Continuous Automation Testing: Now More Essential Than Ever
The testing services market is significant and over four times larger than the market for testing products. Our estimation puts it at over $23 billion, showing growth from $21 billion in 2019, with a conservative annual growth rate of 2.5%. Over 69% of organizations are still on a transformation journey trying to effectively leverage Agile, but also DevOps and Continuous delivery. These transformation efforts were the primary ignition for introducing continuous testing. Key market dynamics today put GenAI as the top disruptor for testing. Coder TuringBots, software agents with AI and Gen AI capabilities that generate code in milliseconds, give testing the highest responsibility it has ever had for keeping software and code quality high. With GenAI we must test more, this has a huge impact on testing services.
Key Market Dynamics
What are Continuous Automation and Testing Services?
In the Continuous Automation And Testing (CAT) Services Landscape, Q4 2023, we define CAT services as People, process, and technology testing services deliver quality at speed by coaching, advising, and executing all testing services in an agile and DevOps context continuously, automatically, and smartly. CAT services are provisioned to clients in parallel or in an integrated fashion, while ideating, planning, building, integrating, delivering, and deploying features into production.
Of the 42 CAT services providers in the CAT landscape, only the top 15 will be evaluated in the upcoming Forrester CAT services Wave™, Forrester’s flagship vendor comparison methodology. Technology executives, Development and Software Testing leaders, should use the Continuous Automation And Testing Services Landscape, to understand the value they can expect from a CAT services provider, learn how providers differ, and investigate options based on size and market focus. All of the vendors in the landscape analyzed are capable of delivering core business scenarios for testing: modernizing your testing capabilities, custom application testing, AI infused application testing, Packaged/SaaS application functional testing, end to end automation testing.
Not all testing services companies can address the following extended business scenarios: Visual testing, cloud migration testing, testing of RPA/LowCode/noCode applications, crowd source field testing, IoT and embedded application testing.
Navigate and Choose The Right Testing Services Provider
Modern application development leaders implement CAT services to deliver business applications faster, better applications with higher quality, and more applications for growing business demand. The CAT services market has evolved significantly over the past decade. It has transitioned from manual testing to automated services, with AI and genAI playing a crucial role. Providers are increasingly converging with development services, offering a holistic approach to application development and testing. The infusion of AI and genAI in testing has transformed the market, optimizing test cases, reducing mean time to repair, and improving the overall test process.
With so many providers in the market, it’s important to choose the right one based on your specific needs. In the Forrester report we provide valuable insights into notable providers in the CAT services landscape and outline which of the top business scenarios that CAT services providers address.
If you’re ready to take your application development and testing to the next level, it’s time to explore the world of CAT services. Download the full Forrester report to create your shortlist, and reach out if you are a Forrester client going through your own selection process and want to navigate this crowded and still-evolving market. Contact us through inquiry@forrester.com, and I’d be happy to dive through the details.
Thanks to my partners in crime Merve Kandemir and Min Say !
