The World Quality Report is the world’s most comprehensive assessment of the current state of application quality and testing. Produced by Capgemini, Sogeti, and HP, this year’s report reflects significant changes in the technological landscape their implications for organizations’ Quality Assurance (QA) practices. Listen as Capgemini Vice President and co-author of the report Murat Aksu discusses key findings from the report and what they could mean for your business.
Welcome to our podcast presenting the key findings and recommendations from the 2012-2013 edition of the World Quality Report.My name is Murat Aksu, and I am a vice-president at Capgemini and also one of the co-authors of this report which is now in its 4th year of publication.
The World Quality Report is the result of collaboration between Capgemini and Sogeti who are part of the family of Capgemini Group companies, and Hewlett-Packard, one of Capgemini’s strategic partners. Together, we have produced this annual report over the last 4 years and are proud to continue providing this valuable research for the software quality assurance industry.This report is based on extensive market research gathered by surveying CIOs, QA directors and testing-oriented professionals. And this year, we increased the number of survey participants to include over 1,500 respondents making this the most comprehensive edition of the report we have published to date.Within the report, we provide valuable insight into the market trends that will affect the quality assurance function over the next 2-3 years, and explore how the industry can prepare to address these new developments and changes.
As Capgemini Group and HP are both global companies, we have a history of doing business in different geographies and understand that what works in one part of the world does not mean it will work elsewhere. Therefore, it was important to us that our survey cover a large spread of geographies.
In addition, our survey covers 9 industry sectors. We recognize that each sector has its own unique business challenges which in turn affects its quality assurance operations. We also made a concerted effort this year to focus on a larger percentage of executive-level respondents such as CIOs, IT Directors, VP of Applications, and QA Managers as they have a more comprehensive overview of their company’s business and IT priorities.
Now let’s move on to some of the key findings from this year’s report.One of the hot topics recently in the testing space is the concept of a Testing Center Of Excellence, or TCOE for short. A TCOE extends standardization of testing across enterprises, consolidates efforts, expenses, and resources, and delivers higher quality with lower costs. It is very well aligned with the business expectation of doing more with less.As shown on the screen, 60% of companies are planning to or are already developing a TCOE. While some are planning to use inside resources to get the job done and others plan to leverage outside expertise, the message is clear - the majority of respondents want to create and develop a TCOE. Compared to findings from last year’s report where only 45% of companies reported a desire to establish a TCoE, this is a substantial jump and an indication that more and more companies are seeing the business benefits of a TCOE.It is also worth mentioning that only 6% of those surveyed have a fully operational TCOE, so we can see that there is a very long road ahead before the 60% becomes a reality.
Another major trend affecting the quality assurance function is in the use of mobile technology as a delivery platform for enterprise applications. While the move to offer flexible access in mobility to employees and customers is a welcome change, the bad news is only 31% of those surveyed actually test their mobile applications. There are many reasons why companies do not test their apps, some of which are shown on the screen. Almost 2/3 of companies do not have the right tools to test these apps. Over 50% do not have the right mobile devices to perform the testing, and at least 1/3 of them indicate that they did not have the right expertise internally to test mobile applications. These numbers paint a dark picture of whether IT is able to cope with the new paradigm shift that mobility brings. But the positive note is that the main challenges cited by companies are also easily rectified. There are increasingly more products and tools in the market that are dedicated to testing mobile applications, and numerous service providers have started to offer dedicated expertise to address the complex needs of defining and implementing a mobile strategy.
By now, everyone has heard about the Cloud. It is a trend that started a few years back and has truly exploded within the last 12 months. We have been monitoring the trends around cloud and testing for the last 3 years as part of the World Quality Report, and this gives us a way to compare the change year-over-year. The percentage of customers who say they have no plans to use cloud-based testing has come down to 4% this year compared to 31% last year. This is a tremendous drop, and as shown on the screen, we only expect the adoption of cloud to continue in the future.Today, 28 percent of customers use a cloud environment for their testing needs, and that number is expected to rise to 39% by 2015. As companies consider moving their testing operations into a cloud platform, they should view this as an extension of their existing infrastructures. They must also evaluate the performance, reliability, service-level agreements, and catalog of service offerings available through numerous cloud providers today.
So what about money and budget which we all know is not unlimited. Despite tough economic times affecting many parts of the world, we see a silver lining when it comes to QA budgets. Overall, QA budgets are increasing. As shown on the screen, 42% of companies have seen their budgets increase compared to last year, and another 53% are expecting their IT budget to increase between now and 2015. So where are companies spending their QA budget?
Our research shows that companies are investing in their existing testing tools in an effort to derive more value from their existing testing infrastructure. We also see that companies are spending their limited budgets on man power, with roughly the same amount of money being spent on both internal and external testing resources. There is a slight shift expected over the next 2 to 3 years, howver, as a greater share of the budget shifts to leveraging external resources.
On the previous screen, we talked about the fact that companies are expected to shift investment to external resources. A logical follow-up question is to ask whether external resources are truly better than internal resources which would justify this shift.What you see here is a comparison of how companies rate the competency of their existing internal and external resources. The overall results paint a rather grim picture of how IT executives view QA resources in general with only 4 to 5% of resources receiving a rating of “5” which indicates exceptional knowledge of testing methodologies and the industry. However, if we look at resources that are considered above average, ranking as either a “4” or “5”, 33% of external resources compared to only 24% of internal resources make the cut. This finding would support the trend of budgets moving towards more external resources.
So what does this all mean, and what can you as an IT professional do to elevate your company’s QA capabilities to keep your business stakeholders happy?First, QA needs to be recognized as a formal and valuable step in the application lifecycle. No one wants to make the news because of a spectacular system failure, and one way to prevent this is to establish clear governance and processes to validate an application’s readiness before it moves into production.Second, mobility is the new reality, and the truth of the matter is the testing priorities for a mobile app are different from that of a traditional desktop application. In order for companies to be successful in their mobile strategies, they need to recognize this paradigm shift and adjust their thinking and their QA processes accordingly. The strategy for testing mobile applications should not be done as an afterthought. Instead, business and IT stakeholders need to plan for the full impact of adopting a mobile strategy upfront and incorporate the strategy into all aspects of their operations.Third, we have talked about several new operating models today such as testing in the cloud and TCOE, but they are not a ‘one size fits all’ approach. Companies must do their due diligence and carefully evaluate the reasons they want to adopt a new operating model and do a thorough cost-benefit analysis. They should establish a clear transformation plan to justify a move. Fourth, we recommend paying closer attention to how you can demonstrate QA’s value to the business. This is not s new theme. As reported in previous years, companies continue to struggle with how to fully measure the value of QA teams in the application lifecycle, which makes it that much harder to justify future investments. Having an established governance process and supporting tools to capture metrics is one way to address this challenge.Lastly, consider the diversity of skills needed to keep your QA function relevant. In light of the rapidly changing models affecting the IT and business world, now more than ever companies and individuals must closely examine their skill set and refresh their capabilities to stay on top of the game. IT and QA must keep up with business needs or risk becoming the broken cog in the wheel that prevents the enterprise from effectively meeting its objectives.
So what does this all mean, and what can you as an IT professional do to elevate your company’s QA capabilities to keep your business stakeholders happy?First, QA needs to be recognized as a formal and valuable step in the application lifecycle. No one wants to make the news because of a spectacular system failure, and one way to prevent this is to establish clear governance and processes to validate an application’s readiness before it moves into production.Second, mobility is the new reality, and the truth of the matter is the testing priorities for a mobile app are different from that of a traditional desktop application. In order for companies to be successful in their mobile strategies, they need to recognize this paradigm shift and adjust their thinking and their QA processes accordingly. The strategy for testing mobile applications should not be done as an afterthought. Instead, business and IT stakeholders need to plan for the full impact of adopting a mobile strategy upfront and incorporate the strategy into all aspects of their operations.Third, we have talked about several new operating models today such as testing in the cloud and TCOE, but they are not a ‘one size fits all’ approach. Companies must do their due diligence and carefully evaluate the reasons they want to adopt a new operating model and do a thorough cost-benefit analysis. They should establish a clear transformation plan to justify a move. Fourth, we recommend paying closer attention to how you can demonstrate QA’s value to the business. This is not s new theme. As reported in previous years, companies continue to struggle with how to fully measure the value of QA teams in the application lifecycle, which makes it that much harder to justify future investments. Having an established governance process and supporting tools to capture metrics is one way to address this challenge.Lastly, consider the diversity of skills needed to keep your QA function relevant. In light of the rapidly changing models affecting the IT and business world, now more than ever companies and individuals must closely examine their skill set and refresh their capabilities to stay on top of the game. IT and QA must keep up with business needs or risk becoming the broken cog in the wheel that prevents the enterprise from effectively meeting its objectives.
So what does this all mean, and what can you as an IT professional do to elevate your company’s QA capabilities to keep your business stakeholders happy?First, QA needs to be recognized as a formal and valuable step in the application lifecycle. No one wants to make the news because of a spectacular system failure, and one way to prevent this is to establish clear governance and processes to validate an application’s readiness before it moves into production.Second, mobility is the new reality, and the truth of the matter is the testing priorities for a mobile app are different from that of a traditional desktop application. In order for companies to be successful in their mobile strategies, they need to recognize this paradigm shift and adjust their thinking and their QA processes accordingly. The strategy for testing mobile applications should not be done as an afterthought. Instead, business and IT stakeholders need to plan for the full impact of adopting a mobile strategy upfront and incorporate the strategy into all aspects of their operations.Third, we have talked about several new operating models today such as testing in the cloud and TCOE, but they are not a ‘one size fits all’ approach. Companies must do their due diligence and carefully evaluate the reasons they want to adopt a new operating model and do a thorough cost-benefit analysis. They should establish a clear transformation plan to justify a move. Fourth, we recommend paying closer attention to how you can demonstrate QA’s value to the business. This is not s new theme. As reported in previous years, companies continue to struggle with how to fully measure the value of QA teams in the application lifecycle, which makes it that much harder to justify future investments. Having an established governance process and supporting tools to capture metrics is one way to address this challenge.Lastly, consider the diversity of skills needed to keep your QA function relevant. In light of the rapidly changing models affecting the IT and business world, now more than ever companies and individuals must closely examine their skill set and refresh their capabilities to stay on top of the game. IT and QA must keep up with business needs or risk becoming the broken cog in the wheel that prevents the enterprise from effectively meeting its objectives.
So what does this all mean, and what can you as an IT professional do to elevate your company’s QA capabilities to keep your business stakeholders happy?First, QA needs to be recognized as a formal and valuable step in the application lifecycle. No one wants to make the news because of a spectacular system failure, and one way to prevent this is to establish clear governance and processes to validate an application’s readiness before it moves into production.Second, mobility is the new reality, and the truth of the matter is the testing priorities for a mobile app are different from that of a traditional desktop application. In order for companies to be successful in their mobile strategies, they need to recognize this paradigm shift and adjust their thinking and their QA processes accordingly. The strategy for testing mobile applications should not be done as an afterthought. Instead, business and IT stakeholders need to plan for the full impact of adopting a mobile strategy upfront and incorporate the strategy into all aspects of their operations.Third, we have talked about several new operating models today such as testing in the cloud and TCOE, but they are not a ‘one size fits all’ approach. Companies must do their due diligence and carefully evaluate the reasons they want to adopt a new operating model and do a thorough cost-benefit analysis. They should establish a clear transformation plan to justify a move. Fourth, we recommend paying closer attention to how you can demonstrate QA’s value to the business. This is not s new theme. As reported in previous years, companies continue to struggle with how to fully measure the value of QA teams in the application lifecycle, which makes it that much harder to justify future investments. Having an established governance process and supporting tools to capture metrics is one way to address this challenge.Lastly, consider the diversity of skills needed to keep your QA function relevant. In light of the rapidly changing models affecting the IT and business world, now more than ever companies and individuals must closely examine their skill set and refresh their capabilities to stay on top of the game. IT and QA must keep up with business needs or risk becoming the broken cog in the wheel that prevents the enterprise from effectively meeting its objectives.
So what does this all mean, and what can you as an IT professional do to elevate your company’s QA capabilities to keep your business stakeholders happy?First, QA needs to be recognized as a formal and valuable step in the application lifecycle. No one wants to make the news because of a spectacular system failure, and one way to prevent this is to establish clear governance and processes to validate an application’s readiness before it moves into production.Second, mobility is the new reality, and the truth of the matter is the testing priorities for a mobile app are different from that of a traditional desktop application. In order for companies to be successful in their mobile strategies, they need to recognize this paradigm shift and adjust their thinking and their QA processes accordingly. The strategy for testing mobile applications should not be done as an afterthought. Instead, business and IT stakeholders need to plan for the full impact of adopting a mobile strategy upfront and incorporate the strategy into all aspects of their operations.Third, we have talked about several new operating models today such as testing in the cloud and TCOE, but they are not a ‘one size fits all’ approach. Companies must do their due diligence and carefully evaluate the reasons they want to adopt a new operating model and do a thorough cost-benefit analysis. They should establish a clear transformation plan to justify a move. Fourth, we recommend paying closer attention to how you can demonstrate QA’s value to the business. This is not s new theme. As reported in previous years, companies continue to struggle with how to fully measure the value of QA teams in the application lifecycle, which makes it that much harder to justify future investments. Having an established governance process and supporting tools to capture metrics is one way to address this challenge.Lastly, consider the diversity of skills needed to keep your QA function relevant. In light of the rapidly changing models affecting the IT and business world, now more than ever companies and individuals must closely examine their skill set and refresh their capabilities to stay on top of the game. IT and QA must keep up with business needs or risk becoming the broken cog in the wheel that prevents the enterprise from effectively meeting its objectives.
So what does this all mean, and what can you as an IT professional do to elevate your company’s QA capabilities to keep your business stakeholders happy?First, QA needs to be recognized as a formal and valuable step in the application lifecycle. No one wants to make the news because of a spectacular system failure, and one way to prevent this is to establish clear governance and processes to validate an application’s readiness before it moves into production.Second, mobility is the new reality, and the truth of the matter is the testing priorities for a mobile app are different from that of a traditional desktop application. In order for companies to be successful in their mobile strategies, they need to recognize this paradigm shift and adjust their thinking and their QA processes accordingly. The strategy for testing mobile applications should not be done as an afterthought. Instead, business and IT stakeholders need to plan for the full impact of adopting a mobile strategy upfront and incorporate the strategy into all aspects of their operations.Third, we have talked about several new operating models today such as testing in the cloud and TCOE, but they are not a ‘one size fits all’ approach. Companies must do their due diligence and carefully evaluate the reasons they want to adopt a new operating model and do a thorough cost-benefit analysis. They should establish a clear transformation plan to justify a move. Fourth, we recommend paying closer attention to how you can demonstrate QA’s value to the business. This is not s new theme. As reported in previous years, companies continue to struggle with how to fully measure the value of QA teams in the application lifecycle, which makes it that much harder to justify future investments. Having an established governance process and supporting tools to capture metrics is one way to address this challenge.Lastly, consider the diversity of skills needed to keep your QA function relevant. In light of the rapidly changing models affecting the IT and business world, now more than ever companies and individuals must closely examine their skill set and refresh their capabilities to stay on top of the game. IT and QA must keep up with business needs or risk becoming the broken cog in the wheel that prevents the enterprise from effectively meeting its objectives.
So what does this all mean, and what can you as an IT professional do to elevate your company’s QA capabilities to keep your business stakeholders happy?First, QA needs to be recognized as a formal and valuable step in the application lifecycle. No one wants to make the news because of a spectacular system failure, and one way to prevent this is to establish clear governance and processes to validate an application’s readiness before it moves into production.Second, mobility is the new reality, and the truth of the matter is the testing priorities for a mobile app are different from that of a traditional desktop application. In order for companies to be successful in their mobile strategies, they need to recognize this paradigm shift and adjust their thinking and their QA processes accordingly. The strategy for testing mobile applications should not be done as an afterthought. Instead, business and IT stakeholders need to plan for the full impact of adopting a mobile strategy upfront and incorporate the strategy into all aspects of their operations.Third, we have talked about several new operating models today such as testing in the cloud and TCOE, but they are not a ‘one size fits all’ approach. Companies must do their due diligence and carefully evaluate the reasons they want to adopt a new operating model and do a thorough cost-benefit analysis. They should establish a clear transformation plan to justify a move. Fourth, we recommend paying closer attention to how you can demonstrate QA’s value to the business. This is not s new theme. As reported in previous years, companies continue to struggle with how to fully measure the value of QA teams in the application lifecycle, which makes it that much harder to justify future investments. Having an established governance process and supporting tools to capture metrics is one way to address this challenge.Lastly, consider the diversity of skills needed to keep your QA function relevant. In light of the rapidly changing models affecting the IT and business world, now more than ever companies and individuals must closely examine their skill set and refresh their capabilities to stay on top of the game. IT and QA must keep up with business needs or risk becoming the broken cog in the wheel that prevents the enterprise from effectively meeting its objectives.
I would like to thank you again for your interest in the World Quality Report, and hope you will enjoy reading about our findings and recommendations in more detail.