Digital Transformation in Testing

September 22, 2015

Digital Transformation in Testing

By: Matt Angerer

Thanks to advances in big data, social, and mobile technology an increasing number of sectors are developing intensely personal consumer interactions. As the time-to-market for such initiatives is greatly reduced, the need for better and faster testing services increases every day. ComputerWorld reported that digital transformation in business is now a critical driver for increased spending in quality assurance and testing.

More Companies Investing in QA and Testing

Despite a renewed emphasis on digital transformation, the pace of that change remains a challenge for many organizations. According to the World Quality Report 2015, 55 percent of organizations now identify “application functionality changing too quickly” as the most significant challenge they face in terms of digital transformation.

The need to meet such challenges head-on has also increased IT spending budgets. In fact, the Capgemini and HP study reported a 9 percent year-over-year increase in spending directed toward quality assurance and testing. Almost 50 percent of that spending goes toward maintenance.

System Integrity and Security Top Concerns

Of the organizations surveyed, 81 percent cited security as the driving reason for increased spending on testing. Such an increased awareness of security is largely fueled by the rapid iteration of digital transformation, making security testing a critical concern.

The latest World Quality Report clearly demonstrated the effect that the fast-moving technological world is having on business concerns. More organizations are choosing to invest in not just end-to-end automation but also test ecosystems. While this is an important transition, organizations will also need to move to a more integrated lifecycle to remain competitive.

Increasingly shorter lifecycles for both applications and programs are driving the modernization of testing procedures and practices. Almost 60 percent of respondents reported that nearly half of their projects are now utilizing DevOps principles. Because more organizations are adopting Agile and DevOps, completely new roles are being created to meet the rapidly expanding market.

With big data, the Internet of Things, and mobile resulting in even faster business transformations, organizations will need to reposition faster to stay ahead of the competition. The digital transformation for testing will be central in meeting these evolving demands without sacrificing user experience.

Learn more about rapid application development and testing on our HP ALM and HP Sprinter/QC pages.