How to Calculate the ROI Of Automation Testing? Detailed Guide

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Sweta

published Published

Dec 03, 2024

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2,110

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15 mins

The internet market has grown exponentially in recent years, resulting in the demand for software and mobile applications. To match up the development of the software needed on time many methods came up. Methods like automation testing, optimum DevOps change management and using the right tools were like saviours for the software development process. These methods in every business offer a hassle-free user experience with maximised speed. Automation testing engineers are invaluable assets to ensure everything is functional before and after the launch. Automation testing is an investment that helps you speed up the task with maximum quality checks.

The return on investment (ROI) must be calculated to measure the effectiveness of the methods. If you want to calculate the actual ROI of automation testing, I’ll explain the components, considerations, and formulas to make it easy. 

Why You Need To Calculate the ROI Of Automation Testing?

Obviously, if you invest your time, effort, or money in any project, you will need to know if it is profitable. Only then can the process be continued, or else alternative methods must be invented. The same applies to automation testing ROI, which helps you calculate efficiency gains, work speed, quality improvement, and more in the long run. 

Knowing your automation testing returns on investment helps you strategize your project onboarding, scale-up work efficiency, and improve productivity. Calculating can create a data-driven approach to future software development actions. The positive ROI indicates the process is in the right direction.

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Things to Consider for ROI Automation Testing Calculations

To determine if you are getting negative or positive Automation testing ROI requires considering several things in the loop. The efficiency of ROI automation testing can vary from business to business. The result that you expect through software automation testing can be different. Here are some basic considerations you must consider to calculate the right ROI of automation testing.

1] Your Goal

At the very beginning of the stage, you must be clear about your expectations from automation testing. You must be transparent about why you have invested in automation testing infrastructure. Is it to;

  • Save time on manual testing

  • Boost team collaboration

  • Redce time in bug detection with efficiency

  • Save budget on real-device testing

  • Access virtual devices for cross-platform testing

  • Reduce resource allocation

  • Meet client's deadlines with quality checks

These can be your reasons to implement the Automation testing. Verify whether your needs are fulfilled after the adoption of a new method. 

2] Resources and Team

While calculating the ROI of automation testing, you need to maintain accountability for your human resources, utility bills, expenditure on devices and services, execution cost, and other factors. Calculating the actual ROI of Automation testing helps you make the right decision for your future usage if it is profitable. 

3] Testing Platforms

More than 10 platforms are available for developing software, including Linux, Windows, Docker, AWS, MacOS, Android, Azure, iOS, Stack Apps, and Heroku. Regardless of all the app development platforms, the prime need is to offer best user experience with responsiveness. To achieve perfection, you need one or more automation testing tools, like Selenium, Appium, Lambda Test, HeadSpin, and more.

When justifying the ROI of automation testing, you need to consider the investment required in each tool and infrastructure setup.

4] Profitability 

One main reason to introduce automation testing tools is to increase profitability. Profitability can be considered in any form, such as managing product owner feedback, enhancing team collaboration, running parallel testing, boosting cross-platform efficiency, and so on.

Keeping your desired profitability in mind is essential when calculating automation testing ROI to find whether it’s producing the best outcomes.

5] Documentation

If you are following a manual approach or depend upon additional tools or resources to manage your documentation, it is no wonder that it will need some investment. So, it must be adhered to when calculating the actual ROI of automation testing.

6] Accuracy

Manual tasks are prone to errors in terms of data recording, bug detection, troubleshooting, and more. While transitioning from a manual approach to automation testing, your expectations with accuracy rate must be higher. It helps you analyse if you save time on automation scripts, identify errors, get real-time performance, and more. If this is your prime goal for implemention, you must consider it while calculating automation testing ROI.

7] Reporting and Analysis

Creating and sharing detailed test reports with the product owner and within the team helps you stay on the same page. It allows you to assess pass and fail rates, test coverage, resolution efficiency, maintain error logs, and more. Thus, it is an essential parameter to consider when calculating the ROI of automation testing.

8] Investment & Scale Up

One of the key metrics you need to consider while calculating the return on investment of your automation testing tool is the expected monetary profits and scaling up your capabilities. The finance is directly proportional to your automation testing. It helps you decide if the investment is worth the outcomes and leads you to manage a handful of application testing projects with ease.

What Is ROI Automation Testing Formula?

There are different ways to measure the return on investment of automation testing based on the goal you want to achieve. The ROI formula for automation testing will relate to the metrics you want to calculate. 

For instance, if you want to calculate direct profits in terms of monetary value, you need to analyse basic automation testing ROI. 

Likewise, if you want to analyse the work speed and fast processing, you need to calculate the ROI of automation testing for efficiency. On the same line, if you're going to find the long-run return on investment using automation testing over manual testing, risk reduction calculation would be the key to measuring it.

Basic Calculation of Automation Testing ROI

To calculate the basic returns on automation testing investment, you need to get ready with two data sets: savings and investment.

Here, savings or benefit is the time or money spent on automation testing to remove manual work. It includes the number of tests you are performing in a certain period. You also need to consider the differences in time and money you save comparing manual and automated testing.

Further, the investment involves the infrastructure, number of software testers, and other essentials you need for automation testing.

The simple formula to calculate the basic ROI of automation testing is as follows;

Automation Testing ROI = Savings ÷ Investment

or,

ROI of Automation Testing = {(Benefits - costs) / costs} x100

Efficiency ROI Automation Testing Calculation

Efficiency ROI help you understand the differences between investment and gains in terms of time and effort you are putting in.

You need to prepare data on automation costs​, time saved on automation testing over manual efforts, and the rate you are paying to testers per hour.

While calculating efficiency for investment, you need to consider the time required to write a test script, run a number of test cases, perform maintenance or downtime, and analyze time for automation testing. You also need to be familiar with the time required to execute the same things in a manual process.

Further, to calculate efficiency, you need to consider the time required to execute all the processes involved. Processes like script writing, number of taste cases, and more, through a manual approach. You should also consider the number of working hours a day. It is usually 8 hours a day for manual software testers and 20 to even 24 hours for automation testing.

Here are a few simple formulas to calculate automation testing ROI for efficiency.

  • Investment=Development Time+Execution Time+Analysis Time+Maintenance Time+Manual Test Execution Time

  • Gain= (Manual Test Execution Time or Analysis Time × Total Test Cases × Period of ROI) / Average daily working hours

  • Efficiency ROI= {(Manual Effort Saved × Hourly Rate − Automation Costs)/Automation Costs​)} ×100

Risk Reduction ROI of Automation Testing

It is natural to make errors in human work, as few things go unnoticed or overlooked unknowingly during application testing. However, tiny mistakes or bugs may cost a company a huge amount. Here, risk reduction calculation in automation testing helps you find whether you can prevent potential losses.

To determine if automation testing has helped you reduce risk in the long run, you must consider two things. The first is how much you could save your client from potential danger. The second is the cost or investment required to simplify or manage the risk reduction process.

The simple formula to calculate risk reduction in automation testing is;

Risk Reduction ROI = (Reduction in monetary risk – Cost of risk control) / Cost of risk control

Start Your Automation Testing Journey Today!

 

Tips To Maximize Your Automation Testing ROI?

  • Begin with a low-maintenance automation setup.

  • Always invest in the right automation tools.

  • Prefer using industry-standard automation tools.

  • Save infrastructure costs through cloud-hosted tools.

  • Start with small automation projects.

  • Prioritize to automate essential tasks.

  • Automate regression and smoke tests.

  • Automate all your repetitive and critical tests.

  • Optimize test script for easy execution.

  • Choose tools with an easy learning curve.

Conclusion

Calculating the ROI of automation testing seems complex, but it’s not that difficult if you follow the methods mentioned above. Moreover, the purpose of adopting automation testing is to increase efficiency by time reduction, error detection, and more. Professional-level experience is essential, to gain it enrol in automation testing training. By joining the course learn about different types of automation testing. It will not only help you optimize ROI but also upscale your knowledge to become the most valuable asset for your company. Also, suppose you have an interest in DevOps and the automation testing industry, which is the demand of this technical era, but don’t have enough ideas. Learning basic to advanced phenomena through expert trainers is the key to getting a rewarding job. Reach out to StarAgile right away to learn how to optimize your automation testing skills with efficiency.

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