In every organization the business teams are the primary users of the application systems. It’s not surprising when they are called upon to test it during new implementations, version upgrades, customizations, or software patching. The business team is expected to develop test cases, scenarios, scripts and gather relevant test data. Once this testing framework is in place, they are assigned the task of completing end-to-end testing of the critical business processes.
However, shifting testing onto the business team ends up costing businesses more than they think.
Tested applications give businesses the confidence to build innovative products or services and ship them faster – knowing that their SaaS application systems will support their critical business processes each time.
Every organization wants high test coverage for their SaaS application systems; coverage that is wide and deep. The coverage also needs to be stable, reliable, and fast. Tested applications give businesses the confidence to build innovative products or services and ship faster – knowing that their SaaS application systems will support their critical business processes each time.
There are two myths that organizations who rely on business teams to test their SaaS application systems believe before turning to neuralg8’s automated testing services:
- Belief that since the business teams are the primary users of the SaaS applications they will detect and report every bug and issues.
- No one knows the test scenarios better than the team that uses the applications every day.
In fact, they end up with reduced productivity, monetary loss, and a decline in their competitive edge.
These myths end up disrupting operational flow of the business. The business team is too busy meeting their operational goals to focus on testing. The result is low quality testing and unacceptable speed. In addition, the business pays with reduced productivity, monetary loss, and a decline in their competitive edge.
Let’s look why this happens:
Reduced Productivity:
Typically, the business team will spend 35% to 40% of their time developing and maintaining test cases and scenarios and gathering data to cover these cases and scenarios. Writing a one-off test case, writing scripts, and gathering relevant test data is easy. The real challenge is maintaining these test cases, scenarios, and data for each monthly or quarterly test cycle when SaaS application vendors push down new versions and updates.
In our experience a seasoned full-time business team employee can maintain and complete 10 to 15 end-to-end test scenarios effectively, each test cycle without any adverse impact to their primary job performance. However, the test cycle of a major SaaS application system with multiple modules would have over 700 scenarios to adequately cover the end-to-end business processes. Therefore, organizations often engage between 20 to 25 business team members to complete end-to-end testing of various business processes.
This is time that the business team is not innovating, selling, or enhancing customer experience.
When the business teams are responsible for testing SaaS applications, they lose 100 to 110 workdays a quarter (approximately 440 workdays a year), working on testing all modules of the SaaS application system. This is time that the business team is not innovating, selling, or enhancing customer experience.
There is even a repeated drain on the business team as they wait for bugs or issues to be reported to the SaaS application vendor and then retest end-to-end process when fixes or workarounds have been implemented.
Monetary Loss:
Maintaining test coverage of the SaaS application systems costs an organizations hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. In practice, test cycles get stretched out and test coverage is reduced exposing the organization to business continuity risks. Many organizations don’t consider the economics of these business continuity risks however the cost of ineffective SaaS application testing adds up.
With average annual salaries for business, technology, and management in the range of $80,000 to $100,000, it could end up costing an organization over $200,000 annually.
Human capital is probably the single largest cost in most organizations. With average annual salaries for business, technology, and management in the range of $80,000 to $100,000, it could end up costing an organization over $200,000 annually, while diverting business teams from their most essential work.
That’s an investment which does not offer any returns to the business.
Decline in competitive edge:
When an organization’s business team members spend a significant amount of time on end-to-end testing of SaaS application systems, they become less effective at their primary function. They spend less time working on product innovations, sales strategies or enhancing customer experience.
This could be the most significant loss of all.
Reduced productivity has a direct impact on a business’s market share and revenue. This could be the most significant loss of all.
Managed Automated SaaS Testing
Good news: there’s a better way. Automated SaaS testing as a managed service increases testing coverage by over 80%. It improves business productivity so an organization can focus on their primary business functions confidently.
We have a robust framework of libraries (test cases, scenarios, and scripts) and tools that can be customized to our client’s dataset.
Our managed automated testing solution is built on leading process automation technologies. We have a robust framework of libraries (test cases, scenarios, and scripts) and tools that can be customized to our client’s applications and dataset. We also have dashboards to view test results by processes, scenario, or business function. They can drill down to data field level to view results and error or success screenshots. In addition, our team of automation experts are always there to help.
Schedule a Call for a demonstration. Experience how Managed Automated Testing will change the way you test applications.