Quality assurance and testing budget allocation as a share of IT spend 2012-2019

As of 2019, a panel of CIO’s and senior technology professionals reported that, on average, around 23 percent of their organization’s annual IT budget was allocated towards quality assurance and testing. The average budget share allocated towards quality assurance and testing has been decreasing in recent years, since hitting a high of 35 percent in 2015.

Quality assurance and testing in IT

The goal of investing into quality assurance and testing is to ensure that a company’s IT products are delivered in a way that is secure and without defects. Ever-increasing levels of digitalization have given companies access to massive amounts of consumer data. Although this data is beneficial from a market research point of view, it also presents companies with the responsibility of ensuring that the customer data is secure. As of 2017, more than half of companies are utilizing cloud-based test environments to test IT security. The biggest challenge associated with IT quality assurance and testing is often related to its cost. With the average organization spending over a quarter of its IT budget to fund these functions, it is not surprise that they are seeking to lower theses costs.