The digital economy in Southeast Asia has seen remarkable growth, with profits surging 2.5 times in just two years, from US$4 billion in 2022 to US$11 billion in 2024. This rapid expansion has driven businesses to modernise at breakneck speed to capitalise on new opportunities. But in this rush to innovate, many organisations see software testing as a bottleneck, prioritising speed over quality.
A short-sighted approach can have devastating consequences, as seen in CrowdStrike’s US$5 billion outage where an untested software release brought major industries to a temporary standstill. This incident showcases the severe business impact of neglecting proper testing. Treating testing as an afterthought not only undermines software integrity but also risks irreparable damage to an organisation’s reputation and long-term success.
We explore 3 growing tech hubs in Southeast Asia that are eyeing regional dominance
To avoid these pitfalls, organisations must focus on establishing a user-focused testing approach that complements risk assessment, leveraging automation and AI to enhance efficiency, and adopting continuous testing practices to build long-term digital resilience.
Laying the groundwork for testing success
As businesses navigate the dual challenge of delivering quickly while managing limited testing resources, it becomes critical for them to identify the right areas to be tested.
A robust testing strategy first begins with a comprehensive risk assessment. Development teams must understand the limitations of their systems, including potential failure modes like hallucinations or logical errors. This awareness is critical for identifying vulnerabilities early in the process.
Beyond understanding a system’s shortcomings and aligning testing efforts with user behaviours and needs, teams can establish a focused approach concentrating on high-priority areas like essential user journeys to identify issues early on. This targeted approach helps ensure that software remains resilient and testing resources are directed where they matter most.
Teams must remember that software testing does not just end within an organisation’s infrastructure. Testing must extend beyond internal systems to include third-party integrations to ensure their reliability. Testing cannot be done in silos. As business processes increasingly span across multiple interconnected applications and systems, testing must cover business processes that cut across multiple systems and applications.
Stress testing, in particular, is crucial in validating a system’s performance under peak demand. By incorporating load testing throughout the software development life cycle, teams can identify vulnerabilities early and ensure their systems are robust enough to meet the growing expectations for reliability and performance in today’s fast-paced digital world.
Supercharging testing with automation and AI
As development speeds accelerate and testing requirements grow, teams must lean on automated testing to roll out updates and features faster.
With automated testing, teams reduce the manual effort of catching errors and transition to proactively enhancing the development process and early detection of defects. Testing no longer becomes a hurdle but a competitive edge that improves overall system stability.
By focusing on high-priority areas and leveraging automation to increase coverage, organisations can accelerate time-to-market while maintaining high-quality standards.
Building on this foundation, generative AI (GenAI) is also set to revolutionise testing further. Software engineers and DevOps teams will look to embed generative AI in various phases, such as test case generation, release management, deployment, platform engineering and planning. In addition, GenAI will also allow non-technical users to actively participate in testing processes, expanding accessibility and easing pressure off software development teams. By identifying vulnerabilities in test scripts and improving outputs, generative AI will not only ensure quality but also accelerate the software delivery process and enable quicker time to market.
Continuous testing as the cornerstone of digital resilience
With Southeast Asia’s digital economy set to hit US$1 trillion by 2030, testing will become a cornerstone to ensuring agility and resilience and should not be seen as a one-off task but a continuous process. Maintaining an effective testing strategy requires continuous implementation across all phases—from development to staging, production, and beyond.
Quality intelligence, or the ability to understand or visualise how individual code changes could affect a system in real-time and identify what needs testing, is another key tenet of a good testing strategy as we continue to confront the issue of limited resources and time. This enables teams to quickly identify potential impacts, assess risks, and make informed decisions about which tests to prioritise, ensuring quality is maintained even under tight constraints.
Together, these strategies guarantee reliable systems ready for deployment in an ever-evolving landscape that is well-equipped to deal with real-world user behaviour and high-demand conditions.
Testing: from “good-to-have” to essential
Robust testing strategies driven by automation, innovation, and continuous improvement are no longer optional but are essential for delivering reliable software. By addressing risks early and adopting advanced testing approaches, organisations safeguard not only their systems but also their reputations. With software spending projected to dominate IT budgets in the coming years, businesses must allocate resources to dedicated testing processes that ensure high-quality products reach the market.
A well-executed strategy goes beyond technical concerns; it’s a strategic advantage that enhances customer experience, builds trust, and ensures long-term success. Prioritising effective testing today lays the foundation for sustainable growth and innovation tomorrow, empowering organisations to stay ahead in a competitive market. It is no longer a mere recommendation but a business imperative and responsibility to ensure systems are secure, reliable, and primed for success.
The article titled “From bottleneck to backbone: The business imperative of software testing” was authored by Damien Wong, Senior Vice President, APAC, Tricentis.
About the author
Damien Wong is Senior Vice President for Asia Pacific and Japan (APAC), responsible for all aspects of the go-to-market strategy and for driving further expansion across the APAC regions.
In his role, Damien is responsible for shaping and developing Tricentis’ presence in the region. Spearheading the role as trusted advisor in software quality engineering, Damien consistently engages with key C-suites, senior stakeholders and strategic partners.
Damien is also a regular speaker at industry events and fervently believes in developing the next generation of industry leaders, through coaching and mentoring of budding executives across the Asia Pacific region.
With more than 27 years of experience in consulting, customer relationship and general management, Damien brings to Tricentis his tenacious leadership, and passion in building high-performance teams in enterprise technology companies.
Damien previously served as Vice President of APAC at Confluent, as well as Vice President and General Manager across Southeast Asia, Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan at Red Hat. He has also held business and technology leadership positions at companies such as Hewlett Packard, META Group and Accenture.