Our latest report finds that 75% of US IT leaders can’t test business-critical updates as fast as they arrive
Original Software is pleased to announce the release of The Enterprise Software Testing Gap, new research into how US enterprises are keeping up with the pace of software change.
We surveyed 500 senior IT decision-makers across finance, insurance, pharma, food and beverage, manufacturing, distribution, supply chain, retail and fashion. The headline finding is that 75% say updates to their business-critical systems are arriving faster than they can effectively test them.
Cloud has changed the rules of testing
Business-critical software used to update on your schedule. When it was hosted on-premises, IT teams had far more control, and major releases were planned months ahead. Now updates arrive far more often, largely on the vendor’s timetable, whether that works for the business or not.
The research shows what that means in practice:
- 92% say cloud adoption has increased the amount of testing they need to do, and 54% report a significant increase
- 59% say it is becoming harder to identify issues before they affect business operations
Complexity is a big part of the problem. Critical processes now run across multiple applications and integrations, so a change in one system can cause a problem somewhere else entirely.
“Enterprise software has changed enormously, but the way many organizations test their software hasn’t changed at the same pace. You cannot keep adding testing workload without changing how it is handled. Core business processes can run across ERP, warehouse, payment, finance and customer systems. A seemingly minor change in one application can have consequences somewhere completely different.”
Carl Andrews, CEO, Original Software
Manual testing is still the default
Despite the extra pressure, many teams are coping the way they always have. 36% still rely largely on manual testing using spreadsheets, documents or email, and only 6% have highly automated testing across most of their systems.
That leaves a confidence gap. Just 48% of IT leaders are fully confident their current approach would catch critical issues before they hit the business, and a failed update can quickly become a business continuity problem.
A vendor can test its software, but not your business
The report also challenges a common assumption: that if a vendor has tested a release, it will work as expected in your environment. Every enterprise has its own configurations, customizations, integrations and data flows, and those need to be validated too.
“A vendor can test its software, but it cannot test your business. It doesn’t have your exact configurations, integrations, data or end-to-end processes. I’m not saying the answer is to slow down software updates. The answer is that IT leaders need to change how they are currently approaching testing so that they can keep pace and not leave the business, and themselves, exposed. That means planning earlier, automating repeatable processes and treating testing as part of business continuity rather than simply another stage of an IT project.”
Carl Andrews, CEO, Original Software
Automate what repeats, and keep your people where they matter
Automation has an important role to play. By recording tests around core business processes, teams can build up reusable libraries of repeatable tests to run whenever an application changes. Business users no longer have to repeat the same validation with every update, and can focus on new processes, exceptions and exploratory testing.
That doesn’t mean handing everything over to AI.
“Business users understand how these processes work and remain essential to testing. The opportunity is to stop asking them to manually repeat the same tests every time an update arrives. Start with the processes the business cannot afford to have fail and progressively automate the repeatable testing around them. As software change accelerates, testing needs to become a strategic capability for resilience.”
Carl Andrews, CEO, Original Software
Software change isn’t slowing down, so the way you test it has to change to keep pace, and that means less risk for the business and more confidence in every release.
Find out how exposed your business really is
Get the full findings on why testing confidence is falling behind the pace of change, and what that means for business continuity across US enterprises.
