The industry should brace itself for more outages like the CrowdStrike drama three weeks ago.
That is the stark warning from Kevin Thompson, the chief executive officer of global software testing firm Tricentis.
Thompson said that it is increasingly difficult for any organization to maintain the speed required to keep up with the pace of technological advancement while thoroughly testing more frequent and complex deployments.
The pressure to do this means that organisations must accurately assess risk to determine where to focus their testing efforts.
“So in today’s dynamic business environment, we will undoubtedly see more instances of code releases leading to outages and financial impact,” Thompson wrote in a recent analysis.
Also, any company will have to review their testing and deployment strategies more often to ensure that they align with current customer needs and risk profile.
“The pace of change in the world is rapidly accelerating. Technology companies must prioritize speed to market to stay ahead of this curve, but speed can sometimes come at the expense of risk,” Thompson stated.
“We will undoubtedly see more instances of code releases leading to outages and financial impact.”
– Kevin Thompson
Thompson called the recent CrowdStrike incident “a sobering reminder” that even the largest and most capable organisations are not immune to errors that can lead to significant downstream impacts.
“Move fast and break things” might be a catchy business motto but in reality, rapid innovation without sufficient risk assessment and quality intelligence is a dangerous proposition, he noted.
So for Thompson the key question is, “how fast can you safely go?”
Change is on its way
As technology rapidly evolves the pace at which QA players operate is only going to increase, Thompson anticipates.
“Likewise, the industry will continue to develop new apps and solutions in response to market needs, and as these are integrated across the numerous and varied enterprise IT landscapes, systems complexity will exponentially increase,” he said.
Under pressure to do more with less in this ever-changing environment, it’s difficult for any organisation to keep up with the changes while remaining error-free, he continued.
“Mistakes will happen, but every organisation should take this moment to re-examine their quality assurance strategies, particularly their change validation processes, and adopt more sophisticated testing methodologies where necessary,” Thompson stressed.
“Mistakes will happen, but every organisation should take this moment to re-examine their quality assurance strategies.”
– Kevin Thompson
Thompson emphasized the importance of a mature quality assurance strategy, singling out user needs, different environments, websites and apps standing up to higher loads and risks to the infrastructure or supply chain are crucial considerations in that respect.
“By scrutinizing infrastructure and where applications integrate, you can mitigate risk from external sources, ensuring that your entire ecosystem operates smoothly and securely,” he said.
Also, whether no-code or low-code solutions are used, or AI-generated coding, is an important consideration.
“These practices allow development teams to deliver updates and new capabilities faster than ever before,” Thompson continued.
“The increased pace puts pressure on QA teams, creating an innovation bottleneck where QA is the last team standing in the way of increased revenue or increased user adoption.”
Finally, where to test is vital.
“It can be difficult to understand where to test, particularly when resource limitations don’t allow for extensive testing,” he concluded.
UPCOMING QA FINANCIAL EVENTS
READ MORE
- Kobiton launches new capabilities for mobile testing
- ECB names new digital chief as QA climbs the priority ladder
- Maveric eyes IPO amid major US growth plans
- Exclusive: ‘AI productivity means more risk,’ warns Tricentis ML head
- QualityKiosk wins major testing deal with Dubai’s largest bank
Become a QA Financial subscriber – for FREE
News and interviews * Receive our weekly newsletter * Get priority invitations to our Forum events
