QA Testing Budgets up 23%, Validates Testing Discipline

By: Matt Angerer

For many companies, QA testing is often relegated as expensive and unnecessary. Because of this mindset, when the time comes to make budget cuts, Q&A testing is often the first place where the axe falls. Of course, this is not exactly news in the testing community, except a new report has found that for the first time more money is actually being allocated to Q&A testing budgets.

According to the Capgemini World Quality report, QA testing now comprises 26 percent of total IT budgets. This represents an increase from 23 percent just one year ago, and 18 percent three years prior. Even more interesting is that the study found that the share of testing budgets is expected to increase even further in the future, possibly reaching 29 percent within two years.

The study also found there is a stronger focus on the testing of new applications, comprising the majority of overall testing budgets with an increase from 41 percent three years go to 52 percent. Among the funds now allocated to testing new applications, approximately 40 percent is dedicated to analytics and big data projects, while 27 percent of QA testing budgets goes toward new cloud initiatives.

The Importance of Mobile Apps on QA Testing

Mobile apps, which have become increasingly important, typically require rapid turnaround times. As such, they have become more and more important in the world of business. It comes as no surprise then that almost half of IT executives report having  insufficient time to test their mobile solutions.

In light of the increasing importance being placed on testing and QA, new skill sets are also being developed. These new skills account for the increased funding being allocated to human resources, making up more than one-third of testing budgets. The survey also found that QA and testing tools are being increasingly generated by the cloud. In fact, testing in the cloud shot up from 24 percent to 32 percent within the last year. By 2017, that amount is expected to increase to 49 percent.

The Capgemini study also found that businesses are rapidly adopting agile methodologies. According to the study, 93 percent of the organizations interviewed have now opted to utilize agile methods within their new development projects. This represents a 10 percent increase in just the last two years!

As organizations move forward, QA testing will prove to be increasingly important and organizations will need to invest the requisite funding to account for quality. For organizations that are wondering why their apps are not rating well or selling as expected, the answer could very well be a problem with QA. Ultimately, quality assurance must be considered from the onset of the development process, not just at the tail-end of the testing regimen.

Learn more about QA testing in our application lifecycle section and be sure to contact ResultsPositive for all your quality assurance needs.

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