Applications teams are under tremendous pressure to deliver value to the business faster. Doing so requires taking a new approach to software testing. Intelligent Testing as a Service (ITaaS) can improve the quality of an organization’s applications, save time and money, and provide greater flexibility and control.
This approach is intelligent because it automates testing with tools that are embedded with advanced AI and machine learning. As a service, ITaaS uses well-defined consumable services that can be scaled up or down based on business needs. You consume — and pay for — only as much service as you need, when you need it.
Unlike other Testing as a Service offerings, ITaaS features outcome- and deliverables-based pricing, which makes it easier to manage with less risk. Organizations can benefit from measurable results and impactful solutions, and don’t need to rely solely on labor-intensive efforts.
Embracing ITaaS is not just a technology investment; it is a strategic move that elevates testing practices, streamlines operations, and ultimately propels businesses forward in today's fast-paced and competitive digital landscape. The intelligent approach empowers testing teams to focus on high-value activities, driving innovation and delivering superior outcomes.
The trouble with traditional testing
If you’ve been involved with application testing recently, you know why a new approach is urgently needed. Conventional testing is inconsistent, costly and slow. Let’s look at each factor separately:
- Conventional testing is inconsistent because it is often done manually. Things get missed. And that can lead to poor-quality applications with too many defects leaking into production. That leads to poor user experience, which can lead to lost customers and lost revenue.
- Conventional testing is costly, representing an estimated 15-20% or more of the application development and modernization budget. In an era of tight budgets, that’s a hefty price to pay.
- Conventional testing is slow, because it relies on reactive testing methods. Defects are found late in the development process, when they are more costly to fix. This also slows down the application team. That slows time to market, putting the business at a serious competitive disadvantage.
The automation equation
Intelligent testing overcomes many of these challenges by using automation.
Automation is consistent. Automated tests don’t get bored or tired. Assuming they’re programmed properly, they don’t make mistakes performing the same actions over and over.
Automation is efficient, saving time. The latest with self-healing capabilities improve that efficiency.
Automation software is flexible and can adapt to new features, playing a crucial role in enabling continuous integration and continuous testing. With automation integrated into the development pipeline, tests can be executed automatically whenever new code is committed. This ensures that defects are identified and resolved in a timely manner, facilitating faster feedback and shorter development cycles. Ultimately, this leads to faster time-to-market, improved software quality, and enhanced customer satisfaction, while lowering overall testing costs.
Automation comes in several flavors, not just automated functional and regressions testing. For instance, performance testing offers the benefits of scale. Performance testing can recreate transactions, and then instead of testing them on only one user — as traditional testing does — it can mimic the behaviors of hundreds, thousands or even millions of users to help ensure the system meets performance expectations.
Another flavor, security test automation, can help find security defects in your applications, including identifying known vulnerabilities in any open source dependencies that are used. This helps to better protect your customers and your business.
At your service
ITaaS makes the features described more easily accessible through the as-a-service model, where pricing is based on output — that is, deliverables. Traditional approaches throw human labor at the problem and then charge accordingly. Not ITaaS.
Intelligent testing also offers an easier way to interact and glean better insights — for instance, through a customer portal and dashboard with advanced analytics. This helps your quality engineering efforts move faster and get better results.
How DXC can help
To get started with ITaaS, it helps to have a partner with experience.
DXC Technology has been working with intelligent testing for a decade. That makes us one of the market’s pioneers. Today we help clients create testing road maps, build and maintain automated testing scripts, manage test data and deliver a catalog of outcome-based testing consumables.
Our clients enjoy a long list of benefits. These include faster, more accurate testing. Improved software quality and performance. Shorter release cycles. Lower costs. Better customer experience. And enhanced business results.
Learn more about DXC Testing & Digital Assurance.