Global study reveals 80 per cent of businesses missing out on full benefits of continuous testing

Announcement posted by CA Technologies 20 Jul 2017

CA Technologies study shows only one in five organisations use test automation as a business enabler

SYDNEY, July 20, 2017 – Results from a CA Technologies (NASDAQ:CA) global study reveal that while 75 per cent of organisations highlight continuous testing as critical or important, only a minority of survey respondents have made exceptional progress acquiring the necessary knowledge and key enablers to drive digital transformation. The 20 per cent of survey respondents identified as continuous testing ‘Leaders’ enjoy a boost to software delivery speed, quality and efficiency, resulting in a better return on investments for continuous delivery.

According to the study, “Continuous Testing as a Digital Business Enabler”, leaders were:

· 2.3x more likely to have succeeded in left-shifting testing activity;

· 2.6x more likely to reduce defects by more than 50 per cent;

· 2.4x more confident in quality of output;

· 1.9x more confident in speed of delivery; and

· Leaders were also 3.9x more likely to be working in an organisation exhibiting rapid revenue growth.

“As organisations build their modern software factories, it is important not to sacrifice quality in the quest for ever greater speed and efficiency in business growth and success,” said Guiliano Lot, director – solution sales, CA Technologies. “Software quality and testing is becoming everyone’s responsibility and it is incumbent that business and IT management ensure everyone is appropriately enabled – business analysts, developers, release managers and operations professionals all play role in the quality chain.”

While 93 per cent of respondents reported testing automation as important, only one in five said they achieved a good level of test automation coverage (80 per cent or more), leaving four out of five still relying heavily on manual processes. The majority of respondents attributed challenges to the lack of automation in almost every aspect of the testing process and tooling; from the generation of test cases, through test execution, to critical activities such as fast, safe and efficient test data management.

The importance of automating test data was also highlighted as a top need in ensuring test data is available when needed and avoiding personally identifiable information. Nevertheless, the majority of respondents felt they weren’t efficient in this area, even though it would make it easier to safeguard personal data across both development and testing environments and meet ever stricter data privacy legislation, such as the European Union’s imminent General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Throughout the study, all respondents highlighted the importance of modern methodologies like deploying agile development, continuous delivery, and DevOps. When pressed to prioritise, and call out a singular key to success, 63 per cent of respondents said it is the combination of agile development plus continuous delivery that optimises the effective integration of activities throughout the whole software development lifecycle. Overall, a holistic and balanced approach of both modern practices and tooling are reshaping how software is developed and supporting business transformation across industries.

For more information and to try out CA’s leading continuous testing solutions, visit www.ca.com/continuous-testing.

Resources

· Continuous Testing Research Infographic

· Continuous Testing Readiness Assessment

· Continuous Testing as Digital Business Enabler Webcast

· Video: Continuous Testing to Improve Software Quality

· Blog: The Art of Making Your Bed and Continuous Testing

About the Research/Freeform Dynamics

Conducted by Freeform Dynamics and commissioned by CA Technologies, the worldwide survey included 923 IT and testing professionals. Freeform Dynamics is an IT industry analyst firm that focuses on helping busy IT and business professionals get up to speed on the latest technology developments, and make better-informed investment decisions. For more information, please visit www.freeformdynamics.com.

About CA Technologies

CA Technologies (NASDAQ:CA) creates software that fuels transformation for companies and enables them to seize the opportunities of the application economy. Software is at the heart of every business in every industry. From planning, to development, to management and security, CA is working with companies worldwide to change the way we live, transact, and communicate – across mobile, private and public cloud, distributed and mainframe environments. Learn more at www.ca.com.

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