Test Automation – The QA Investment You Cannot Overlook

Test Automation Has Become an Important Area of Investment for Businesses 

Test automation is everywhere and you’d better believe it! According to Transparency Market Research, the global test automation market will be worth $85 billion in 2024, translating to a whopping CAGR of almost 24% between 2016-2024.

What factors are driving the market?

1. Explosive growth of mobile applications across industries, fueled by digital transformation.

A digital transformation wave has soaked the business landscape. We find ourselves in a world where internet companies are foraying into home internet services, and smartphone makers are challenging telecommunications providers. Meaningful digitization has become essential to the continued competitiveness of incumbents and an opportunity for new technology entrants to seize their slice of the market.

If you’re an insurance company, you face stiff competition from digital technology pioneers and first-movers, who are not just bringing out customer-facing applications but leveraging digital potential across the entire value chain, including underwriting and claims management. As apps grow and their quality becomes a key differentiator for companies, companies are replacing manual testing with more efficient test automation.

2. Greater budget allocation to QA and testing

The increase in QA and testing spend comes on the back of an increased focus on customer value and IT quality of end-to-end user experiences. It doesn’t take long for criticism around poor UX to proliferate on social media and review sites. Corporate image can take a hit from bad reviews, a reason why protecting it is often a priority for IT teams, alongside delivering user satisfaction and enhancing awareness around quality.

There is pressure to catch defects earlier in the lifecycle while optimizing cycle time. This mindset is driving reliance on test automation, which is associated with the following benefits:

• Flexibility to run tests any time and repeat any number of times as necessary
• Early detection of errors and stability checking prior to integrations
• Lower tester fatigue
• Reduction in test execution time and faster time-to-market
• Ability to test for many more scenarios, increasing the scale of testing
• More durable framework over a longer period to optimize cost and benefits from testing tools

3. Increasing deployment of applications in the cloud

The inherent advantages of cloud computing make cloud based test automation tools highly viable. Lower total cost of ownership, instant scalability and the ability to conduct geo-performance testing apart, cloud-based tools boost testing times and reduce the hassle and risk involved in using traditional tools, including licensing, installation and user management.

Test automation offers immense potential to create sustainable competitive advantage. There is no better time than now to brainstorm and determine what the technology brings for your sector and business.