Test Automation Maturity Models: Driving ROI in Mobile-Web and Systems Integration Testing

Abstract

Test automation maturity models are high-level frameworks that allow software development organizations to progressively increase testing capabilities and optimize the return on investment in both mobile-web and systems integration ecosystems. The five-stage developmental model, from the first to optimizing levels, provides organizations with clear guidelines on how to advance automation to the sustainable level and address the acute issue of scaling testing operations in an increasingly complex integrated system. Modern businesses are under increasing pressure to provide high-quality applications on multiple platforms and with fast-tracked release cycles, which requires complex automation solutions that are not limited to simple ad-hoc methods of testing. The maturity model has a clear set of stages, such as initial, managed, defined, measured, and optimizing stages, with particular practices, metrics, and anticipated results clustered around the next stage of capabilities. Companies that increase their maturity levels achieve exponentially higher returns on investment and have a higher quality metric due to strategic automation directly supporting business goals. The self-assessment framework allows effective assessment of existing capabilities and the generation of specific improvement strategies due to multi-dimensional analysis of all capabilities, process maturity, and organizational readiness. Strong positive correlations have been proven in longitudinal data between automation maturity and enhanced testing effectiveness, which support the strategic importance of organized automation evolution to organizations in pursuit of competitive advantages through enhanced testing capabilities.