How to Justify Test Automation Spend to Your Boss

Introduction

*Note: this is an excerpt from an E-Book available on Opkey's website.

If you’re reading this, you probably understand that test automation would benefit your organization. But does your boss? ERP ecosystems are expensive, and spending even more on test automation may not be immediately appealing to your higher-ups. Trust us–we get it.?

That’s why we’ve gathered extensive feedback from our 250+ clients and created a guide on how to justify test automation to your key decision makers. It includes 4 key points to drive home, and 3 real-world automation success stories. We’ve presented this guide as a checklist, with each key point supported by facts to ensure you get the budget you’re after.?

Let’s dive in.

Key Point I: Test automation provides robust ROI.??

1. Test automation reduces costs by an average of 70-80% when compared to manual testing. Why? One reason is that manual testing processes–like test creation and execution– that used to take hours, can now be completed in minutes, cutting down labor costs drastically. Despite the initial expense, automated testing is more affordable in the long term because test scripts can be reused indefinitely at no extra expense.?
2. Test automation brings increased productivity. Automated tests can run 24/7 and do not require breaks or sleep like manual testers do. Because these tests can run repeatedly on their own, software developers, QAs, and business users can spend less time on testing and more time on business-critical tasks.?
3. Automated testing scales with your business. Is your company growing? Great. Your testing program should too. Manual testing processes do not streamline repetitive tests; as time goes on, the cost of testing your applications simply rises with the amount of labor needed to continue to maintain those tests. Automated testing, on the other hand, is scalable. Once you’ve created a test script, you can reuse it endlessly for no additional cost.
4. Test automation helps ensure that expensive mistakes don’t happen. Given the frequency of Cloud-based ERP updates, the consequences of the changes pushed, and the short time frame to test, manual testing is risky because it doesn’t guarantee enough test coverage. Another way of saying this is that it’s nearly impossible to manually test every single business process thoroughly.?
5. Faster testing enables faster delivery. Accelerating testing leads to shorter software development cycles, more frequent releases, and a quicker time-to-market. Testing is typically considered the biggest bottleneck to software development. Automated testing decreases testing time, therefore removing bottlenecks. This quick delivery empowers you to make the most of your applications.?
6. Test automation prevents expensive downtime and breakage events. Gartner recently reported that the average cost of system downtime is $5,600/minute, or $300,000 per hour. Just one instance of downtime can be devastating. Test automation helps ensure your organization doesn’t experience downtime.??

Healthcare provider Cottage Health? reported an annual test cost savings of $1.1 million when they switched to Opkey.

[To read more, download the E-Book here.]