Automated IT testing is coming, but manufacturers are lagging

95% of UK companies recognise the importance of formally testing IT systems, against 59% in 2000, but alarmingly few do it. Manufacturing businesses are worst, with 76% claiming they’re aware but far, far fewer running automated testing. Of the majority with ERP systems, for example, 32% had done no formal testing at all and only 19% were doing automated testing. These are top level findings of a survey of IT directors by market researcher Benchmark, sponsored by IT testing firm Mercury Interactive. The survey explored attitudes towards corporate IT networks and infrastructure performance and testing, and concludes that investments in applications like e-business, CRM (customer relationship management) and ERP, plus the increased need now to measure ROI (return on investment), have heighten awareness, but done little more yet. It finds most companies still, at best, still in the early stages of adopting formal testing and performance management. 81% overall were aware of the benefits, but only 19% regularly test the performance of business critical applications. 34% admitted that they only tested applications when there was already a serious problem that was visibly hampering performance. Of those systems that are being tested, financial applications (81%), client-server systems (51%), and e-business applications (49%) are highest on the list. But of businesses testing their applications, only 28% overall were using automated software to support their enterprise and web applications. 77% said their business critical systems were still only tested manually. Of those aware of the benefits of automated testing, 48% said that the ability to speed up implementation was most important, followed by reduced cost (39%) and reduced risk (37%). The survey also shows that more than 50% of companies devote less than 5% of their IT budget to testing, tuning and application performance management. It is a surprisingly poor picture given the business critical nature of ERP systems, for example, in manufacturing. “Many major businesses in the UK still appear to be taking a ‘fingers-crossed’ approach to ensuring the reliability and performance of their business critical applications,” says Fiona Tutton, UK marketing director, Mercury Interactive. “This is somewhat surprising when you consider that a major system failure or web site crash can make headline news and have a serious impact on a company’s bottom-line.” But she professes herself encouraged by the change in attitude from two years ago. “The present economy means there is even greater pressure on IT departments to squeeze incremental performance gains from the existing infrastructure and ensure that it properly supports the business processes.” Her advice: rather then spend more on extra hardware for uncertain performance gains that may be short lived or never even realised, go for testing, tuning and performance management. “We have already started to see evidence of testing and quality assurance becoming a more strategic part of many businesses IT strategy,” she says.