How To Measure The Business Value of Test Automation?

From the technical perspective of QAs, investing in test automation is no longer a nice-to-have, but a necessity.

However, the problem arises when they seek alignment with the non-technical stakeholders. To secure leadership buy-in, it is important that you translate the value of test automation into business value.

More than just faster releases, it is also about having lower risk, better customer experience, and a stronger competitive edge.

More importantly, automation testing also brings about intangible benefits that ripple across the entire organization.

Here's why:

The Value of Automation Testing

Key Takeaways:

• Automation testing stops the need for carrying repetitive tests to free you up for more valuable testing activities.
• It opens up the capability of integrating with CI/CD systems, which allows QA teams to provide immediate feedback to the build quality once it is available.
• It also allows QA teams to better manage and analyze the overall testing activities.

1. Speed & quality of testing

Many testers and devs joke that they are ready to spend 10 hours automating a task that would have taken them 10 minutes to do, and yes, there's still some truth to that. A 10-hour investment can cut down the time it takes to do that task from 10 minutes to mere seconds. In the long run, the benefits compound tremendously.

"We’re running at least 100 scenarios per product, per development release with Katalon. When regression testing was manual, we would have only been able to test around 30 scenarios.”

- Steve Johnson, Lead QA Engineer, Saga

Regression testing is a huge time-sink. With every new feature, the test suite grows. Manually running such a large number of tests soon grows to be counter-effective.

We worked with SAGA, a UK-based insurance provider, who used Guidewire to handle their insurance operations. Upon adopting automated regression testing, they drastically sped up the testing process, allowing for higher test coverage.

Repetitive testing is also dull, and it takes a toll on the testers. They may overdo/miss a certain test step, and that tampers with the test result. Meanwhile, a machine performs all test steps in exactly the same manner that no humans can possibly achieve, so the test results are more reliable.

Once the dull, repetitive side of testing is fully automated, QA teams can start to work on the edge cases i.e. test scenarios that are so out-of-the-ordinary and unexpected that they can't just be automated.

2. Streamlined testing

Automation testing is a key enabler for CI/CD integration and shift-left testing, both of which are essential for modern, high-velocity development teams.

With automation in place, QA teams can set up a complete CI/CD pipeline that automatically runs unit, integration, regression, and end-to-end tests whenever code is committed. This creates a consistent, repeatable, and scalable testing process. Developers are also encouraged to write cleaner, more testable code. And when things go wrong, CI/CD pipelines allow for automated rollbacks.

At the same time, CI/CD enables QA teams to shift-left. Instead of waiting for an entire build to be completed before testing begins, QA can start testing as soon as the first software components are available.

Why? Because the earlier a defect is caught, the cheaper and easier it is to fix. A deeply embedded bug that goes unnoticed until production can be costly, both in terms of developer time and business impact.

3. Documentation

Manual testing doesn't produce documentation. The manual tester is the documentation themselves (which means they "record" the test results in their memory). Meanwhile, automation frameworks are usually designed to produce logs and reports that can provide valuable analytical data regarding the failure(s) that occurred in the framework.

You can use the test suite as living documentation for your user journeys. For example, in a dedicated test case management system, you can have a bird-eye view over the test case status, test results, environment, the category of each, and generate comprehensive reports for testing activities.

How To Measure The Business Value of Test Automation?

1. Tangible value

Before we measure, we must understand the baseline:

• Current testing method (manual vs. open-source vs. commercial tools)
• Team location (affects labor cost per hour)
• Team delivery structure (Agile teams may benefit more from CI/CD)
• Team size and release frequency (more releases = more value from automation)
• Testing scope (Web, mobile, API, etc.)

These inputs determine how much time and money your team is currently spending on manual QA efforts and how much you could potentially save.

After that, check the savings in terms of cost, time, and the impact on efficiency:

We have built a ROI test automation calculator here in case you want to have a rough idea of what test automation can bring:

2. Intangible value

Sometimes, what automation testing brings is so much more than just numbers.

• It improves developer and tester morale. They don't have to do mind-numbing repetitive work, but can focus on the more creative side of QA contributions, which directly contributes to job satisfaction.
• Fewer production issues translate into better UX and higher customer retention.
• With a suite of automated test cases ready to go whenever safer pushing code updates, teams feel safer and more confident when release.
• As your product grows, automation keeps QA costs from ballooning. It opens up the scalability ceiling.
• Automation scripts double as a living documentation for business and compliance teams. When a new team member is onboarded, they can just look at the automated tests and know what's happening in the QA processes.

To measure test automation intangible values, develop a questionnaire with Likert scale from 1 to 5 (1 = Strongly Disagree to 5 = Strongly Agree). Here are some question examples:

Morale & Job Satisfaction

1. Automation testing has reduced the amount of repetitive work I need to do.

2. I feel more engaged with my work since automation testing was introduced.

3. Automation allows me to focus on higher-value or more creative tasks.

4. Automation testing contributes to my overall job satisfaction.

Confidence in Releases

5. I feel more confident in the stability of each release thanks to automation tests.

6. Having a reliable automation suite helps reduce the anxiety of pushing code to production.

7. I believe automation testing helps catch issues earlier in the development cycle.

Customer Impact & UX

8. Fewer bugs reach production due to automated testing.

9. I believe automation testing has positively impacted the user experience.

10. Automation contributes to higher customer satisfaction and retention.

These questions allow you to gauge the impact of test automation on your team quantitatively, both before and after adoption.

Conclusion