Testing Transformation is essential for realizing Digital Transformation

Digital technologies, no matter how complex or challenging for businesses to implement, have been accepted as an inevitable facet of modern times. The examples of hovering drones delivering products, virtual assistants like Siri or Alexa answering customer queries, or smart devices like Google Home or Amazon Echo has become commonplace. The advent of new technologies is a testimony to the growing customer expectations of glitch-free products or services. Enterprises, in order to stay competitive and deliver great customer experiences, are embracing digital transformation in a big way. Accordingly, legacy systems are being replaced or upgraded with newer technologies embracing SMAC (Social media, mobility solutions, Analytics, and Cloud).

As customer experience becomes the catalyst for driving enterprises to invest in competitive solutions for sustainable growth, QA assumes significance. To make digital transformation implementation effective on the ground, the software and systems need to be tested rigorously. This is all the more important as digital transformation services touch the most important aspect of people’s lives. Rigorous QA testing helps in identifying glitches in software and makes it fit for customer acceptance. The success of any digital transformation journey is underpinned on the usage of right tools, standards, processes, protocols, and methodologies. When the ultimate objective is to deliver a superior customer experience, then QA should be a part of the digital transformation strategy. In fact, enterprises should look at the quality transformation to realize the impact of digital transformation implementation.

Why quality transformation is required to deliver digital transformation?

Quality, as the most critical attribute of a product, can only be ensured if every process or department in an organization enforces it. It calls for implementing a set of protocols and regulations cutting across departments or processes for every transaction or activity. It is important to realize the DevOps outcomes of Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery of builds. So, how to achieve quality transformation in the first place?

Achieve a speed of testing through test automation: Since the testing of codes should be for multiple channels, the QA teams should use test automation. The automated test suites can run quick tests by leveraging virtual users to achieve DevOps and Agile goals.

Activate the feedback loop: Silo-driven processes can often be the impediments in giving the right feedback about a product. This leads enterprises to identify any fault later in the SDLC and rendering mitigation, time-consuming and costly. However, by incorporating the shift-left approach where the development and QA teams work in tandem, feedback on glitches can be exchanged fast.

Incorporate AI-driven analytics: Artificial Intelligence has come as a shot in the arm for testers and developers. It analyzes past patterns of data to identify the presence of glitches in processes. This helps in speeding up the QA process and ensuring a seamless CI/CD pipeline. Moreover, when the security of applications has become a critical quality requisite, AI-driven analytics can help in creating robust software.

Let us understand with an example as to why testing transformation is essential to realize the benefits of digital transformation solutions:

A retail chain going for digital transformation implementation to deliver great customer experiences can court trouble if the software contains glitches. This can expose the software to security breaches and the loss of sensitive customer data. If not addressed in time, the same can have implications for the retail chain. These may include the loss of customer trust, inviting regulatory censure or penalties, or class suits from clients/customers.

Implementing the right digital testing strategy

To gain a competitive edge in the market and deliver the right customer experiences, enterprises need to tune into the latest trends. These include big data, mobility services, AI-driven analytics, and cloud services, among others. In fact, QA transformation can help enterprises to adopt new and disruptive technologies.

Digital transformation envisions the adoption and integration of disruptive technologies to provide an omnichannel experience to the customers. However, enterprises face a slew of challenges when embracing such technologies. These are mainly related to the integration of both technologies (new and existing), changing the work culture, and training the workforce, among others. This is where QA transformation can help enterprises to take a gradual approach in managing, measuring, and implementing technologies.

Conclusion

To address the diverse needs and challenges concerning digital transformation, the quality testing process should be changed accordingly. It is only by testing the transformation of processes or workflows that the fruits of digital transformation can be obtained. This encompasses the conduct of rigorous testing across the value chain comprising cloud, web portals, devices, browsers, operating systems and networks.

Oliver has been associated with Cigniti Technologies Ltd as an Associate Manager - Content Marketing, with over 10 years of industry experience as a Content Writer in Software Testing & Quality Assurance industry.