The year 2015 was the first time significant trends in digital transformation were spotted in the World Quality Report (WQR). The upward trend continued in 2016 with the growing adoption of digital. In this chapter, we have will discuss the specific changes we witnessed in the last 4 years in QA transformation. Some of the trends I have observed are discussed further on.
In the last 4 years, the focus of QA transformation has evolved from centralizing QA to focus on the increased use of Social Media, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) and digital initiatives to improved customer experience.
In 2015, security and protecting corporate image were cited as the key IT objectives in line with an organization's desire to secure their digital presence and reduce the damage to their corporate reputation.
In 2016, the key strategic IT drivers included security, customer experience, and corporate image. Additionally, there was renewed focus on efficiency and effectiveness as important QA and testing objectives.
The focus of the QA transformation agenda has undergone a shift over the last few years from focus on centralizing QA to addressing vulnerabilities in digital business, to increased QA spends, to increased customer, and user experience combined with security and a renewed focus on efficiency. Refer to the following table:
|
2013 |
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Centralizing and streamlining testing functions indicating continuing maturing of the QA function. |
|
|
|
The key driver for QA and testing transformation has changed from cost optimization in 2013 to the need for instant access to information in 2014, to focusing on customer value and end user experience in 2015. Customer experience has stayed the focus in 2016 as well:
|
2013 |
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Cost optimization |
People's need for instant connectivity and access to information |
Focus on customer value and the impact of IT quality on end user experience |
Protect corporate image and enhance customer experience |
We define digital maturity based on whether an organization has appointed or is in the process of appointing a Chief Digital Officer (CDO). The year 2016 has seen the automotive (76% respondents mention having a CDO or in the process of appointing one) and public sectors (73%) at the top of the leaderboard in digital maturity based on this criteria. These sectors had been laggards in 2015. Increased adoption of digital for citizen services and inclusion justifies the top rank for the public sector.
About 63% of the QA budget (versus 53% in 2015) is used in QA for new developments in mobile, cloud, Business Intelligence (BI)/Business Analytics (BA), and IoT areas.
There is less correlation between digital maturity and QA spend in 2016. Organizations with the absence of a digital strategy seem to have a higher QA spend than the ones with digital maturity. Why do organizations with digital strategy have lower QA spend? It is likely that in a hurry to move ahead in digital transformation, organizations have progressed in development with inadequate QA.
Cloud-based applications are set to increase over the next 3 years. There has been an overall drop in the use of the public, private, and hybrid cloud. However, the use of on premise cloud has seen a significant increase.
A surprise finding is that despite the data privacy concerns, the use of public and hybrid cloud has increased in Europe.
Also, the findings suggest that focus on functional validation while migrating to the cloud was ignored and only performance testing was considered adequate. This again suggests that in a hurry to progress in digital transformation, organizations have ignored quality.
In 2016, the WQR findings suggest increased challenges in mobile, IoT, and multichannel testing in all the categories:
The challenge areas probed are as follows:
Lack of right testing process or method
Lack of experts
Lack of an in-house test environment
Lack of the right tools
Inadequate time spent
Lack of device availability to test
It is difficult to accept that there can be increased challenges given that digital has matured since 2015. The possible reasons for increased challenges could be the sheer size and complexity of digital transformation.
In 2016, there was a decline cited for all the challenge areas relating to customer experience testing, namely, the following ones:
Designing the test cases
Implementing test tools
Establishing test data
Identifying end user expectations
Establishing environments
Getting the right coverage
Identifying the systems
Apps to be covered
Refer to the following graph:
Is QA transformation dependent on the existence of a central Testing Center of Excellence (TCOE)? With increased use of SMAC technologies, organizations started abandoning centralized TCOE model in 2015 in pursuit of agile delivery models and focused on customer experience and business assurance.
Do we conclude that we witness that quality is ignored in digital transformation initiatives? Otherwise, do we conclude that quality is so embedded in digital transformations that there is a less specific need for quality? Given the evidence of increased challenges cited in 2016 in mobile, IoT, and multichannel applications, we will say there indeed is a decline in quality. The organizations will soon realize the need for focus on quality or pay the price.
For an in-depth look at the key trends in testing and QA, download the World Quality Report 2016 from http://ow.ly/PvMd304ynId.
