Have you ever wondered how expensive software testing is? Even if it is outsourced, it is an expensive and time intensive activity. It involves myriads of tasks such as: test planning, test case writing, execution, defect tracking, fixing and triage etc. Hence, just as most other expensive and time consuming business processes, it is very important to know the ROI of testing and the ways in which it could be enhanced. It is something that needs to be constantly monitored, measured and managed.

What’s the cost of quality then? It can manifest in a lot of ways such as: increased customer support expense, unexpected costs due to a patch release, loss of revenue, loss of customers to competitors, tarnished brand image and so on. Hence, we see the importance of taking care of its repercussions. One of the most sure shot ways to improve productivity and ROI is to practice automation. Although manual testing has a role to play, it just isn’t fast enough for today’s large, complex and multi-platform systems. This is where automated comes in. Yet again, automation too has its cost associated with it. It’s not a silver bullet and cannot achieve high quality software by itself. However, an effective test strategy constituting a mix of manual and automated testing along with thoughtful investment can reap tremendous benefits thereby maximizing the ROI quotient.

But are all costs (for ROI) due to automation? The answer is an emphatic NO! If an issue is introduced in the Design phase, it could take 2x the time in coding phase to fix it as it would have taken in Design phase and 74x to fix it after deployment. It is not the case always that automation necessarily enables earlier discovery of bugs; if it can the ROI increases manifold. Now having maneuvered through its effects and causes lets look at how one can possibly maximize the ROI. The simplest formula is to minimize investments (costs) by accelerating returns (maximize efficiency) in order to achieve maximum returns (benefits).

So, what’s the downside if any of test automation ROI? It may ignore some non-quantifiable benefits and it might become questionable for long term returns. And above all, there’s no ROI in analyzing the ROI of everything. ROI is more of a collection of parameters that elevates the confidence of CIOs and helps an organization stay focused and profitable in its ventures. From our own experience at QA InfoTech, we realize the importance of continually innovating and finding out ways to improve the testing infrastructure, quality of resources, automation frameworks etc. that have direct or indirect effect on the returns. At this juncture, I am very tempted to tell you more about our company-wide automation drive but I guess I should resist it for now and take it up in the next post … Can’t wait! Till then try calculating your ROI on testing and share with us!

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