Planit’s new managed test automation service takes aim at one of enterprise automation’s persistent challenges: sustaining automation as environments grow and change.
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Planit, a global quality engineering and software testing specialist, has launched Test Automation as a Service (TAaaS), a fully managed offering designed to help businesses scale software testing while reducing the operational burden of maintaining the capability in-house.
The service addresses a persistent challenge for enterprise automation programs. While many organisations can establish automation, sustaining it over time requires ongoing investment in frameworks, infrastructure, integrations and specialist expertise.
As applications and delivery environments change, automation needs to evolve with them. Without continued attention, coverage can stall, scripts can become less reliable and the value of the initial investment can erode.
TAaaS is designed to shift much of that operational responsibility away from internal teams.
Rethinking how automation is delivered
Rather than treating test automation as a one-off implementation that is eventually handed back to the customer, Planit provides TAaaS as an ongoing managed service.
Planit’s quality engineering specialists establish, run, maintain and expand the automation environment while integrating it with customers’ existing delivery ecosystems.
The service brings together Planit’s quality engineering expertise, established automation frameworks and AI-assisted capabilities within a managed delivery model.
Planit also provides the supporting platforms, infrastructure, execution, maintenance and reporting for a predictable monthly fee.
With the people, platforms and infrastructure already in place, organisations can move into delivery without first recruiting specialist teams or building the supporting capability themselves.
This is intended to reduce time to value and give internal teams more capacity to focus on software delivery rather than the ongoing administration of automation.
Previous customer engagements have demonstrated the potential impact of the approach.
In one customer environment, regression cycles were reduced by as much as 80%.
In another engagement, reduced manual regression effort and the consolidation of associated tooling costs delivered savings of up to $100,000 over a two-month period.
Automated suites can also run across applications, browsers and APIs overnight, giving teams a more current view of software quality and helping them identify issues earlier in the delivery cycle.
Greater visibility without greater overhead
TAaaS extends beyond the execution of automated tests.
Each engagement includes access to DoT, Planit’s automation management and quality intelligence platform, which provides a centralised view of automation performance, coverage and execution.
Live dashboards bring together information from across the testing environment and existing toolchain, helping teams identify coverage gaps, emerging risks and delivery bottlenecks earlier.
For engineering teams, this can provide a more current quality signal as software moves through delivery. For technology leaders and managers, it provides clearer visibility into automation performance and release readiness without requiring teams to assemble reporting from multiple systems.
As automation estates grow, that visibility becomes increasingly important. Under TAaaS, Planit continues to maintain, optimise and expand the capability throughout the engagement, helping automation keep pace as customer applications and priorities change.
Putting the model to the test
Planit’s experience delivering automation for customers has helped shape TAaaS for organisations at different stages of automation maturity.
For teams starting from scratch, an engagement can begin by defining delivery goals, assessing current test processes and preparing an automation backlog. More mature teams can use the service to expand coverage and strengthen their existing automation capability.
As a continuous managed service, TAaaS is designed to grow automation maturity and coverage as customers’ applications and delivery needs evolve.
Customers retain ownership of the automation assets created throughout the engagement, giving them the flexibility to continue with Planit or take those assets forward independently.
TAaaS is offered for a fixed monthly fee covering Planit’s quality engineering specialists, platforms, tooling licences and ongoing maintenance.
The model is designed to give organisations greater cost certainty while reducing much of the upfront investment and variable operating costs typically associated with building and sustaining an enterprise automation capability internally.
