Things aren’t like they used to be, are they? It feels like the last 5-10 years have been especially full of turmoil across the globe. Geopolitical tensions, a pandemic, a new war in Europe, and myriad factors have all made the world trickier for organizations to navigate. Through all these upheavals, though, it’s been clear that agility is the key to an organization’s survival and to thriving in unpredictable times. If yours can’t adapt quickly to a new situation, it will lose ground to others that can – and the margins for error here have never been slimmer.
For many organizations, a major step on their path to becoming more agile is to embrace cloud services in their operations. Moving key applications to the cloud gives your organization more flexibility and scalability both in terms of costs and operations, and allows employees to work more efficiently in a connected environment that gives them all the information they need, when they need it. So, should something happen in your supply chain, with your customers, or with your organization, your people can act quickly to keep services running and keep customers happy.
With that in mind, how would you feel if I told you that there’s a process you may not even have thought about recently, which can kill all that stone dead? Right now?
Why does UAT impact agility?
UAT, or user acceptance testing, is arguably the most vital part of the testing process. It ensures that your business can continue to operate with a new or updated piece of software. Without it, businesses have been known to grind to a halt as they release an update that accidentally breaks the business – costing millions in lost revenue and even ending up in lawsuits from shareholders.
It’s important stuff, is what we’re saying.
But here’s the thing. Moving applications to the cloud means that the volume of updates you need to test grows rapidly. Instead of taking one or two updates a year – or none at all – you may find yourself with quarterly or even monthly updates that all need testing before they go live. If those updates can’t be tested quickly and properly, then the risk of your organization working on outdated software or releasing updates that kill your business grows rapidly.
Unfortunately, the risk of that happening is larger than it should be – because most UAT processes aren’t built to handle the volume of updates that organizations have to test.
How can I improve my UAT processes?
To keep your dream of cloud-powered agility alive, you need to redesign your UAT processes to handle large amounts of updates quickly, effectively, and without taking up too much of your business users’ time. Priorities should be:
- Removing the risk of missing tests or feedback by automating the administration of tests and the giving of feedback
- Reducing the time your business users spend on UAT by supporting them to complete tests quickly and accurately
- Linking your UAT process into your bug-fixing process so that you can see everything in one end-to-end solution
Look at how testers provide proof of testing and issue evidence. The recording of evidence is usually a tedious manual process of taking screenshots and pasting them into a document. Automating this process greatly speeds the issue reporting process and has the additional benefit of providing test evidence for all tests, which is great when you have auditors and compliance officers to satisfy.
The more of these things you can manage, the smoother and faster your UAT testing cycles will become. It will be easier for you to create and administer new tests, and to see feedback through from triage to completion. You’ll use less of your business users’ time, and updates will be ready to release to the organization faster – helping you keep your agility plans on the rails.
To keep your dream of cloud-powered agility alive, you need to redesign your UAT processes to handle large amounts of updates quickly
Where do I start?
At Original Software, we’ve been helping large organizations to get their UAT into a better place for years. Our solution is built to be everything that traditional UAT processes are not. It gives IT complete control over their testing cycles, takes care of gathering and standardizing feedback, and tracks everything through from test administration to bug fixing.
As a result, we’ve slashed testing times for our clients, helping them get updates into production faster and helping them keep their organization able to respond to whatever the world brings us next.
To learn more about how our UAT solution can help you find a bit of calm among the turmoil of today’s world, visit our landing page.
