To remain competitive, organizations should consider implementing a well-integrated set of automation capabilities—not just for testing, but across the entire lifecycle. Making the investment might take some convincing, so here are some questions to ask in order to assess the potential benefits of automation.

Of course it's important to work efficiently, without wasting time, money, or energy. But working effectively is just as important. Agile cycles between creating, testing, and getting feedback, allowing us to work in small chunks and make sure what we're producing has the most value. That's effective.

Container-based deployments have become the preferred approach for managing the build and release of complex applications. Many of the tasks handled by IT operations today may not be necessary in the world of containers. Will Ops continue in its current role, or will it need to evolve with the new challenges?