Page - 115 - in The Future of Software Quality Assurance

Testing Strategies in an AgileContext 115 Fig. 3 BCG matrix same time, a mature product might go back to growth if we decide to invest in sustaining innovation(e.g., toextend its scopeandcovera newmarket segment). When talking about legacy systems, we shall consider first where they are in termsof lifecyclephase, and to what extentwe plan to develop themfurther (either aspartof theirnaturalgrowthor throughsustaining innovation).Anyinvestment in further growth shall be accompanied by an investment that supports development, that is—investment inapplyingAgile testingand test automation is essential. Similarly,we can lookatour strategy for investment in automationandcleaning up technicaldebtusing the BostonConsultingGroup(BCG) matrix (Fig.3). Looking at products from the perspective of current and potential value to the business gives an important input when we try to estimate return on investment. Notethat inthiscasewearelookingatareturninthemidtermratherthanshort term, ascreatingthe infrastructureandbuildingupautomationfromscratch isnotashort- termtaskeither.So,wecangenerally followsomeof thestrategies suggested in the figure.For“cashcows”—theproducts thatarecurrently inamaturephase,yielding returnfrompreviousinvestmentsbutalsonotlikelytogrowsignificantlyinfuture— undertakingsignificant investment isnot recommended.We mightneedtooptimize tosomeextent,sothatwecanimproveoperationalmaintenance(e.g.,byautomating regression testing partially), but shall be conservative when it comes to big effort for automation.On the other hand, for our “stars”—products that are potentially in agrowthphaseandstrategic forbusiness—wemightevenwant toconsidera“stop- and-fix”effort.Thesoonerweinvestinbuildingupasolidinfrastructurethatenables us to continue development with the support of automated testing, the more stable velocity of development we can maintain overtime. Then for “question marks” we are in a position to prevent the buildup of technical debt in general. This means