Automation ROI
Return on Investment and other Benefits when implementing Automated Test Solutions
Many companies are hesitant to move from a manual test based QA process to an automated one, primarily because they perceive it will slow down the existing testing process, or cost too much to change.
The truth is that provided a good strategy and plan is in place with the right-fit tools and process decided, automation means faster testing, higher quality, reusability, and within a few months a more cost effective solution which pays dividends for future developments and upgrades. Everytime a project chooses to test manually the proverbial wheel is often reinvented whereas with test automation a growing library of tests is built which can be used across platforms, systems and multiple layers of system architecture (which manual testing often doesn’t reach).
ROI for a Real-life Upgrade Programme:
The graph below shows a real life example of the cost of testing for a 2 year upgrade project, for a complex real-time, safety-critical system. For this project the Orange line shows the total running cost of Manual Testing which was built and executed for each monthly release (including regression testing). The Green line shows our estimated total running cost if Automated Testing had been the chosen strategy from the start. The Purple columns show the running total cost difference between the two.
During the first month Automation is more expensive but by the second month/release it’s already less expensive as it takes less time to execute for each subsequent iteration. This compounds over time and in our example the final cost of Automation represents 50% of the total cost of Manual testing.
Other benefits of automation include:
Provides a repeatable library of scripts which can be run automatically for future upgrades and code that can be reused for new or updated application features.
Regression testing can be executed quickly for every release so defects and technical debt doesn’t build up.