Quality Engineering has a role to play in sustainable IT

The 14th edition of the World Quality Report, published today by Capgemini, Sogeti, and Micro Focus, examines the key trends and developments in Quality Engineering and Testing (QE&T) and highlights sustainable IT and Value Stream Management as new interest areas for quality teams. According to the report, there is also significant optimism around the future impact of emerging technology such as blockchain, the metaverse, and other Web 3.0 applications.

Sustainability was one of the new areas explored by this year’s edition of the report. Research revealed that while the role of quality within sustainable IT is still evolving, 72% of organizations think that QE&T could contribute to the environmental aspect of sustainable IT. Respondents are also optimistic about the benefits of green engineering as part of their sustainable IT strategies, with 47% of respondents citing improved brand value ranking as the most important benefit, followed closely by improved customer loyalty (46%).

The report also finds that organizations are increasingly looking at Quality Engineering and Testing (QE&T) to support the deployment and success of new technologies such as blockchain and Web 3.0 and to address associated business challenges in the fields of customer experience, time to market, security, and cost. To ensure seamless experiences for end-users, new technology needs to be tested in a different way than before, with a different approach and types of testing and quality validation.

Also, 96% of respondents believe they would face medium or high risks of cyber-attacks without a quality strategy in place for emerging technologies. As the pace of technological change is exponential, importance of adapting cybersecurity strategies to counter the risk of cyber-attacks also emerged in the research.

Quality assurance function is accelerating its transformation to quality engineering practices

While awareness is growing on how quality strategy can offset various risks associated with deploying new technology, the quality assurance function is transforming at speed from pure testing to actual quality engineering practices. For example, 88% of respondents agreed they were at medium to high risk of losing market share to a competitor and 90% agreed that they face risk of increased costs for the deployment of new technology solutions without a QE&T strategy.

Focus on data continues to grow

There is unanimous agreement (89%) that robust data validation capabilities can improve decision making, efficiency, and improve bottom line profits. Test Data Management (TDM) is an integral part of the software testing lifecycle, however, only 20% of respondents have a fully implemented enterprise-wide test data provisioning strategy. Many organizations have serious challenges with the implementation of an effective data validation strategy; 42% see implementing data validation as a time-consuming exercise, while 47% of respondents said that having multiple complex databases itself acts as a challenge.

More integration across business teams needed to realize the potential of Agile

There is a growing recognition of Agile development and digital transformation as key enablers of further IT investment: To accompany the fast DevOps transformation, there is a recognition that integrating QE&T at every stage of product development is critical to leveraging the full potential of this function.

The research found that organizations are reporting significant improvements by adopting Agile development: 64% of respondents cited on-time delivery as the biggest improvement. Reduced cost of quality was another key improvement (62%), followed closely by improved customer experience (61%).

However, organizations continue to struggle to implement Agile development across packaged applications and enterprise systems due to the complex practicalities involved in breaking down Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) workflows and end-to-end business practices into a single backlog.

Mark Buenen, Global Leader, Quality Engineering and Testing at Capgemini Group, commented, “Recent years have seen unprecedented acceleration for digital platforms and an overall modernization of applications. At the same time, supply chain challenges, cyber security threats, and the ongoing skills shortage mean the landscape for enterprises has never been more complex. In turn, investment in robust quality assurance and engineering are the foundation of an organization’s ability to remain flexible, responsive, and adaptable. By looking deeper, we can see that this vital function can have a tangible impact on broader business performance, including profitability and even sustainability”.

“The World Quality Report provides great insight into the current state and the future of IT, with an in-depth look at how emerging technologies are changing the quality needs and practices of organizations,” said Rohit de Souza, Senior Vice President, General Manager - ITOM Product Group & ADM Product Group, Leader of the CTO office and Product Security, Micro Focus. “This year’s findings detail the fact that Quality Engineering and Testing is taking into account that change is continuous, and organizations must be flexible, adaptable and responsive to meet this challenge while reaching optimal business performance. At the same time, organizations are also focusing of generating value for customers and end users.”