Have you ever calculated the costs associated with a healthcare project testing event?
Among the often-overlooked expenses are the resources and hours required to write and update test scripts, the coordination and management efforts for the testing event, and the considerable hours allocated for all participants, plus the unproductive time they spend waiting to start their testing steps.
Additional factors contributing to the overall expense of testing include travel, room or location cost, meals and snacks, materials, and device set up, among others.
Further, there are the indirect costs of poorly planned and executed testing: end-user and patient/consumer dissatisfaction, revenue capture losses, increased support time and cost, etc.
Testing is costly — even when the event is successful.
Consequently, ensuring the efficiency and effectiveness of the testing process is critical to the success of any project or change. To maximize the return on investment in health system application testing, organizations must adopt practices that enhance various aspects of the testing lifecycle.
Key strategies for achieving greater Testing ROI include enabling efficient test script development and maintenance, reducing testing timelines, optimizing resource allocation, and streamlining remote testing.
Efficient Test Script Development and Maintenance
In healthcare, where precision and accuracy are paramount, workflows enabled by technology require detailed step by step validation. A modular approach to test script development is crucial for maximizing efficiency while ensuring all step within a workflow are properly tested.
By grouping small and repeatable steps into modules, organizations can significantly reduce the time required for creating test scripts. This not only supports easy reuse of steps that are frequently performed across healthcare workflows and processes but also ensures consistency and simplifies corrections and maintenance when modifications are necessary.
Additionally, implementing methods for marking scripts during execution expedites communication of needed changes and facilitates effective tracking of updates, enhancing the overall test script maintenance process and increasing the reliability of future testing.
Reduced Days of Testing
Automation plays a pivotal role in expediting the testing process. Notifying testers and issue owners about the status of test scripts can minimize delays in handoffs. Providing testers with real-time visibility into the progress of test scripts, coupled with proactive alerts for when they need to engage, ensures a smooth and timely testing cycle.
Test Round dashboards offering indicators of script progress contribute to early detection of potential issues in the testing process, thereby minimizing delays and ensuring the completion of scheduled testing each day.
Integrated issue logging improves communication and expedites issue resolution. Issues tied to specific test script steps decreases the time testers spend describing experienced issues, ensures the issue details contain the necessary information of what exactly occurred, and simplifies the recreation of the issue to expedite troubleshooting. Couple this with automatic notifications and real-time dashboard issue tracking ensures everyone is immediately aware of issues that might block or impact the completion of a test script.
These elements, particularly when combined, enable the completion of more scripts in a shorter time frame.
Optimized Testing Resource Allocation
Efficient resource allocation is vital for maximizing the productivity of testing teams. However, testing resources are often over-allocated during testing events because of the lack of information for when they are specifically needed.
For example, a resource who is tagged to participate in testing is often sent a calendar block for the entire testing event. If the resource is only needed to participate for a few hours on 4 out of 5 testing days, their availability for an entire day has been unnecessarily blocked.
Utilizing test round rosters and automated calendar invitations based on all the test scripts steps by position or role in the test round, ensures appropriate coverage for all roles required during test rounds. By identifying exactly when testers need to block their calendars based on the days and times they are assigned test steps, organizations can optimize resource allocation.
This approach prevents unnecessary allocation for the entire testing event, providing a more granular and efficient use of resources.
Additionally, improved and more precise communication and monitoring for testers about the timing of their upcoming test steps and automatic notifications upon completion further enhance resource allocation efficiency.
By properly identifying the specific days as well as when during those days they are needed, organizations can significantly reduce the amount of time they have to block for testing resources, freeing them up for other things and improving the overall experience of everyone involved.
Streamlined Remote Testing
The rise of remote work has necessitated the optimization of remote testing processes. Effective online monitoring and test script tools empower organizations to conduct testing from anywhere, decreasing the need for dedicated testing areas and associated expenses. This not only reduces delays related to physical location constraints but also eliminates costs tied to testing area setup and dismantling, device procurement and installation, supplies and materials, travel, and catering.
By providing effective tools for the management, tracking and automation of remote testing, organizations can achieve greater flexibility in resource allocation and capitalize on the benefits of a decentralized testing environment.
It’s Time to Decrease your Costs and Increase your Testing Returns
Maximizing the return on investment in testing requires a holistic approach that addresses various facets of the testing lifecycle. By implementing strategies and tools for efficient test script development and maintenance, reducing testing timelines, optimizing resource allocation, and streamlining remote testing, organizations can enhance the overall effectiveness of their testing processes.
Embracing these practices not only results in cost savings but also contributes to the timely delivery of high-quality projects and changes positively impacting healthcare practice.
How MAKE Solutions can help
MAKE’s TransIT tool supports the unique challenges of complex end user workflow and technology testing. Covering everything from meticulous workflow development and tracking to the creation of modular test script, test round resource planning and scheduling, and test execution, TransIT stands out as the comprehensive planning, management, and testing system.
Its integrated issue logging and dashboard tracking features ensure a streamlined approach to identifying and resolving challenges, making TransIT the all-encompassing solution for healthcare testing needs.
Discover more about TransIT and explore the Testing ROI Calculator to evaluate your current costs and see the substantial savings your organization can quickly achieve.
For more information contact Tamara Pomerantz, VP Client Operations, Tamara.Pomerantz@makesolutionsinc.com
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