Organisations are in a never-ending race to save time and deliver innovative products, fast – putting pressure on testing teams to shift left and provide feedback earlier. Achieving high-quality results isn’t perceived a small feat and many believe that to do so – something must be compromised upon: either the scope of the project or the speed at which it is accomplished. In fact, a recent survey revealed that over 30% of testers will test more than they need to ensure quality. That’s very time-consuming and counterproductive. Which is why organisations today need a test management solution to ensure that test managers no longer need to second guess the quality of new code.

Why traditional testing tools are no longer making the cut

As the IT industry is changing, so are testing needs. To succeed, testing professionals must use the right combination of people, processes and tools – and traditional tools no longer apply to the new rules of software delivery.

With traditional test management tools designed for generic software testing, a gap remains in meeting the needs of packaged application testing – those large applications at the heart of enterprise organisations. In addition, designed for technical users, these tools fail to address the needs of casual testers making it difficult to engage business users and functional analysts – especially when it comes to UAT cycles. With teams dispersed across the globe and time zones, for those still using Excel, the whole process becomes increasingly difficult to manage, especially as more users are involved in the test cycles.

Another key test execution challenge is manual testing. While many organisations invest heavily in automation, manual testing still represents 80% of packaged application testing. Manual testing remains inefficient, creating bottlenecks and causing business disruption in dispersed enterprises while automation is expensive, requires specific skillset, and is limited by business complexities. There needs to be a middle ground.

Finally, test managers lack visibility and control over their test cycles – and as a result, test managers are reactive to the testing process, running after stakeholders thirsty for status updates, as opposed to proactively managing the process in an organised manner.

If this all sounds too familiar, watch the webinar “Next Generation Test Management for the Agile Enterprise” for best practices on how to overcome the challenges of traditional testing tools, followed by the solutions to overcoming them – including a demo.