Why is QA Transformation essential for successful Digital Transformation?

A recent report by ResearchAndMarkets on ‘Global Airline Digital Transformation Programmes, 2017’, mentions that ‘A growing number of airlines are investing in modern IT systems and partnering with global technology integrators and niche solution suppliers.’ Enterprises across industry domains and sizes are realizing the benefits of Digital Transformation for enhanced customer experience and sustained growth.

The report further states, ‘It is estimated that the incremental value of a digital transformation program could reach up to $5-$10 per passenger annually, mainly generated from improved productivity, cost savings, and new ancillary revenue streams.’

It is intriguing!

Digital Transformation is touching the most intrinsic aspects of human lives, and it is critical to ensure software quality to develop a market-ready product. Software Quality is considered as a catalyst for growth and sustainability in the current market scenario. A practical approach to Software QA testing helps in doing away with bad software and paves way for transformation in the most effective way.

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Quality Transformation brings into perspective the traditional role of QA and redefines the QA role by posing the challenges as well as best practices.

Customer expectations and customer satisfaction parameters are bound to dominate Digital Transformation and drive Quality Transformation. Every customer touch point will drive organizations and brands to make their software robust and identify the problems that might eventually lead to issues. For instance, global brands such as Google, Amazon, Apple, etc. bring their inspiration from customer feedback and expectations. An iPhone is tested and evaluated rigorously to not just ensure quality, but also take it to the next level and connect uniquely with the user.

A latest news report by Appleinsider speaks about Apple hiring ex-NASA engineers to test Apple’s self-driving car software. Similarly, Smart Machines and Artificial Intelligence (AI) involves integration of various Digital Technologies, intensifying the need for QA transformation. Today, machines/devices are expected to self-start and self-operate on the basis of inputs from the environment. In the case of Apple, the software is being tested for factors such as maintaining in-lane speeds of a minimum 65 miles per hour, automatically change lanes, and perform similar basic driving functions.

Digital spends are expected to double up by 2020, as enterprises and businesses across sectors gear up for the market challenges and opportunities. The need for Digital Transformation is intensifying and will spur on the need for Quality Transformation.

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Quality Assurance and Transformation play a crucial role in the Digital Transformation journey. It helps to identify the right tools, processes, standards, and methodologies to ensure that customer experience is key for sustainable growth. Today, enterprises, irrespective of their industry domains, are expected to stay well-informed about the latest technologies and at the same time ensure superior customer experience.

Securing your Application in the Digital Transformation Era

There are subtle as well as definite chances that Digital Transformation can expose applications to all possible bugs and vulnerabilities. QA Transformation sets processes and methodologies that can bring continuous improvement and continuous integration. It enables more collaboration amongst teams, boosting the need to deliver in cohesion. So, quality and testing becomes a shared responsibility.

Security of business applications is a challenge that has been a rising concern for enterprises and businesses today. It is important to ensure that the business-critical applications that gather customer-sensitive data are secure and not prone to risks. Building a comprehensive quality assurance plan can enable enterprises to identify the risks and create an application/software that rebounds even during crisis situations.

For instance, just imagine security breach of a retail Point of Sale (PoS) system due to a technical glitch. The quantum of sensitive customer data and information exposed will be humungous. This can cost a great deal not only for the customers, but also for the retail chain at large. It will lead to loss of market share to the competition and diminished credibility in the commercial circle.

This is the very reason today organizations are excessively investing in digital transformation with required quality assurance strategies that are expected to play a critical role in the overall business growth and sustenance.

QA Transformation to build the right experience

Digital Technologies are required to build the right experience for the consumers and gain competitive edge in the marketplace. Emerging trends and technologies such as Big Data, Cloud services, and Mobility services are defining the Digital Transformation journey. All these efforts can be futile if appropriate digital assurance and quality metrics are not tuned in with the required context.

Practically, Digital Transformation will directly as well as indirectly drive Quality Transformation. The simplest example is ensuring compatibility of the applications across devices and browsers for seamless customer experience in a real-time user environment. For this very reason, QA/testing teams are leveraging test automation tools for repeated tests across devices and operating systems.

In this case transformation will be when the enterprise decides to adopt Automation as a strategy for the entire system and implements it across levels.

QA Transformation boosts adoption of New and Disruptive Technologies

Digital Transformation implies that there will be integration of new-age technologies essential for building smart devices and make IoT work for enterprises in the best possible way. Enterprises can face numerous challenges while adopting the digital change, namely, integration with the existing technology platform, adoption of the new technology within the work culture, training and development requirements, and more.

QA Transformation builds a gradual approach to measure, manage, and integrate processes to deliver financial and timely benefits on a consistent basis. For instance, organizations have built Testing Center of Excellence (TCoE) to adopt robust processes and make the Test Transformation process result-oriented. It further enables various teams to build quality metrics and assessment models to measure the impact of the newly adopted technology on the overall transformation process.

To sum up

At Sea Asia 2017, Asia’s largest maritime and offshore conference and exhibition, there were discussions around the fading lines between shipping, e-commerce and logistics, and the need to change mind-sets around Digital Transformation and connectivity. Interestingly, during the conference Khaw Boon Wan, Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure, suggested that ‘Changing mindsets is vital to cope with digital transformation in maritime sector’.

Though it was mentioned with reference to the Maritime sector, this holds absolutely true across any sector. Digital Transformation can be implemented seamlessly with required QA Transformation strategy, but the real transformation has to take place with the mind-set of the people working within an enterprise or a sector.

Is Digital Transformation on your corporate agenda?

Cigniti’s Digital Assurance & Testing solutions address the diverse needs of digital transformation testing. We enable Digital Transformation for enterprises by conducting comprehensive testing across your digital value chain – digital marketing, web portals, web content, digital assets, and web analytics. It also includes the entire digital ecosystem – Cloud, Mobility, Big Data, and connected devices. At Cigniti, we understand the value that QA Transformation brings for large-medium-small enterprises in the Digital Transformation process.