World Quality Report 2020-21: High-tech organizations continue to blaze the trail with test automation and user experience testing
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QUALITY ENGINEERING & TESTING

High-tech organizations continue to blaze the trail with test automation and user experience testing

In the world of quality assurance (QA) and testing, High Tech organizations see things differently than their counterparts in other industries, according to the latest World Quality Report from Capgemini and Sogeti, in partnership with Micro Focus, published in November 2020.

When it comes to ‘why’ they carry out QA and testing activities, it’s all about business for the High Tech sector. Against an all-industry average of 74%, a much higher 85% of High Tech respondents cited contribution to business growth as a highly essential objective. Ensuring end-user satisfaction was another higher-than-average essential objective, at 74%.

There was also a bigger jump in the use of agile and DevOps environments, more ‘frequent’ use of crowd test services before a software release than the average, and a 10% greater volume of High Tech firms using tools to generate or update tests automatically, at 39%.

Testing with and of AI

It is clear that this sector places a high business value on its QA and testing and, perhaps for that reason, it is also blazing a trail in the use of artificial intelligence – not just in testing, but in general application, too. More than three-quarters (77%) of High Tech respondents strongly agreed that they would take advantage of AI technologies in testing for the testing of AI. And 91% that, whether they were testing AI or testing with it, artificial intelligence was the strongest growth area in their activities right now.

With QA being gradually subsumed into the software development lifecycle, and test engineers making way for multi-skilled Software Development Engineers in Test (SDETs), it is no surprise that high importance is placed on supporting everybody in the team to achieve higher quality – it’s an essential objective for two-thirds of sector respondents, against 60% for the survey total.

One area where this support might prove useful is in the acquisition of test automation skills. Test automation continues to increase in significance, with 40% of High Tech respondents (against the survey average of 31%) increasing the level of automation. A reduction in test cycle times was the primary driver for this but, as the shift to automation continues, organizations in this sector said they were lacking test case design skills.

Collaborative QA culture

Looking ahead, High Tech organizations rate security validation, customer experience and validation & usability testing as important areas to focus on in a post-pandemic world. This will be delivered with a stronger, more collaborative QA community culture, in which responsibility for quality is not assigned to a designated team but is shared by everyone.

If you’d like to hear more about our findings relating to QA and testing in the High Tech industry, please get in touch with:

 

Mark Buenen
Mark Buenen
Global Leader Quality Engineering & Testing, Capgemini Group