Driving Efficiency Savings for Businesses with Automated Testing

Many organisations are facing uncertainty in these unstable times. Economic downturn has resulted in numerous challenges, including budget cuts, reduced resources, and project delays. Right now, declining customer spend is a top challenge for over half of UK mid-sized businesses who are subsequently turning their attention to payroll costs (source: bdo.co.uk). 

As a result, many companies are striving for ways to adapt and innovate in order to remain competitive and retain market share and customer loyalty. So how do business leaders drive much-needed efficiencies without sacrificing the quality of their output? 

Automated testing can address this problem by maximising available resources and driving efficiencies without compromising the level of quality and risking market share.  

"I need to make sure my team is efficient otherwise my project risks being scrapped because it’ll cost too much and take too long to deliver." 

At the moment, many businesses are under pressure to find time and cost savings whilst preserving quality and time-to-market delivery. Automation can actually help achieve this in several ways: 

Maximising existing resources:  
Automation allows you to reallocate your team's skills more effectively. Automation can carry out repetitive and time-consuming tasks automatically and accurately, 24/7, without the need for manual intervention. This means your team can concentrate their time and expertise on other tasks that specifically require human judgment and creativity. Effectively you can do more with the same amount of resource. 

Faster feedback loops:  
Automation can accurately detect defects in software and provide rapid feedback, allowing your team to identify issues earlier in the development lifecycle. This results in a reduction of late-stage defects that require extensive time, money, and resources to fix. Early defect detection and resolution directly contribute to efficiency and cost savings. 

"I need to release quality products faster, but I am not sure of the right tools to make it happen." 

Accelerating product releases without compromising quality is a challenge faced by many businesses however, automation offers a viable solution to this problem:  

Rapid test execution:  
Automation can execute test scripts many times faster compared to manual processes, especially when you consider automation offers round-the-clock execution. This speed means teams can complete testing cycles faster, reducing the time it takes to bring quality products to market. 

Continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD):  
Automation seamlessly integrates into CI/CD pipelines, ensuring that tests run in line with the build-out of the product. Testing becomes a seamless and integral part of the development process, rather than an afterthought. As a result, it reduces time between test execution and any required code changes therefore enabling faster and more reliable releases. 

Consistency and repeatability:  
Automated tests execute the same set of test cases consistently, providing reliable and repeatable results, and eliminating the variability associated with manual testing. This ensures that the quality of your products remains high, even as you accelerate your release cycle. 

Test coverage:  
Automation allows you to increase test coverage without a proportional increase in time and resources. Comprehensive test coverage ensures that all critical functionality is thoroughly tested before release, allowing you to speed up development lifecycles without compromising on quality. 

In conclusion, in the face of today's challenging and uncertain landscape, businesses must adapt and find ways to boost productivity and efficiency to remain competitive. With an initial investment of time and money, automation can be an ongoing means of achieving these goals and paving the way towards long-term success. It's a smart investment that will help you do more, with the same amount of resource, and deliver quality products faster than ever before. 

By enabling your team to optimise productivity, drive efficiency and maintain competitiveness, without making sacrifices to the level of quality, your team is empowered to deliver software that meets and exceeds customer expectations, ensuring your business remains at the forefront of your industry.  

If your organisation would like to know more about automation, or assess whether your existing tools are giving you the most return, please reach out to us for a chat. One of our Quality Engineering experts will be happy to discuss your business requirements.