World Quality Report 2017-18

In the 9^th edition of the World Quality Report, there is evidence that your peers are learning to strike the balance. Up to 41% of its sample shows a return to the main objectives of QA & Testing - to improve the overall quality of processes, products and software. Call it mean-reversion or historic recurrence: the leaders are going back to basics.

Click here to download the World Quality Report 2017-2018.

World Quality Report 2017-18: Key Findings

• Increasing challenges with testing in an agile development
• Test budgets are falling but are expected to rise again
• Test automation is on the way to intelligent, smart, and cognitive QA
• Test data and test environments continue to be the Achilles heel for QA and testing
• QA organization evolving to meet bi-modal needs
• Back to basics focus on application quality shows testing has come of age in the new context of agile applications

World Quality Report 2017-18: Key Recommendations

• Invest in smart QA and Test platforms
• Define a strategy for QA analytics on an enterprise level
• Support DevOps teams and agile development by transforming QA and Test function
• Define your test platform strategy on an enterprise level
• Increase the level of smart test automation

Click here to download the World Quality Report 2017-2018.

Agile & DevOps

We’re all agile. Until the next waterfall

Silicon Valley cult to mainstream adoption - the evolution of agile and DevOps is nothing short of a surreal, coming of age story. A miniscule proportion (4%) has stayed off agile adoption, to quote the World Quality Report 2017-18. But 99% cite difficulties with testing in agile.

To be fair, agile teams expect a sense of continuity with their waterfall experience. Enter hybrid frameworks - an uneasy blend of agile and waterfall, subject to the complexity of business asks.

The Agile and DevOps section of the report is an eye-opener. It highlights the successes and shortcomings of such approaches in the context of digital transformation.

Industrialization

Future-Ready Test Excellence Centers are here

The shift was rather gradual, but digital quality assurance is now the domain of agile teams - if not entirely, in substantial measure. Find out what that means for the test center of the future in the Industrialization section of the World Quality Report 2017-18.

Agile and DevOps will transform traditional TCOEs to decentralized operations. These will be supported by a Test Excellence Center that provides test environments, expertise, and resources.

Automation

The true potential of automation - and why it eludes QA and Testing

Automation tools scan code like ninjas on a mission. They help shrink unproductive delays between coding and defect detection at attractive long-term ROI. But incremental efficiency gains are only just 20th century!

Smart test automation must go beyond and sweat your investments to meet broader business objectives. It’s worrying, then, that QA and Testing is not quite the automation nation you’d expect it to be.

The Automation section of the World Quality Report 2017-18 takes stock of the situation.

QA & Testing

A V-Shaped recovery in QA and Testing budgets

According to the World Quality Report 2017-18, the proportion of total IT spending on quality is 26%. That’s a drop of 5% over 2016 and 9% over 2015.

But 68% say they have seen a spike in IT budget spent on QA and testing over the last four years. That figure rose from 63% in 2016.

Download the QA and Testing Budgets section of the report to decode the dichotomy.

Test Data & Environments

The way forward with test data and environment management

Digital transformation has firmly positioned software at the center of everything businesses do. Where does that leave traditional practices of managing test data and environments?

Why does the World Quality Report 2017-18 find more than half its respondents struggling with the size of test data sets? What is the most significant challenge with managing environments?

Answers to these questions and the way forward with test data and environment management in this section of the report.

Digital Transformation

Scaling up digital projects? Here’s a check-list for QA & Testing

We interviewed over 1600 technology leaders from 33 countries for the World Quality Report 2017-18. Only 6% said Digital Transformation is not a part of their plans.

Clearly, the transformation is well underway but not without its complexity.

Smart products, mobile apps, security concerns, and conversational commerce - IT’s got a lot on its plate already. Find out how QA & Testing is doing its bit, in the Digital Transformation section of the report.

The full report

Download the full report here.

Region-specific reports

Download the region-specific analysis here:

• Australia & New Zealand
• Benelux
• China
• Eastern Europe
• France
• Germany
• Middle East
• Nordic Region
• North America
• Southern Europe
• United Kingdom

Click here to read the Press Release: Quality Assurance must shift to smarter solutions as the complexity of applications and need for speed increase