One on One with Capgemini's Makarand Teje

Global IT consulting firm Capgemini recently completed its fifth-annual World Quality Report with partner HP. The study, the industry's largest of its kind, surveyed more than 1,500 respondents in 25 countries. It tracks the state of enterprise application quality assurance and testing practices, identifying emerging trends. This year's report found that quality assurance (QA) and application testing account for a staggering 25 percent of all IT spending, a big shift as more organizations undergo digital transformations and rely more heavily on applications, which are often the main interface between their operations and their customers. Makarand Teje, Capgemini's Senior Vice President of Applications, North America, shared some of the most interesting findings of this year's report and discussed the future of app testing in the enterprise.

Consulting: What are some key findings from this year's report?

Teje: We reached out to 1,500 participants from 25 countries and asked them 42 questions on some of the key trends in software quality assurance and testing. Interestingly what we're really finding here is the testing budget allocation has increased significantly. The QA function is moving more and more toward centralization. If you look at our client base, which is typically Global 1000 organizations, you are used to more silo-based tools, hardware and software testing organization. So there's an increased momentum for all of them to really create this sort of shared service factory and we've seen a significant uptick in the number of respondents who say we already have plans in place or we've implemented it this year or plan to soon. Centralization of the QA is going to be a big topic. Organizations that think testing should be done after the software is ready for release are rethinking their approach. We call this more of a left-shift in terms of the software development lifecycle. More and more organizations are saying we need a test strategy and quality team ready when we first try to build or implement software.