Software testing is a vital part of Market Access applications due to its complex business processes and highly regulated landscape. It is important for IT and business teams to define “success” for their software testing efforts. While exiting application testing with a minimum number of bugs and defects is one measure, it is not the sole metric for success. Other measures for consideration include:

• The scope and diversity of test coverage
• Test reusability
• The quality of the test execution
• Value of the data reported by software testing
• Completion of testing within project timeframes

As customers are facing more frequent releases from their application vendor partners, the need for more efficient and cost-effective testing cycles is becoming more imperative. Traditionally, automated testing options have been somewhat limited to testing discrete functionality within applications, providing some time and cost savings, but still requiring customers to allocate business resources to the lengthier testing areas of integration, reporting, and end-to-end processes.

Throughout the second quarter of 2023, the IQVIA Global Pricing & Contracting (GPC) Test Automation Team has worked with multiple clients to create Proofs of Concepts (POCs) on automated testing in a variety of areas within Revenue Management applications. The POCs proved significant efficiencies in test execution timings as compared to typical manual execution timings.

In addition to the significant reduction in test execution time, the POCs also have proven out the following advantages/benefits of automated test tools:

1. E2E testing: Automated testing can perform E2E test execution across multiple applications/platforms, including analytics/reporting, interfaces, etc.
2. Auditable outputs: Automated testing produces reporting in PDF format that is Process Quality Management (PQM)-compliant, providing step-by-step execution results, including screenshots.
3. Dashboards: User-friendly dashboards can be produced to allow customers to easily see overall testing results across all areas.
4. System agnostic/Multi-module adaptability: Automation proved successful across multiple modules across multiple systems.
5. Ease of script development – model-based (specific tool used): In the case of the specific tool utilized in the POCs, the tool itself has the benefit of being model-based as opposed to code-based, so developing the automated test scripts does not require a technical or coding background.

Two of the primary benefits of automated testing that have been particularly appealing to potential customers involved in the POCs are efficiencies/cost reductions gained in test execution, and the complimentary aspect of the model-based test tool to the traditional code-based test tools. Below is a deeper examination of these two benefits and how they can tangibly impact testing timelines, budget, and effectiveness.

Efficiencies gained in test execution

Manual testing can be an expensive effort, primarily in business resource time. On average, revenue management implementation/upgrade UAT timelines span from four to eight weeks, requiring 25%-50% time dedication from business resources. This means 40-160 hours of business time dedicated to test execution, review, and approval.

By comparison, automated testing tools are proven to reduce testing times by 70-80%. Below we look at a typical UAT scenario:

In this example, automated testing reduces test execution time by 72%.

Additional efficiencies can be gained by executing parallel threads of test scripts. For example, you could run five parallel threads of test script execution to reduce the 10 hours of script execution to two hours. As many Revenue Management applications provide upgrades on an annual basis, having the automated scripts in a maintained library provides significant annual efficiencies.

By automating the test script execution, Business Resources would only need to validate the execution results, which is a fraction of the time they would normally spend manually executing test cases. This allows Business Resources to continue to perform their normal job activities and not have to carve out time to test, thus eliminating the need for organizations to find temporary backfills for the resources, or delegate their activities to others, thus reducing others’ productivity.

Model-based automated test tools as complimentary to traditional code-based test tools

Traditional code-based test tools have long been utilized in Revenue Management application testing, providing test execution for clients during upgrade cycles. This has served to augment the manual testing that companies perform for upgrades. However, there are a few areas where these traditional code-based tools have not provided the test coverage that model-based automated test tools can, including integration, end-to-end, and Reporting Analysis.

• Integration: Model-based tools can execute test scripts encompassing multiple applications. For example, it can automate the payment request from the Revenue Management application to an ERP system (such as SAP or Oracle), and process the payment acknowledgement that returns from the ERP system to the Revenue Management application. Code-based tools typically cannot handle these scenarios, and to manually test these scenarios requires resources from multiple areas within an organization.
• End-to-end: Code-based tools have tended to focus on regression testing of functions within the revenue management application. These are shorter, discrete test scripts. Model-based testing tools have the capability of performing an end-to-end test, from the creation and implementation of a contract (allowing for different roles to create and approve), to the loading of direct sales, to the calculation and validation of a rebate. End-to-end can also encompass multiple systems. And as with integration testing, manually testing these scenarios can require multiple resources from multiple areas within an organization.
• Reporting analysis: While code-based tools can perform report testing, it is limited to the validation of the creation of the report. Model-based testing tools can validate the content of the report, confirming alignment with the data within the application. Model-based tools can also validate formatting aspects of reports, such as headers and footers. This is a significant time-saver for the business, as report test execution and validation can take multiple days, and the model-based automated execution is performed in a matter of minutes (typically 15-20).

As we continue to present the value of the model-based automated testing tool to prospective customers, we will continue to refine our service offering, providing recommendations and a roadmap of additional testing value, including the use of Performance Test Tools, and the consolidation of testing tools, including migration of legacy test management tools to an automated one-stop-shop inclusive of test/requirements management. This will provide efficiencies as well as cost savings, in addition to quality-compliant auditable test results as a proven repeatable process.

Our team would be happy to assist your organization in exploring automation. For information on test automation, please contact Sally White, Engagement Manager, Global Pricing, Contracting & Market Access, at sally.white@iqvia.com, or Catherine Trentini, Engagement Manager II, Global Pricing, Contracting & Market Access, at catherine.trentini@iqvia.com.