In the dynamic landscape of mobile app development, a trio of priorities emerges—innovation, speed, and quality. These key areas, as identified in our 2023 State of Mobile QA Survey, might seem distinct but are in fact tightly interwoven, each influencing the other in tangible ways.

Innovation: The Driving Force

34% of the leaders we surveyed underscored the introduction of new features as a strategic imperative. The mobile app industry is a veritable battleground where innovative features can mean the difference between user acquisition and attrition. But what does it really take to consistently produce engaging, cutting-edge features?

Simply put, it takes time and a considerable allocation of development resources. Yet, as per our survey findings, a significant chunk of these resources—about 25%—is currently dedicated to manual QA. Can we then accelerate innovation by offloading manual QA tasks to external providers, as preferred by over 70% of the respondents? The answer, as evidenced by the same survey, is a resounding yes.

Speed: The Market Mandate

A significant 31% of mobile app leaders from our survey are vying to escalate the release cadence. This aggressive market strategy aims to deliver new features to users swiftly, ensuring sustained engagement and competitiveness. Outsourcing manual QA tasks could free up internal resources, enabling faster development and release cycles.

Yet, outsourcing QA isn't just about speed—it's also about improved testing bandwidth and the capacity for exploratory testing, which 75% of leaders believe can significantly improve release cadence and throughput.

{{blog-cta}}

Quality: The Non-Negotiable

Amidst the drive for innovation and speed, quality assurance remains paramount. As the third top priority identified by 31% of the organizations, QA stands as a bulwark against potential quality issues resulting from fast-paced development and release schedules.

Yet, the question of how to expand QA capabilities presents another conundrum. While increasing internal QA team size is currently a priority for many organizations, the survey shows that outsourcing is the preferred route for 58% of leaders. This preference echoes the need for a quick, cost-efficient path to improved QA outcomes, further driving feature development, release efficiency, and speed.

Wrapping Up

These three focus areas—innovation, speed, and quality—although seemingly distinct, are intertwined strands that weave the complex fabric of mobile app development. The industry demands rapid, innovative solutions without any compromise on quality.

In this high-stakes game, can we afford to have our best engineers mired in manual QA tasks? As per our survey, the solution lies in leveraging specialized external resources, thereby freeing up internal bandwidth for what we do best—creating innovative, high-quality mobile applications at speed.

As leaders, it's time we rethink our approach, embrace strategic outsourcing, and strike the delicate balance that ensures our success in this competitive landscape. The future of mobile app development awaits.

Download our new survey report, The 2023 State of Mobile QA, for the latest insights and trends from 500+ mobile leaders