The rising importance of Digital Transformation has impacted various facets of the software development life cycle. As the focus on rapid delivery and customer satisfaction increases, it is more important than ever to ship flawless products and applications faster. QA/testing has evolved over the last few years to meet the demand and challenges arising from this expectation.
The drive towards digital transformation presents businesses with one of the biggest opportunities and challenges in recent times. Though it may be difficult to define the term ‘digital transformation’, from a broader perspective, it can be defined as an integration of digital technology into different areas of a business.
Digital transformation is the way forward for companies to retain relevance and leadership. According to an Innosight report, more than 50% of S&P 500 companies will be replaced by newer players over the decade. At the end of the day, the success of a business depends on its ability to keep up with the pace of innovation and use technology to achieve its business goals.
Digital transformation technologies are changing the way businesses operate, have brought changes to every functional area of a business, and have helped in delivering value to the customers.
One of the biggest driving factors of digital transformation is customer experience. And, one of the key areas that are being impacted by digital transformation is QA and testing. Better QA and testing processes help to reduce time-to-market while delivering flawless products. Businesses that are able to ship quality products faster have an edge over the competition.
Let’s take a look at the changes that digital transformation has brought about in QA and Testing.
Automation has a huge role to play in enabling digital transformation. Since the future markets are likely to be dominated by IoT products, testing is being approached from a product life cycle standpoint. The reason behind this shift is the increasing importance of improved customer experience.
Traditional testing methods do not yield the flexibility that we require to test IoT systems. However, increased automation gives a much-needed thrust to the release cycle and delivers the end product on or before time.
This is why adaptive techniques like custom automation solutions are created to address specific testing needs. Many companies are building frameworks and accelerators that will help them to scale their testing process. For example, at eInfochips, we have developed a unified test automation framework named Snapbricks Test Automation Framework.
Product life cycles have also become shorter due to which there is a need for more agility when it comes to QA and testing. Though testing is modernized and more automation has been implemented, longer life cycles are still a huge challenge to overcome. We are likely to see improved test automation frameworks and processes that help to address this challenge.
There is no doubt that we focus on collaborative efforts with the advent of Agile and DevOps. However, with the focus on shortening development cycles, it becomes a herculean task to test every functional aspect of a product.
Using predictive analysis will help the product team to prioritize and focus on the tests that need to be done first. Utilizing the historical data can allow the testing team to identify the impact of the changes that were made and then identify the test coverage.
As consumers draw nearer to the brands, they also get vocal about their experience with the products they use. Therefore, user experience holds prime importance in the era of digital transformation.
The user experience is as important as the functionalities of a product. That is why the quality engineering teams have to focus on testing products from various aspects – flow, UI of the application, ease of interaction, device capabilities & functionalities, and device state and networks, to just name a few, to adhere to the highest standard of quality.
The user data from the system is further analyzed by measuring, managing, and integrating processes to improve upon the experience of the users, and at the same time deliver financial and other benefits on a continuous basis. QA is being transformed into a continuous process that aids digital transformation.
Security has always remained one of the biggest concerns with IoT products. As there are various touchpoints of access for a user, it is important that stringent security measures are applied to ensure there are no data leaks. Out of all areas of the product development cycle, security testing is one area that definitely demands an increase in continuous automated testing.
It is necessary to identify possible security threats and then test your product to eliminate the vulnerabilities. So all the touchpoints have to be stable and provide the user with a satisfactory experience.
It is very important to identify these changing digital trends as well as adapt to these changes for continued success. Identifying partners that not only understand the changing trends but also are at the forefront, enabling these evolving changes, is critical to the success of your business.
eInfochips’ Quality Engineering Services are informed by an understanding of these trends, and we implement the best frameworks and methods to improve QA and Testing. To know exactly how our services can benefit your business, please get in touch with us.
