenges and subsequently get desired test results that would also benefit their end-users. Additionally, setting up unique testbeds for distinct test procedures makes the whole process a costly affair.
Quality engineering is a dynamic landscape where adaptability and innovation are the key factors for organizations to excel. To achieve high-quality product delivery, companies must ensure that these products pass through comprehensive testing procedures.
However, spending on different testing tools and IT infrastructure is necessary for such extensive testing. Not every company can afford such dedicated testing expenditure or even economically sustain it.
The emergence of new technologies has shown tremendous promise in the arena of digital engineering. However, with such technological advancement, the instances of cyber threats have also increased. These cyber-attacks are dangerous because they not only compromise your sensitive information but also lead to revenue loss.
A McAfee report estimates revenue losses due to global cybercrime have increased by 50% from 2018. Additionally, it also results in increased system downtime, reduced efficiency, reputation damage, all of which are directly or indirectly linked to loss of revenue.
So, how would you reduce your QA expenditure while continuing to provide the best services to your customers?
The Silver Lining
All the challenges mentioned can be taken care of, with an optimized approach to your software testing processes. Here’s how:
Many businesses have struggled for long to integrate Agile and DevOps into their systems. Due to this challenge, enterprises often end up choosing between the quality or speed of software, thereby compromising one of them. However, continuous integration (CI), continuous delivery (CD) and continuous testing (CT) offer a software testing framework with ample scope to address these Agile & DevOps implementation challenges.
CI, CD and CT also play a catalytic role in driving quality digital transformation and reducing test iterations. Additionally, such a framework creates a swift, risk-free, improved feedback mechanism for the QA specialists, which helps enterprises deliver preferable business outcomes along with operational efficiency and enhanced customer experience.
Our skilled experts can seamlessly integrate Agile and DevOps by implementing a continuous testing strategy into your product delivery system. So, collaborating with us will help your business mitigate risks and save costs.
In software testing, speed is king: whoever rolls out a bug-free update the fastest captures the most significant share of the market. Businesses that are still lagging in the digital curve or are still stuck in manual testing for most QA requirements can also seek the help of such QA service providers.
Moreover, as integrated quality engineering companies have expertise in AI-based testing, you do not wait for the backlogged projects to be cleared on a triage basis; instead, businesses can work on all projects simultaneously. In addition, QA companies can cost-effectively leverage the benefits of test automation and AI to ensure user-friendly end-products.
Expert & experienced QA testers.
It is due to the comprehensive nature of each test that the domain of quality assurance has an overarching impact on the IT sector. Every software application must pass through an extensive software development life cycle. With the adoption of Agile & DevOps methodologies, testing procedures commence right from the planning stage.
Be it preparing a user story or a test plan, a customized set of skills are required to execute each of these processes. Most organizations lack the workforce to manage every testing procedure efficiently. Thus, outsourcing your QA needs to a reliable software testing service provider can help. They have the relevant experience and bandwidth of resources along with a team of industry-specific testing experts for every stage of the SDLC.
As already discussed, QA processes require a dedicated setup and environment to get the desirable testing outcomes. This exercise is not just limited to creating new and unique test environments but also monitoring them, ensuring their endpoint integration, configuring the test environment and provisioning of infrastructure and the platform.
There are also instances wherein remote test sites need to be set up or even create virtual testbeds for cloud-based TEM (Test Environment Management). In such scenarios, a software testing company can help businesses with their end-to-end testing solutions and test environment management skills.
The cybersecurity space is one of the most complex domains in the IT sector. Not many organizations have the capacity or bandwidth to protect themselves from cyber-attacks. An Insight-commissioned IDG survey highlighted that 80% of senior IT personnel & IT security leaders admit that their companies lack adequate cybersecurity safeguards.
On several occasions, when businesses outsource software application development, they are not fully aware of the source code quality of the application. Furthermore, most organizations do not have the technical expertise or knowledge in the arena of business assurance to perform the correct implementation of security/penetration testing. As a result, they fail to ascertain the vulnerabilities of a software application and cannot take preventive actions proactively.
Therefore, only industry experts in security testing/penetration testing can make your software secure. Additionally, reliable quality engineering companies test your application security susceptibilities using sophisticated technology tools that professional hackers also use. Thus, trusting cyber security testing services can make your application risk-free and reduce costs you would otherwise have to bear in an instance of an unprecedented cyberattack.
Due to the growing competition, enterprises need to disrupt the market by delivering high-quality software products and services. In this pursuit, organizations must put their prime focus on quality engineering. However, the challenges and costs associated with it are immense. Businesses need to overcome these challenges to achieve their desired product quality.
One simple way to achieve it is by collaborating with experienced software testing service providers that have both the expertise and knowledge in the multiple domains. Qualitest uses an engineering-driven, AI-powered approach to quality & technology assurance for enabling faster product delivery. If you are still unsure of how to go about it, speak to an expert to know more about how we can help you reduce your QA expenditure significantly.
