Test automation

But automating end-to-end functional tests is complex. Viktoria Praschl, VP Sales Central Europe at Tricentis, explains the obstacles that need to be overcome along the way. Most companies today use DevOps processes and agile development methods with usually at least daily builds. Testing, on the other hand, is still done manually for the most part and thus slows down rapid software deployment again. This is because conventional testing cycles usually take weeks and can no longer keep up with the ever shorter release frequencies that digitization brings with it. Here are the five biggest challenges that companies face:

1. Time and resources: Teams often underestimate the effort that sustainable test automation entails.
   
2. Complexity: Business-critical transactions typically traverse many different technologies, for example, mobile devices, APIs, SAP, and mainframes.
   
3. Trust: Test results form the basis for "go/no-go" decisions. Therefore, it is important that they can be trusted.
   
4. Stakeholder Alignment: Continuous testing is about giving the right feedback to the right stakeholders at the right time. This can mean different things to different people and cannot be measured in metrics like number of tests.
   
5. Enterprise-wide implementation: Most often, companies start test automation projects with their highest performing teams. These are the ones most likely to get excited about innovation and find it easier to tackle new challenges. This is a good start, but it needs to continue.