seven proven strategies for digital testing success

Transcription

1 seven proven strategies for digital testing success

2 table of contents 03 Digital consumers infographics 04 Testing in the digital age 06 Conclusion 07 About amdocs 2

3 the world is becoming increasingly more networked and interconnected By 2020, more than 5.7 billion people around the globe are projected to be using mobile phones, changing the rules of engagement for companies in nearly every tor of the economy. Businesses strive to offer more tailored and personalized services and to engage customers into a dialog through social media, turning passive consumers into members of their online social circle. Today s consumers are more demanding, expecting performance, responsiveness, convenience, intuitive functionality, and personalized user experience. The newly emerged Generation C a digital multi-age tribe of connected, creative and collaborative individuals who feel completely at home with digital technology are setting new standards for quality, speed and convenience. Performance has a direct impact on the bottom line: A single ond delay can lead to 11% fewer page views, which translates into 16% decrease in customer satisfaction and 7% loss in conversion 1 Sites than load within 5 onds double their mobile ad revenue 5 Consumers don t hesitate to switch providers or delete an app if the level of performance doesn t meet their expectations: 58% of consumers expect a smartphone app to load in under 2 onds 2 86% will delete an app from their smartphone because of performance problems 53% of visits are abandoned if a mobile site takes more than 3 onds to load 3 Mobile users are 5X more likely to abandon their task if the site is not optimized for mobile 90% of users report stopping using an app due to poor performance 52% say that poor mobile experience makes then less likely to engage with a company Sources: Mediashift, Experience Dynamics, DoubleClick 3

4 testing in the digital age Modern-age digital testing bears little resemblance to conventional testing practices of the past. To successfully adapt to digital realities, testers need to expand the scope of their testing and quality activities and build a portfolio of testing strategies that can support business growth. Amdocs Testing Services has helped hundreds of leading global service providers build and execute their digital testing strategies. Below, we share some of the key elements of what it means to be a successful tester in the connected age and which elements must be considered when building a testing policy for the future. 1. Institute a digital testing strategy Mobile, social, IoT, cloud and analytics are the biggest factors that impact business opportunities and revenue growth. Yet, many companies still don t have a tangible plan on how to modernize their testing approach to adapt to the new digital realities. Like all changes, a shift in testing strategy is a continuous process that requires involvement of all key stakeholders in the organization. While there s no prescription for a one-size-fits-all digital testing transformation, it is essential to: First, recognize the need for change and the main driving factors (e.g. accelerate time-to-market) Synch testing priorities with the business needs; agree on acceptable timeframes and levels of risk Additional topics, such as testing tools, types of testing, automation, specialized testing resources, and augmenting in-house testing with outsourcing are discussed in more detail in subsequent tions. These factors should be considered as part of your digital testing strategy, and adjusted as you advance along the journey of remaking your testing strategy for the digital age. 2. Focus on quality engineering by implementing DevOps The goal of DevOps is to deliver better applications by building an integrated framework for managing quality throughout the entire application lifecycle from engineering quality into the application design, to ongoing monitoring and analytics of application performance in production. Companies are adopting DevOps strategies to address growing business demands and make their delivery processes more nimble and agile. Productive cross-functional collaboration in a DevOps setting begins with defining quality and performance requirements and obtaining consensus from the key stakeholders on the essential Service Level Agreements (SLAs). How many users is the application expected to support? What are the most business critical transactions and business processes? What are the acceptable response times on mobile, desktop or other devices? Based on these any other essential questions, QA, business, and engineering need to decide on how the application should be built to achieve these SLAs. To ensure that problems are detected early, before they become costly production defects, QA needs to continuously test the application functionality, urity and performance throughout the lifecycle and collaborate with teams in both pre- and post-production on ongoing testing and monitoring strategies and metrics. 3. Find the right amount of test coverage How much to test and which platforms to focus on has always been a difficult question for the QA team. Finding the right balance between speed and coverage has become even more difficult in the digital age, with its ever-growing number of platforms, operating systems, screen resolutions, browsers, and interconnected applications and services. The key to determining the optimal amount of coverage is in looking beyond testing tools and metrics, and working closely with the lines of business and the end-users to identify the most critical business processes, common range of use, platforms, devices, connection speeds and other factors that will help determine which areas of an application need to be exercised to minimize the risk of failure. 4. Invest in solutions that support digital technologies A new generation of digital testing software and platforms is now available to support quality processes for any size organization. While many of the traditional automation tools and test repositories may still get the job done, consider implementing solutions that are tailormade for digital technologies and testing techniques. 4

5 Service Virtualization solutions to test applications built on distributed service architecture Network (physical and virtual) testing tools to validate multiple interconnected layers application, orchestration, virtualized functions, and the underlying infrastructure Among the most game-changing QA tools for the digital age are: Monitoring, diagnostics and analytics tools for monitoring application quality and performance in production and proactively identifying potential problems before they impact the end-user Specialized mobile testing tools to validate application performance, functionality and urity on a wide array of mobile devices User experience testing tools for validating usability and accessibility for all type of potential application users. These are just some examples of the many innovative testing solutions available today to facilitate any type of digital testing. Decisions such as which tools to select, whether to implement them on on-premises or as a service (SaaS), on a cloud or in the testing lab, etc. are all part of a long-term digital testing strategy. 5. The future of test automation is now Test automation is advancing in ways that have never been seen before. Once an exclusive domain of UI-based record/replay techniques, automation has now evolved to include scriptless tools and even AI and Machine Learningdriven robots. The new generation of testing tools and bots can integrate themselves into the application and record and replay tests without any human intervention, acquiring information and learning new tasks along the way. While test bots are still considered an emerging technique, it undoubtedly is going to revolutionize the way QA teams approach test automation - and it s likely to happen very soon. Self-aware, self-learning machines that can effortlessly analyze and utilize enormous amounts of data are capable of testing faster and smarter than human testers. An investment in these intelligent solutions today is going to help dramatically cut costs and improve quality in the very near future. 6. Evaluate existing skillsets and recruit/retrain as needed The role of a software tester has undergone an incredible transformation, and new approaches to testing demand that testers develop new specialized skills, especially as organizations transition to agile and DevOps models. Familiarity with test environment and test data management, knowledge of analytics tools, test automation expertise and a good understanding of TDD, BDD and other contemporary delivery and testing practices are among the most relevant skills for today s software testing professionals. A thorough assessment of existing skills, skill gap analysis and remediation/ augmentation plan should all be elements of any QA group s digital transformation strategy. Of course, you still can t discount the importance of the so-called soft skills, including aptitude for strong communication, ability to think analytically, work well as part of a crossfunctional team and just generally being a fast learner and quick thinker. But these skills alone may not be enough to help a company take the leap from traditional testing practices into the domain of digital testing. QA is a demanding and fast-paced discipline, and it requires specialized skills that test managers can either hire or develop in-house or augment with a help of a trusted 3rd party service provider. 5

6 7. Find the right balance between in-house and outsourcing, onshore and offshore The decision to outsource application testing has never been driven exclusively by cost savings it s about finding the right balance between cost and quality outcomes, consistency and continuity, open communication and standardized quality processes and metrics throughout the organization. The popularity of agile and DevOps methods have further complicated the process of outsourcing quality, requiring QA and development to stay close together and collaborate on an ongoing basis. Still, finding the right outsourcing partner can help with more than just cost cutting or labor and skillset augmentation. A trusted provider can bring to the table a unique perspective, specialized industry expertise, proven toolsets and accelerators, access to test labs and device pools, knowledge and frameworks, and many other benefits that can help not only solve your current testing needs, but also define and implement a solid digital testing strategy for your organization going forward. in conclusion A modern approach to quality requires a balanced portfolio of testing approaches to ensure consistent customer satisfaction with every aspect of application functionality, performance, scalability and urity, as well as continuous monitoring to predict outages and anticipate problems that can have a damaging affect on a company s brand. Amdocs Testing Services has a proven track record in all key aspects of Digital Testing and has helped many leading Communications Service Providers modernize their testing portfolios, facilitate DevOps and Agile transition, accelerate time to market and achieve higher levels of application quality and reliability. Amdocs Testing brings a unique set of methodologies, a portfolio of services tailored specifically to service providers, partnerships with the most innovative tool vendors and a team of experienced testing professionals to help address the quality needs of any size organization. Click here to learn more about Amdocs Digital Testing and how our solutions help deliver successful business outcomes for our customers. 6

7 about amdocs Amdocs is a leading software & services provider to the world s most successful communications and media companies. As our customers reinvent themselves, we enable their digital and network transformation through innovative solutions, delivery expertise and intelligent operations. Amdocs and its 25,000 employees serve customers in over 85 countries. Listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market, Amdocs had revenue of $3.7 billion in fiscal Amdocs. All rights reserved.