Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2021. Read them in this 13th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
Business Agility Means Embracing Low-Code/No-Code Automation
By Jonathan Zaleski, senior director of engineering at
Applause
In last year's predictions piece for VMblog,
Applause predicted that digital accessibility and personalization would become
standard for digital experiences.
None of us, back in December, could ever have
predicted COVID-19 or the impact it would have on our lives in 2020. Because
COVID-19 forced many of us to work remote long term, digital accessibility came
to the forefront like never before. Canada has instituted deadlines for organizations
to file compliance audits to ensure accessibility as part of its Accessibility
for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), and many believe that the Biden
Administration will signal more stringent accessibility policies
and enforcement of existing guidelines in the United States.
It's true that COVID-19 changed the world in
many ways, but one thing remains clear - flawless customer experiences and
quality digital experiences in particular, are now more important than ever.
Seventy
three percent of U.S. consumers say that customer experience is a very important factor in
their purchasing decision, so much so that even if they love a company or product, 59% will still walk
away after several bad experiences and 17% will walk away after just one bad
experience, according to PWC. Customers demand a
flawless digital experience on every platform they use today, and the COVID-19
pandemic has shown that organizations can provide them both remotely and
quickly.
In 2021, we predict that organizations will
turn to the technologies that help them be more nimble and flexible. One
technology we think will move into the mainstream is low-code/no-code
automation.
Let's face it: the pace of change has never
been faster. To keep up with end user demands, competitors and market trends,
teams are being asked to release more digital assets faster - and they can't
risk improving speed at the expense of quality, because that's when consumers
will decide to switch to a competitor.
No longer can brands get away with quality or speed...it has to be both. Companies
have to be able to deliver digital experiences that are functionally sound,
intuitive and easy to use. Not only that, but new releases have to be delivered
seamlessly and at a high cadence.
This need to deliver
quality at the speed of development has pushed many organizations to embrace
Agile and DevOps methodologies, which address the speed part of the equation,
but they still need to deliver quality experiences. That's where a
low-code/no-code automation (also referred to as codeless automation) solution
comes in.
Brands are always looking for ways to extend
their automation capabilities - and rightly so. Over the long term,
full-fledged automation can lead to cost savings and gains in efficiency. But in
the short term, it can be expensive to get started - and it's not something
that can be built overnight.
Low-Code/No-Code automation offers a solve to
this problem by helping businesses get started on their path to full-fledged
automation, without the high costs of hiring experienced SDETs that are
dedicated to writing all automation scripts. Instead, low-code/no-code
automation requires little or no automation expertise, and can be completed by
developers or QA pros, making it ideal for less complex test cases that don't
require the experience and expertise of SDETs. It also lowers the barrier to
entry for automation and helps brands to get started quicker and with less
overhead. Low-Code/No-Code automation will make shift-left testing more
attainable for all brands and build collaboration between development and QA
teams.
Applause believes that the continued growth of
CI/CD in 2021 will push brands to speed up not only their development pace, but
also their QA and quality engineering efforts, and bring quality testing much
earlier into the dev cycle than ever before.
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About the Author
Jonathan
Zaleski is a highly skilled, versatile and reliable technical leader with a
demonstrated history of working in the internet industry. He has more than 15
years of engineering and technology experience across multiple verticals and
platforms. Jonathan is a polyglot skilled in software development, scalability
and Agile methodologies who uses his breadth of knowledge and skill to get the
best out of his team. He is a dedicated leader who continuously strives for
excellence.
As
the senior director of engineering at Applause, Jonathan and his team build
best-in-class software with an eye toward innovation and next-generation
concepts. They work to improve the capabilities of the Applause Platform, using
cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning to
make the company more efficient.
Jonathan
also leads Applause Labs, the company's innovation engine focused on the rapid
development and iteration of ideas that will bring next-generation testing concepts
to life.
Applause
Labs is the industry's largest team dedicated to quality and testing,
encompassing current R&D initiatives as well as an expanded focus on
developing new testing concepts.
Most
recently, Jonathan held several engineering leadership roles at Wayfair. Prior
to that, he was a principal software engineer at Sermo. He earned his Bachelor
of Arts (B.A.) focused in Computer Science, Environmental Science & Math
from Westfield State University.