Capgemini’s 2017-2018 World Quality Report is out and as expected, it’s full of insights and predictions about the present state and future of software testing. Many of the WQR’s insights come from a survey of 1,660 quality and testing executives across 32 countries. We recognize that you may not have time to read all 76 pages, so we’ve summarized the main points below. You can download the full report on Capgemini’s website. What you need to know Quality is king: Achieving product quality was rated “very important” by more respondents than any other category. 41% of respondents said product quality was a top testing concern. In the past, user satisfaction and detecting defects before release were rated very important by a greater percentage of respondents. Bug detection and user satisfaction are arguably tied to achieving quality, but it’s clearly on developers’ minds. Automation testing is on the rise — and getting smarter: The average level of automation for test activities remains low at 16%, but the WQR suggests the value of automation will increase when its exposed to cognitive technologies like machine learning. Between 38% and 42% of teams said tools like predictive analysis and machine learning would be promising techniques for the future of QA. As automation gets smarter, teams will be able to release even faster without sacrificing quality to secure business outcomes. Testing in agile environments is still tough: A whopping 99% of WQR respondents said they face some kind of challenge with testing in an agile environment. Of these challenges, lack of data and testing environments was the chief concern. Difficulty in repeating tests across agile sprints came in as the second most reported concern. While automation is poised to alleviate some of these concerns, teams will likely continue working around agile testing hurdles. Testing budgets have flatlined, but are expected to rise: Most teams are spending about 26% of their IT budgets on quality and testing. That’s a hair above the 25% benchmark that’s become standard, but testing budgets are expected to grow to 32% of overall IT spend by 2020. Analysts predict the Internet of Things will drive QA budget growth over the next few years. Growth in QA budgets also points to the rise of quality as developers’ top concern during testing. These points are just a sliver of what’s laid out in the full World Quality Report. It’s clear trends like automation are not only here to stay, but have the potential to dramatically change how QA gets done and magnify its impact. Interested in learning more about automated testing? Contact us today.