Digital quality is integral to the development and rollout of new services. Yet managers and development teams alike often underestimate the value of quality assurance (QA). As a result, many of the checks and balances required to deliver high-quality digital experiences are overlooked, putting companies at risk of losing customers and harming their reputations.
Rob Mason, the CTO of Applause, believes the situation could reach boiling point in 2025 as businesses race to release new apps and features, placing more pressure on under-resourced QA teams. His predictions below offer caution and advice to organisations that want to ensure digital quality across the software development lifecycle.
- The quantity of substandard software releases will increase: In recent years, companies’ main strategy for staying ahead of the competition has been twofold: invest in developing new features and be the first to release them to market. Novelty and speed were prioritized above all else. Requirements like usability, accessibility, payments and localization took a backseat. And this has simply resulted in superficially shiny products that don’t actually deliver value to users. QA teams now face a pressure cooker. They are being allocated fewer and fewer resources to test digital experiences that are getting more and more complex. Unless QA teams are given the time and space to influence decision-making, we will see this situation reach a boiling point next year as companies start to register its impact on customer retention, revenue and reputation.
- Complexities of Gen AI testing will heap more pressure on QA: Gen AI has brought new challenges for QA teams. Unlike traditional software, Gen AI’s non-deterministic outcomes have introduced a new level of uncertainty into testing that is new territory for QA professionals across the board. It’s a steep learning curve, yet many teams have not received retraining support. Add onto this the potential reputational damage that inaccurate, biased and toxic responses could cause companies, and QA teams suddenly find themselves under new levels of pressure. In 2025, QA will be integral to Gen AI’s success. Inaccuracies, hallucinations and biased content continue to plague LLMs and serious slip-ups could lead to media headaches or even legal action on top of user churn. Proper training and testing are the foundation of high-quality Gen AI products, making embedding QA into the earliest stages of product development critical to business success in 2025.
- Businesses risk losing overworked and undervalued QA professionals: QA teams, at companies that don’t appreciate the role quality assurance plays in business success can find themselves in a catch-22 situation. Insist on ensuring products meet the highest quality guidelines and they risk not meeting the demands of the business. Neglect quality or even just do the bare minimum and they could face the blame when customers complain about bugs and poor user experiences. On top of this, QA teams today tend to be understaffed, face dwindling budgets and may be struggling to adapt to new technologies like Gen AI. If companies want to retain and attract top QA talent in 2025, they need to take action. Most importantly, they need to involve their QA staff earlier on in the development process to ensure their concerns and advice are heard from the start. The most mature businesses recognize the strategic role QA plays in defining product roadmaps and appreciate that quality is the new frontier in winning and retaining customers.
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