Let’s face it: everyone knows that test automation offers considerable benefits, including increased coverage, accuracy, and speed. But it all comes at a cost: the price of ramp up—which covers tool licenses, hiring test automation engineers, and other related expenses. As IT budgets tighten, is test automation the key to doing more with less, or just another costly boondoggle?
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It seems like everywhere you look nowadays, budgets are getting tighter and CIOs and CTOs are looking for more and more creative solutions to promote efficiency and effectiveness throughout their organizations. |
If I were to make a list of the all-time most-overused corporate platitudes, “doing more with less” would probably rank #3—right behind “leverage” and “synergy”.
Alas, phrases don’t get overused if they don’t make sense. And there are few phrases that sum up the modern IT department better than “doing more with less”. It seems like everywhere you look nowadays, budgets are getting tighter and CIOs and CTOs are looking for more and more creative solutions to promote efficiency and effectiveness throughout their organizations.
At the same time, though, this also means that new initiatives are being met with a healthy level of skepticism to make sure they can truly deliver the value they’re promising. After all, no one wants to invest in a budget-busting—and credibility-killing—boondoggle.
And when it comes to QA/software testing departments, few solutions are considered more than test automation.
Essentially, test automation occupies both halves of this “doing more with less” mindset. On one hand, you have a testing solution that potentially enables you to save tens of thousands of costly SME and tester hours, as well as lessening reworks and increasing testing coverage. But it doesn’t exactly come cheap—involving tool licenses, time-consuming ramp-up time, and process changes just to get started—nor is it an easy solution to implement.
So is it a godsend or a boondoggle? Well, that likely depends on two things: the size of your organization and your commitment to its success.
Provided you have a large software testing need, the former shouldn’t be a problem at all. We even have a handy ROI calculator that can measure how good of a fit you’d be, but suffice it to say: if you’re only looking to automate a couple test cases, automation isn’t going to be a good call.
But just having enough of a testing need isn’t enough to guarantee success. Test automation requires complete buy-in from everyone on staff: going all the way from the folks on the frontlines to the boardroom elite. If you don’t have that, you’re just going to waste your money. The rewards (and ROI) are great, but you need a coordinated effort from everyone involved to truly reap them. That means your automation engineers, third-party consultants, SMEs, testers, developers, business leaders, and upper management all need to have a clear understanding of your plan and short/long-term goals—especially with how they fit into it.
If you can confidently say your organization satisfies both of those conditions, then you won’t have any problems. Simple as that. Unfortunately, those conditions aren’t the easiest to speak with absolute authority on. So instead of taking a shot in the dark, why don’t you reach out to us instead? While we do offer comprehensive test automation services, we’re also expert consultants that love helping people find their footing—even if it just means dispensing some free advice.
After all, is there really a better way to do more with less than by having someone like us do the hard work for you?
Cheers,
Mike Hodge
Lighthouse Technologies, Inc.
Software Testing | Quality Assurance Consulting | Oracle EBS Consulting
