Key Findings and Trends from the 2021‑22 World Quality Report on QA, DevOps, and AI

Introduction

The 2021‑22 World Quality Report (WQR), a joint study by Micro Focus, Capgemini and Sogeti, analyses global software quality and testing trends. It surveyed 1,750 executives and professionals from 32 countries across ten industries.

The report emphasizes how pandemic‑driven application demands, the adoption of Agile and DevOps, and the continued rise of AI are reshaping testing practices.

Five Main Themes

Key insights show that, despite the ongoing pandemic, digital transformation, Agile, and DevOps adoption are accelerating, with QA emerging as a leader in these practices and providing tools and processes that improve software development lifecycle (SDLC) quality.

Impact of COVID‑19 on QA organizations and software testing

Real‑time convergence of digital transformation, DevOps, and Agile, and QA’s growing role

Geographically distributed teams focusing on business outcomes when deploying across environments

AI enhancing a culture of quality responsibility across all teams

AI‑driven continuous testing and quality management tools addressing customer‑experience priorities and rapidly changing pandemic‑influenced requirements

Main Findings and Trends

1. Impact of COVID‑19 on QA Organizations and Software Testing

The pandemic directly affected almost every aspect of QA work, yet many organizations adapted to hybrid, distributed teams, a trend already growing before COVID‑19.

Customer Experience Is King

Respondents highlighted the importance of enhancing customer experience (63%), security (62%), responsiveness to business needs (61%), and higher‑quality software solutions (61%).

From Custodians to Quality Champions

QA teams are evolving from guardians of quality to champions, leading organization‑wide quality initiatives and supporting business outcomes.

2. Real‑Time Convergence of Digital Transformation, DevOps, and Agile, and QA’s Growing Role

Driving Digital Transformation

Digital transformation initiatives align with pandemic requirements, with QA now playing a critical role in Agile and DevOps adoption, blurring the line between development and testing.

Key drivers: productivity & efficiency (47%), quality improvement (46%), speed & agility, cost reduction, innovation, and competitive differentiation.

Because competitive differentiation appears to be a side‑effect of digital transformation, which itself improves efficiency, quality, speed, and overall customer experience.

QA’s Increasing Influence in DevOps and Agile Adoption – Guided by Business Priorities

Business priorities now outweigh technology stack considerations, with a 11‑point increase in business‑priority ranking and a 21‑point rise in culture/Agile importance.

3. Distributed Teams Focusing on Business Outcomes When Deploying Across Environments

The pandemic accelerated cloud migration and the need for remote access to test systems, with high satisfaction reported for cloud‑ and container‑based test environment modernization.

Highest satisfaction: cloud & container‑enabled test environments

Improved booking & management (+16)

Increased visibility (+22)

Cost efficiency (+18)

4. AI Enhances Agile and DevOps by Fostering a Growing Culture of Quality Responsibility

AI continues to transform test automation and execution. Nearly half of respondents have AI/ML‑ready test execution data repositories and are willing to act on AI‑generated insights.

Compared with last year, the most accelerated practices are:

Automated quality gates in CI/CD pipelines (+5)

Intelligent, automated dashboards for continuous quality monitoring (+9)

AI‑driven test‑case optimization (second only to test‑shift left)

5. AI‑Driven Continuous Testing and Quality Management Tools Address Customer‑Experience Priorities and Rapidly Changing Pandemic‑Driven Requirements

Respondents noted several benefits of test automation, including better defect detection, shorter test cycles, reduced security risk, improved coverage, lower cost, and greater transparency. AI/ML ranked as the fourth most valuable benefit.

Main Recommendations

QA Orchestration in Agile and DevOps

Prioritize customer experience and business goals, adopt engineering thinking, and embrace multi‑skill development. Invest in real‑time KPI dashboards across QA functions.

Intelligent Test Automation

Standardize automation across the end‑to‑end lifecycle and embed it in all QA activities.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Use AI as a tool to inform decisions, identify failures, and pinpoint root causes, focusing on the most challenging quality areas.

Test Environment Management (TEM) and Test Data Management (TDM)

Continue cloud adoption while ensuring legacy application integrity; data analytics is now a key component of TDM frameworks.

Security and Intelligent Industry

Remote connectivity demands robust security and resilience; invest in innovation and secure executive support for change initiatives.

Conclusion

Key takeaways from the WQR report include:

Business priorities now outweigh technology stack considerations (‑16% weight for tech, +11% for business).

Highest satisfaction with cloud‑ and container‑based test environment modernization.

Automated quality gates in CI/CD pipelines (+5%).

Intelligent dashboards for continuous quality monitoring (+9%).

AI‑driven test‑case optimization ranks second overall.

AI continues to reshape automation and execution; ~50% have AI/ML‑ready test data repositories.

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