Despite widespread interest in increasing testing automation, it remains a challenge for organizations, according to new research commissioned by Keysight Technologies.
Three-quarters of those surveyed said that their business relies on a combination of automated and manual testing, with only 11% reporting that they have a “fully automated” test strategy.
The report is based on an online survey of more than 400 test operations decision-makers in North America and the Asia-Pacific and EMEA regions, conducted in December 2021 by Forrester.
“We learned in the study that companies feel pressure to do more test automation, especially when asked about the future. Manual or partially automated strategies simply can’t keep up with the needs of organizations today, and without AI-powered automation, they will struggle to conquer testing complexities,” said Jeff Harris, VP of portfolio and global marketing at Keysight Technologies. “Additionally, we expect the Covid pandemic to accelerate adoption of remote development, automated test sequencing. We also expect a much higher use of digital twins as development teams strive to continue working together but from different locations.” Harris added that Keysight is taking these trends into account across its portfolio development.
Keysight concluded that “enterprises recognize that manual and partially automated testing strategies cannot keep pace with the increasing complexity of products” —when testing takes longer, product development and production timelines stall. Seventy-five percent of respondents said that the number of tests has increased and 67% reported that the length of time to test is up. Companies also reported business impacts such as higher risks of security breaches as a result of longer test times and higher expenses, along with slower time to market. That is pushing companies to plan for more automation. Keysight’s survey found that 45% of respondents will consider using a fully automated approach in the next three years, which reflects 409% growth.
There is lost utility along with lost time, the company points out in the report. Companies collect huge amounts of data as part of technology development, but then it’s stored in functional data silos that result in “artificial barriers to making holistic, agile design processes” as well as unable to be integrated into DevOps or testing use.
Survey respondents reported high hopes for increased use of automation and artificial intelligence, including increased productivity and improved ability to simulate product function and performance as well as to fix bugs.
