The Pillars of an Effective Continuous Testing Maturity Model

Depending on where you team is in their level of continuous testing mastery, your goals may vary considerably. Whether you are just taking baby steps as you implement it or are taking leaps and bounds with your testing strategy's complexity, establishing a continuous testing maturity model to determine your overall progress is an excellent tool for success. 

By establishing a continuous testing maturity model and identifying your team’s place within it, it accounts for the ever-changing landscape of the testing industry, device, browser and OS releases, and internal factors that you may have to account for. 

This blog will explain what testing maturity is, the pillars of an effective continuous testing maturity model, and how Perfecto can be your partner in testing excellence no matter where you are in your journey. 

What is Testing Maturity?

Testing maturity identifies where in the testing process steps and methods can be improved upon. It is an indicator of how the testing is designed, measured, managed, monitored, and how the results are yielded.  

The benefit of using a testing maturity model is to continuously refine and improve upon your team’s testing strategy to get the best out application you possibly can. Without it self-evaluation, you run the risk of your testing methods becoming stagnant and archaic, which will negatively impact the quality of your app. 

Just as the integrity of your testing is important for the quality of your app, so too is the structure of your testing maturity model important to the quality of your testing. Which brings us to setting up and establishing your model based on a few key pillars. 

Related Reading:What is Continuous Testing? 

The 5 Pillars of a Continuous Testing Maturity Model

Think of your testing maturity model as a two-phased approach — the Capability Phase and the Assessment Phase. We will discuss the Assessment Phase later, so for now let us focus and break down the five key components of the Capability Phase. As the name suggests, the goals will vary depending on which level of capability your testing is at. 

Pillar 1: Initial

This entry level pillar is to make sure the software runs successfully. This is the bare bones testing strategy, which lacks experienced testers, testing tools, and necessary resources. There are no testing landmarks or processes established. Does the software work? Yes? Ship it — no QA checks are done prior. 

Pillar 2: Defined

The next step to take to testing maturity is to establish debugging goals and policies. This means separating and delineating testing and debugging to be conducted with intention. Testing should be done after coding to determine if the software is meeting specifications laid out at the outset of the project. 

Pillar 3: Integrated

This phase will see testing integrated into the software development lifecycle (SDLC). Tests become more organized, and objectives are determined based on priority. Testing is now considered an essential aspect of software development. 

Pillar 4: Management & Measurement

How do you know your tests are effective and doing what they are supposed to? Implementing key measurements and quantifications of what a successful test looks like is the next step in your testing maturity model. Reviews at each stage of the development process are treated as tests. Regression testing becomes incorporated to collect and record in a database for reference. Bugs are identified, logged, and given security levels based on severity. 

Pillar 5: Optimization

Now is the time to determine how well your testing process is managed and defined. You should be tracking not only test effectiveness but also how it impacts your budget. QA and defection prevention (as opposed to detection) are now used. The team now has tools to support testing metrics, as well as test design and defect gathering. 

Like any process, it is important to always refine and optimize. There will always be areas for improvement; no testing strategy is perfect or bulletproof. Go back and review every step of your newly defined testing process and apply more resources — whether it be more testers, more rigorous application of tools, or increased spend — if possible. 

Improvements may not even require monetary support; perhaps you can identify areas where resources are being allocated where they maybe shouldn’t be or vice versa. 

The entire purpose of a continuous testing maturity model is to achieve progress through continual refinement and to always be vigilant in test process improvement. You cannot hope to improve your methods — and, as a result, the quality of your application — by standing still. 

Related Reading:ROI of Quality: Making a Business Case for Modern Testing 

Bottom Line

It does not matter where you are on the path to testing excellence; even the largest and most well-funded teams need to get in the habit of self-evaluation. You either optimize and improve, or you get left in the dust. 

That is why Perfecto makes for the perfect (pun intended) partner for your testing journey. Our ability to scale along with you as you grow — to provide the number of tests and devices you need — are unparalleled. And whether you are new to testing or a seasoned expert, you will always need help in one form or another. Perfecto’s support system is always on and always available 24/7. 

Perfecto will fit into your testing maturity model like a glove. And with a slew of awards won and more than half of Fortune 500 companies as customers, testing excellence follows wherever Perfecto goes. 

Do not just take our word for it — give us a try with our 14-day free trial! 

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