As application development continues to become more important for the bottom lines of many businesses, development teams have looked for new ways to streamline QA management processes. In particular, many have turned to test automation tools as a potential cost-cutting solution, or alternatively, as a way to ultimately deliver a better product that will generate a larger profit margin. In the best-case scenario. these aren't mutually exclusive.
But before test management teams go forth with test automation, and during the early phases of deployment, they should explore the potential return on investment. Here are three places to start when making this calculation:
1. The sum of regression tests and unit tests
Two types of testing that are meant to ensure the overall integrity and functionality of an application are regression tests and unit tests. The former involves making sure that with each change to a solution, nothing that came before it was negatively affected. Unit tests, on the other hand, essentially involve stripping an application down to its smallest parts to ensure that there are no inherent defects. Depending on the complexity of the application being built and the methodology being used – agile versus waterfall – the number of combined test cases for regression testing and unit testing may vary significantly. So the question becomes, how can the sum of regression tests and unit tests help you to gauge the potential ROI of test automation?
The most simplified explanation is this: If there are many regression tests and unit tests, then automation makes sense. For example, in agile development, the time between software iterations is typically very short, which means that regression tests will have to be run more often. Running these tests manually would be repetitive, time-consuming, costly and more prone to inaccuracies. Likewise, a very complex build may require more unit tests. The ability to automate these tests and save them for reuse at a later time can create a more sensible test management strategy. This, in turn, improves the potential for ROI.
2. Time to market
Getting a solution out quickly is invariably a goal of any software development project for several reasons. The more time that an organization spends on a deliverable, the more money it is likely to cost. At the same time, it's not wise to rush a product through development or QA. It doesn't hurt to be first, but if a competitor takes a little bit more time to make a superior solution, they'll probably have the upper hand.
Thus, when we talk about fast time to market, what we really mean is the fastest possible time to market without sacrificing the integrity of a solution. In other words, testers need to ask themselves if the speed afforded by automation will also yield a better product. For instance, if test automation can achieve a necessary set of tasks more quickly than a team of manual testers could, the extra time can either be factored as a reduction in operating expense, or as an opportunity to spend the time saved on making the deliverable better.
3. Defect tracking metrics
If your team has reached a point where it is confident in test automation's ability to boost ROI, the next step is ensuring that it actually will. A test management tool with real-time tracking makes it easy for QA teams to do this. More specifically, the ability to trace the total number of defects, and how quickly they have been addressed, provides affirmation that test automation is expediting the process of catching and remedying problems.
It's therefore important that QA teams leverage a test management tool with an intuitive testing dashboard. With readily available software testing metrics and a fluid reporting system, developers can more accurately assess the value of their test management strategy, and better understand automation's role in it. An added benefit of these tracking abilities is the potential to create an inherently more collaborative environment for quality assurance process, according to TechTarget contributor Gerie Owen. Collaboration is the cornerstone of agile testing methodologies, so if the goal is to become more agile, test tracking can lend a hand – in addition, of course, to gauging the value of test automation.
By factoring in the above metrics and measures, testers can determine if automation integration is for them, and more accurately calculate ROI.