While change is hard, it can also be good. Consider the move from manual software testing to automated software testing. The benefits of automation are well documented in several places on IDT’s website. They are measurable. Our customers have experienced an average increase in testing productivity of 75%. However, changes of this type can also be difficult, as they may temporarily disrupt the processes already in place.
When embarking on a transition from manual to automated software testing, you need to feel confident that the change will be beneficial. This move should be based on a thoughtful deliberation of many factors. To help with the evaluation process, here are several key questions to ask when considering automated software testing.
Understanding Business Needs
The first step in deciding whether or not to embark on a change in your current business model is to understand and identify the critical needs that you have. These may include:
- To deliver software products faster
- To deliver software products with fewer defects
- To reduce the lifecycle cost
- To have extremely high confidence that certain functionality is working as expected
What else is important to your software or business?
- Improved build verification testing?
- Improved regression testing?
- Multi-platform compatibility testing?
- The ability to reproduce software defects?
- The ability to execute tests that you cannot complete manually?
Quantifying Testing Impact
When weighing a change in your approach to testing, it is important to quantify the impact automation would have on your program.
- How much would speeding up the testing really impact product delivery?
- What category of software defects is it most important to minimize?
- What percentage is the current cost of testing in the software product lifecycle?
- Which tests are most important to run to have high confidence in the software delivery?
Evaluating the ROI
Lastly, it is important to look at the investment required to make the switch to automation and measure it against the benefits of the change. Some important ROI factors include:
Basic
- Cost to develop and maintain automation
- Savings from the reduced test time and manpower
- Overall lifecycle of software product
Enterprise
- Cost to fix latent software defects
- Increase in sales by being faster to market
- Market share gained by being able to spend a higher percentage of costs on development
When considering a change from manual to automated testing, working thorough the questions and factors listed above is a good first step. If you need more input, Innovative Defense Technologies (IDT) can help. We have the expertise to help you evaluate your current processes, identify which tests it makes the most sense to automate, and help determine the ROI of the proposed effort. Contact IDT for more information.