Test Automation Market Overview
Test automation refers to the use of special software (which are different from software being tested) for various software testing processes. Apart from this, test automation can automate some repetitive but important tasks in a formalised process, or can even perform additional testing that is hard to perform manually. The rising wave of digital transformation has further pushed the recognition of software testing and quality assurance (QA) across the enterprises, thereby leading to the growth of test automation market, globally.
Test automation software are thoroughly helping wide range of sectors in optimizing software test processes, reducing the task compilation time, and bringing efficiency in business operations. The market has gained huge interest from leading IT organizations in recent years, leading to the growth in investments for the development of latest QA and software testing software. The market demand is also gaining traction due to rapid increase in number of mobile applications in sectors such as multimedia, travel, communication, productivity, and utilities. Apart from this, the growth in global market is also supported by the deployment of various cloud applications across industries in order to reduce effective time-to-market. Further, in order to progress in the test automation industry, major players are looking to integrate several fractured testing offerings under one roof, thereby increasing the market consolidation.
Insights on Test Automation Market Segments
The market is categorized mainly into tool and service. Of the two, the services category accounts for the larger share in the market as compared to that of tool. Service is further bifurcated into professional and managed services. Out of two, managed service had the larger market share in 2016, on the back of high growth in demand for managed services by most organizations. Similarly, the tool category is broadly classified into various test automation tools and types. Among them, functional testing has been a major contributor of revenue to the global market. Functional testing is a form of automated testing that deals with how applications functions. Traditionally, functional testing is implemented by a team of testers, that are independent of the developers.
Test Automation Market Dynamics
Growth Drivers
The global market is driven by factors such as increase in development of mobile applications in various sectors, faster time to market, digital transformation across industries, and rise in expenditure by industry leaders on automating business processes through test automation software solutions. However, a roadblock to the growth of global market include high time frames of testing process and massive initial investments to set up an appropriate testing environment.
The recent rise in digital transformation across industries is one of the prime factors for the growth of test automation industry. Customers of the day, especially the millennials, want their business to be easy, fun, simple, and provide a rich user engaging experience. This is being achieved by complete digital transformation of business by enterprises, globally. Digital transformation has quite very few critical success factors ranging from complex integrations to business performance and reliability, and also bear a higher risk of failure if not implemented with a well-tested system. This has been escalating the demand for test automation from enterprises.
Business leaders across the globe have started to understand, that testing is a vital component of success for any digital transformation project. A well-planned test automation strategy is adding significant value to the organization’s digital testing efforts, thus impacting positively to the company’s end user experience.
Businesses today, are in need to get their products and services rolled out in the global market within a short time frame. Given its increasing popularity, test automation is becoming more comprehensive and more resource incentive. Where a traditional QA cycle consumes anywhere around three to six weeks to execute and compile the outcomes, test automation takes few days. Also, one of the foremost aims to test automation is to increase the test coverage for bugs and several software related issue identification. While applications are becoming more complex and users more digitally adept, the chances of survival for slow and buggy smart applications is nil. Test automation while providing faster time-to-market ensure that outcome of applications reaches the end user in least time and is highly bug free.
Geographical Segmentation of Test Automation Market
Geographically, North America has been contributing highest revenue to the global market. In 2016, the region accounted for over 40% of the revenue share in overall market, and is also expected to continue with largest share, during the forecast period. With rise in maturity of QA and testing sector among enterprises in the region, Europe trails North America in the global revenue contribution. The market in Asia-Pacific is expected to register strong growth between 2017 and 2023. The high growth in the regional market is expected to be backed by rise in investment for test automation software development by regional players, growth in adoption of professional testing resources and tools, and external outsources test automation services.
Test Automation Market Competitive Landscape
Players in the global marketplace are more focused on enhancing their product and service offerings through various strategic developments. To compete with peers, automation providers are indulging in many new product launches, including software platforms and new product versions. For instance, Accenture recently launched a new platform for automated, analytics-driven software testing. The company’s touchless testing platform brings together open source, commercial and Accenture proprietary tools and algorithms to automate a robust, touchless testing process for software, which is all guided by artificial intelligence and advance analytics. Some of the prominent players operating in the global test automation industry are IBM Corporation, Capgemini S.A., Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp, Wipro Ltd., Infosys Ltd, Tata Consultancy Services, Hexaware Technologies, Hewlett-Packard Company, Zensar Technologies, Qasymphony, Inc., SmartBear Inc., and Tricentis GmbH.
