Dive Brief:
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Agile and DevOps have hit mainstream adoption, with implementation cut in half from 2016 to 2017, according to a Capgemini survey of more than 1,600 CIOs and senior IT professionals. This widespread application changes how quality assurance and testing is conducted by companies now prioritizing security and end-user satisfaction.
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Automation of QA and testing ran a low 16% across companies. Intelligent automation process, such as machine learning, cognitive automation and predictive analytics, can help companies keep pace with time-to-market pressures. A full 99% of respondents reported difficulties testing agile development, with close to half citing a lack of data and environments — the "Achilles heel" of QA — and problems reusing and repeating tests as the reason.
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IT budgets reduced funding to QA to 32% in 2017, down 5% from 2016, although forecasts have the budget rising up to 32% by 2020.
Dive Insight:
Agile development and DevOps have shortened development cycles, allowing companies to release products and services to customers faster. With more collaborating hands on any given project, and more eyes to evaluate software, QA is being integrated along the pipeline.
If companies lack effective QA, they risk a product debacle like Samsung's Galaxy S7. The company invested in additional QA and testing measures after the incident, but it was too late and such measures should have been in place before.
As companies try to narrow the time-to-market margin and tie more products and devices into their network, QA has a fast pace to keep and big expectations to meet. The DevOps "cultural movement" has moved the onus of QA from independent test groups to developers, blurring the lines between positions.
As QA automation’s role in the enterprise grows, it may reduce the prevalence of QA testers and analysts overall. DevOps has changed the way software and products are introduced to the technology environment. With more paths of introduction through the IoT, mobile devices and applications and digital transformations, companies need automated QA and testing to manage the growing load.
