Decoding Digital Assurance: Your Pivot to Seamless Digital Success 

Why do some Digital Transformations fail? It's due to a combination of reasons and one major aspect that acts as a success bottleneck is the lack of holistic testing. It is here Digital Assurance comes in and ushers in the much-needed quality uptick to your digital transformation initiatives.

The computing industry has seen many inflection points, boom, bubble and bust cycles, recessions and so many events in the last few decades. And the trends keep changing. There was a time when companies were keen on pushing their products and solutions to their customers. Enterprises used IT systems and power systems like AS400, PDP 11, Burroughs, and Tandem to automate their business processes and manual work to increase productivity and efficiency. The trend continued very much even after the dot-com boom.

In the 21st century, however, things have turned upside down. The market has become exceptionally competitive and flooded with numerous choices for customers. Today, customers have gained a new voice through the proliferation of social media. They can exercise unprecedented pressure on the enterprise to demand specific products to meet their needs, wants, and aspirations. As countless technologies emerge, the many old ones are getting consigned to oblivion. Aspects like integration are becoming more complex with continuous demand for change. Overall, living in a world of digital disruption is touching and impacting IT-Business-Customer ecosystems constantly.

Quality Assurance has evolved and moved towards Digital assurance

Digital transformation has undoubtedly compelled traditional quality assurance models to evolve to assure product quality with a 360-degree view of customer satisfaction and enhanced Interaction-experience. A rapid change in the market and volatile customer demand and taste are continuously pounding pressures to the enterprise digital transformation. And the whole scenario is compelling to move away from the traditional software development life cycle and do something different. The demand is for rapid product delivery with enhanced customer experience and satisfaction. Hence delivering an excellent product is a daunting challenge. Like any other field, Quality Assurance has evolved and moved towards Digital assurance. To stay viable and significant in the market, enterprises must show agility, accept changes – technology, business, feedback, UX, and bounce back fast with a perfect product.

Going Digital and making it Work

In the past, most CEOs were not concerned about digital business, but today the scenario is entirely different. Most organizations are working hard to transform their IT and business through various digital initiatives. A survey reveals that 56% of CEOs acknowledged that their profits increase because of various digital initiatives. Almost 47% of the Board of Directors have asked their CEOs to transform business digitally. COVID-19 came from nowhere and all of a sudden gave a thrust to the digital transformation. It was evident that digital is the only means to stay relevant in the situation of a lockdown. 77% of CEOs acknowledged that the digital transformation plan has sped up because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But digital transformation is incomplete without appropriate assurance towards quality. Digital business demands much other verification and validation than just functional business requirements. Digital Assurance means a robust process ensuring the complete Digital IT landscape that works smoothly and serves end customers seamlessly. In addition to the routine testing, i.e., functional, performance, security testing, etc. Digital transformation demands Digital Assurance taking care of the user experience, consistent experience across IT platforms, emotionally connect, and quick tests in less time Speed-to-market, costs, and superior customer experience are paramount in digital business.

The customers may switch loyalties if the product fails to provide a superior experience. Hence along with testers and developers, Digital business is pushing operations to focus on the user experience. The exceptional customer experience epitomizes the company brand. Therefore “Superior customer experience” is the top priority of the leadership.  

Models up close 

The industry has experienced the Waterfall Model, RAD Model, Spiral Model, V-Model, and the latest trend such as test-driven development, Agile, and DevOps. What model of SDLC could be appropriate in digital transformation? No doubt, an integrated approach is required so that all stakeholders of SDLC establish a digital trust and work together as a trusted supply chain.

Market demands agility and fast delivery and hence, there's no scope for long testing queues. A mix of Agile and DevOps could be the right choice, and fundamentally both compliments each other. Either it’s an Agile or DevOps or a combination of both, Continuous Testing “CT” must be at the core of SDLC. Let’s understand the practical reality, or let’s call it a real challenge. Enterprises claim that they have transformed from traditional SDLC to DevOps, but a consistent story emerges “Testing can’t speed up.”

Testing must keep pace with taking core development work. The fundamental reason is that Digital Assurance means – repeat test execution multiple times on multiple platforms – various devices, browsers, OS, IoT, etc. Continuous testing requires a new test strategy that mixes the right skill people, the right tools-technologies, cloud platforms, intelligent test automation, and the essential agility to respond fast.

Digital assurance is a strong twist in the conventional testing strategy that demands enhanced Interaction-experience in all facets of the business landscape. In a minor development cycle, test execution must be Rapid. Regular code integration mandates repeated and comprehensive testing of the entire IT landscape rapidly. With more code integration or changes, the system's becoming complex and vast, and completing test execution faster seems challenging.

Hence Continuous testing through “smart test automation” is the way forward to test instantly and repeatedly. Digital transformation is a journey and not an end. Hence testing demands will keep on increasing. In the Digital journey, Continuous Testing is a business imperative. And must be considered as a reality in enterprises as an integral part of DevOps.

All it takes is a successful Digital Assurance strategy

In the Digital transformation journey, new technologies are bound to emerge, customers' needs, wants, aspirations will also keep on changing. Customer loyalties keep changing too. Numerous best practices, frameworks, free-paid tools are available, and almost all are good by their means. But there is no universal vanilla flavor that fits for all enterprises to test the digital landscape. Digital Assurance requires a decent investment that requires prudent planning to reap the actual benefits. Each enterprise business, technology, processes, people, etc., are distinctive. Hence the digital assurance approach must be custom. CT - Continuous testing is a way forward in digital business testing, which is an integral part of DevOps. A successful Digital Assurance strategy arrives at a bit of cost, but it brings a great benefit and significant cost savings in the long run.

The article is authored by Sanjeev Singh, Head- Testing, Nihilent