Companies that want to remain competitive in today’s mobile market need to increase both app development and testing to keep up with consumer demands. And they’ve done just that – Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) found in a recent survey of mobile engineers that 86% of enterprises increased mobile application development in the past three years, while 76% of organizations plan to increase their testing capabilities in the next 12-24 months.
Testing is critical to maintaining the high-quality customer experiences that drive business revenue and growth. However, many enterprises struggle to implement or scale automated testing programs. According to ESG, 60% of organizations reported issues with the scalability, cost, productivity, and completeness of increased testing.
Yet the ROI of test automation can be enormous, particularly when done in partnership with an automated testing provider like Sauce Labs. Automated testing enables new features to be released faster and more frequently while maintaining a seamless customer experience. For business leaders, this translates to business growth.
In this post, we discuss the benefits of automated testing for business leaders, what you need to know to overcome common test automation hurdles, and how you can realize the full ROI of test automation.
What is Automated Testing and Why Do You Need It?
First, let’s make sure we’re on the same page and start with the basics: what even is automated testing, anyway?
Automated testing is a software testing technique that leverages automation technologies rather than live or manual tests (where human testers control the execution of tests). Automated testing is also referred to as test automation or automated QA testing.
Well-implemented automated testing–in particular continuous testing performed across the entire development lifecycle–helps to streamline business processes, decrease time to market, improve product quality, and increase customer satisfaction. By automating repetitive and time-consuming tests, engineering leaders can help their teams spend less time testing and more time on tasks that add business value to their products.
Enterprises that adopt test automation can deliver more frequent product releases more quickly, pivot in response to changing market demands, and gain or maintain a competitive edge.
5 Business Benefits of Test Automation
Companies without automated testing often struggle with inefficiency and lower productivity due to time-consuming and error-prone manual testing processes that delay releases. This can result in missed business opportunities and customer dissatisfaction.
Test automation accelerates testing along with many other benefits:
Reduced costs: Many business leaders hesitate to implement automated testing because of the perception that they will need to make a large up-front investment. Although getting started with automated testing can involve upfront costs like tool selection, training, and initial setup, the investment doesn’t necessarily need to be large. Open-source and affordable automation tools (like Sauce Labs) are available, plus frameworks and libraries that offer cost-effective solutions. Additionally, automated testing offers benefits like increased productivity and time savings over the software development lifecycle (SDLC), which can outweigh the initial investment.
Faster time to market: Test automation makes using methods like parallel testing and test orchestration possible. These methods help software teams detect and tackle bugs early and more efficiently in the SDLC, while the ability to test continuously and more quickly help validate new features shortens release cycles.
Improved customer experience: Test automation contributes to higher customer satisfaction by improving the quality, reliability, consistency, and responsiveness of your applications. With quicker and more efficient testing cycles, updates and new features can be released faster. This means that customers can benefit from improvements for an overall positive experience with your apps.
Increased revenue and business growth: ESG found that 37% of companies experienced lower customer satisfaction and revenue due to degraded performance and functionality following code changes. Delivering a high-quality product that satisfies customers can enhance your company’s brand reputation and market position, leading to higher sales and increased revenue.
Decreased product risk: Security vulnerabilities in apps have been identified as one of the leading causes of data breaches and can have a significant impact on your business revenue. Companies could lose customer trust resulting in a damaged brand reputation, customer churn, and reduced sales. Automated security testing can help engineering teams minimize security vulnerabilities and improve application reliability.
In today’s digital-first world, shipping better-quality applications to market faster helps drive business growth and success. In ESG’s survey, 75% of respondents with highly automated testing processes said their testing and QA function is seen as a competitive differentiator. The bottom line is that automated testing empowers companies to deliver reliable software more efficiently, gain or maintain a competitive advantage, and boost customer satisfaction and company growth.
How Sauce Labs Helps Enterprises Realize the ROI of Automated Testing
Partnering with an all-in-one testing platform can play a pivotal role in facilitating the successful adoption of automated testing. The Sauce DevOps Test Toolchain removes many of the challenges of traditional testing environments by providing the infrastructure and tools that engineering and product teams need to deliver high-quality web and mobile applications at speed.
From development to post-release, Sauce Labs enables engineering and product teams to achieve increased development velocity across the SDLC while creating the continuous feedback loops necessary for controlling quality risk. That’s why it’s no surprise that Sauce Labs customers surveyed by ESG experienced accelerated product releases, improved insight and agility, and better risk management when compared to their pre-Sauce Labs environments.
