Title: World Quality Report Emphasizes the Growing Significance of Quality Engineering and AI in Business Operations
Introduction:
The 15th edition of the World Quality Report, jointly published by Capgemini, Sogeti, and OpenText, highlights the rising importance of Quality Engineering (QE) in enhancing sustainability in business operations and delivering value to customers and end users. According to the report, an increasing number of organizations (67%) have made QE a core component of their business operations to ensure adherence to quality standards amidst technological advancements.
Quality Engineering in the Face of Evolving Challenges:
The report emphasizes that with rising customer expectations, interoperability demands, regulations, evolving guidelines, and cybersecurity risks, testing now requires a more rigorous and agile approach than ever before. Additionally, the trend of hyper-personalization has further added to the complexity, requiring exhaustive testing. To address these challenges, Quality Assurance (QA) is evolving into a broader concept of Quality Engineering (QE), which prioritizes value delivery and enables enhanced customer experiences, brand protection, and business outcomes. This shift necessitates a focus on the end-to-end customer journey and collaboration with business teams.
The Role of AI in Quality Engineering:
The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is on the rise in Quality Engineering, with organizations recognizing its potential to drive productivity and deliver high-quality customer experiences. The report reveals that, for the first time, organizations cite higher productivity (65%) as the primary outcome achieved through AI implementation. Generative AI is expected to increase productivity and velocity, enabling more frequent deployments while maintaining a superior quality customer experience.
Shifting Testing Philosophies:
Interestingly, respondents reported that improving the reliability of tests (33%) and reducing the number of defects (29%) were no longer their primary focus when utilizing AI. This signals a shift in testing philosophy, where organizations demonstrate an increased tolerance for defects as long as they can be swiftly fixed. Continuous testing, an integral aspect of Agile and DevOps practices, has accelerated this trend.
Addressing Concerns Amidst the Rise of AI:
While the use of AI in Quality Engineering shows promising results, concerns regarding security, privacy, and biased outcomes still need to be addressed. Approximately 31% of respondents express skepticism about the value of AI in Quality Assurance, highlighting the importance of adopting an incremental approach to ensure AI’s long-term reliability within Quality Engineering.
The Significance of Quality Engineering in Sustainable IT:
The report also reveals the growing interest in sustainable IT among quality teams, with 97% considering Quality Engineering as an active element in driving the sustainability agenda within their organizations. Over half of the respondents (55%) have recognized the environmental benefits of implementing sustainable IT.
Agile Quality Management Takes Center Stage:
To keep pace with the swiftly changing digital landscape, 70% of organizations prioritize a centralized Testing Center of Excellence (TCoE) over traditional project level QA practices. This transition signifies an increasing focus on Agile quality management, which emphasizes continuous improvement, adaptability, and customer-centricity.
Conclusion:
As organizations navigate the evolving technological landscape and rising customer expectations, the World Quality Report emphasizes the rising importance of Quality Engineering and the integration of AI. While AI demonstrates potential for driving productivity and enhancing customer experiences, caution should be exercised to address concerns surrounding security, privacy, and biased outcomes. The report highlights the need for organizations to adopt an incremental approach and prioritize the end-to-end customer journey to deliver value and maintain quality standards. Furthermore, it emphasizes the active role of Quality Engineering in driving sustainability in IT and urges organizations to embrace Agile quality management for continuous improvement.
