BUSINESS-CRITICAL SOFTWARE UPDATES OUTPACE IT TEAMS' ABILITY TO TEST THEM SHOWS NEW RESEARCH FROM ORIGINAL SOFTWARE

- New research finds 75% of US enterprise IT leaders say software updates are arriving faster than their organizations can effectively test -

OAK BROOK, Ill., Sept. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Updates to business-critical enterprise software are arriving faster than many US organizations can effectively test them, according to new research from enterprise software testing specialist, Original Software.

The study of 500 senior IT decision-makers across US enterprise organizations found that 75% say updates to business-critical systems are arriving faster than their organizations can effectively test them, creating increased pressure around business continuity.

Cloud adoption is adding to the challenge. Nine in ten (92%) respondents say moving to cloud-based software has increased the amount of testing required, with 54% reporting a significant increase.

Yet testing practices have struggled to keep pace. More than a third (36%) remain largely reliant on manual methods including spreadsheets, documents and email, while just 6% have highly automated testing across most software systems.

As enterprise processes increasingly span ERP, warehouse, payment, finance and customer systems, software changes can have consequences beyond the application being updated. Some 59% of IT leaders say it is becoming harder to identify issues before they affect business operations, while fewer than half (48%) are fully confident their existing testing approach would identify critical issues before they have an operational impact.

Carl Andrews, CEO of Original Software, said, "Enterprise software has changed enormously, but the way many organizations test hasn't changed at the same pace. You cannot keep adding testing workload without changing how it is handled. A vendor can test its software, but it cannot test your business. It doesn't have your exact configurations, integrations, data or end-to-end processes. The answer isn't to slow down software updates, but to change how testing is approached so organizations can keep pace."

Original Software says organizations can reduce repetitive manual testing by progressively automating repeatable tests around their most critical business processes, while retaining business users' expertise for new processes, exceptions and exploratory testing.

"As software change accelerates, testing needs to become a strategic capability for resilience," concluded Andrews.

See the findings in The Enterprise Software Testing Gap.

About Original Software

Original Software provides an AI-powered Enterprise Software Testing Platform that helps organisations accelerate change, reduce business risk and improve software reliability.