Insights on Quality Assurance from the most recent World Quality Report.
Quality Report.
Capgemini and MicroFocus have released the World Quality Report for 2021/2022 (WQR), and this 13th edition weighs in at over 60 pages. As expected, it focuses on application quality assurance (QA) and polls 1,750 respondents to provide insights into the state of QA. I’ll focus on data collected from the North American responses, share some interesting insights from the report, and discuss the connections between QA, customer satisfaction, and business success.
The linkage between quality assurance and CX
I will borrow from my previous WQR write-up because the following is still valid… “Customer experience (CX) can set your business (or brand) apart, and indeed has been identified as a key battleground differentiator (Gartner, Zendesk, Deloitte, Forbes, and everyone, really). As many as 84% of companies focusing on CX see an uplift in revenue (Global Customer Experience Benchmarking Report). Application testing and QA should lead to better software, better CX, and higher customer satisfaction.”
Current Realities
So, what does the most recent WQR say about the state of QA vis-à-vis CX?
The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic are apparent. As business models shifted to remote work and then hybrid, the systems, applications, and processes to support workers and customers were forced to adapt and evolve quickly. QA become more critical than ever to ensure correctly functioning workflows and the best possible CX for all constituencies. Despite this reality, there was a drop in the number of respondents believing that QA contributions are essential to business outcomes (down to 61% from 74% last year). This may be because “detecting software defects before go-live” moved into the #1 spot in this portion of the survey.
The Good News
Quality, Agile, and DevOps are all prerequisites or the mechanism by which digital transformation becomes possible. The benefits from QA and test automation are recognized and realized as noted in the WQR – ROI … reduced security risks … regulatory compliance … reduced test costs … better test coverage … reduced test cycle times … earlier defect detection (shift left), amongst others.
The Challenges
However, challenges remain. According to the WQR, chief among them is finding and retaining team members with sufficient QA skills. Another primary difficulty cited by a majority of respondents is that they don’t have enough time to build and maintain test automation.
Businesses report that a lack of QA expertise and execution hinders them from readily realizing the full potential of QA. And this mirrors what I hear from business leaders.
The Opportunity To Achieve And Accelerate News
Luckily, experienced QA practitioners, such as MCANTA, can assist businesses with designing and executing QA programs. Our expertise encompasses identifying high-value, quick-success opportunities, building automated application testing, robotic process automation, and more. Among the many benefits of partnering on QA initiatives:
- Knowledgeable expertise to guide you from start to finish.
- Accelerated testing: test more things faster, speed to market.
- Higher quality and improved customer satisfaction.
- Greater efficiency and reliability (end-to-end testing, more test coverage, AI, ML).
- Cost savings: Test during off-peak hours and let your team focus on higher-value items.
Respondents to the latest World Quality Report recognize the need for quality assurance in software applications. Unfortunately, many businesses encounter barriers when trying to establish successful QA programs.
The good news is that avenues are available to accelerate and improve quality, bring your team up to speed, and take control so your organization can manage its quality assurance program for optimal results.
Please contact MCANTA for a free QA consultation. info@mcanta.com.
By David Hughes| October 29th, 2022
