Most software testers can explain what quality means, but few can calculate what it costs or what value it delivers in business terms. Understanding the full financial picture of your organization—from employee costs to stakeholder priorities—determines whether testing is seen as a necessary expense or a strategic investment. The gap between technical testing knowledge and business literacy is where QA credibility gets lost, especially when budgets shrink and automation projects fail to prove their worth.
In this episode, I talk with Marta Firlej about a topic most testers avoid: money. Marta explains why understanding how your company actually makes money is crucial for QA professionals, and walks through the real costs behind salaries, automation projects, and test activities that stakeholders care about. She shares a practical calculation method to assess whether test automation is worth the investment, and challenges us to translate testing value into business numbers.
"That's the goal of every company. Every company, government and country make money." - Marta Firlej
Marta Firlej is inventor and organizer of the testing conference test:fest in Wrocław Poland. Proud member of the Polish and European testing community by being an organizer of various events, sharing knowledge and experience as a speaker, and participating as an attendee.Currently working as a Head of FS Testing Practice at Capgemini in Poland. Throughout her career, she worked on different positions always having quality in heart for different industries such as finance, healthcare, edutech, etc. Her favorite part is working with people.
Quality assurance professionals are famously focused on detail and product quality. Yet, as Marta Firlej discussed on Software Testing Unleashed, understanding how our work fits into the broader business context is just as vital. Too often, testers only see their role in terms of bugs found or tests automated, without considering the real costs, stakeholder needs, and commercial priorities that define success for a company. In this post, we’ll open up the conversation around business value in testing—breaking down the hidden costs of software development, how to quantify quality, and ways testers can become indispensable by learning the language of business.
Marta Firlej emphasized that while testers are experts in quality, many lack insight into how their companies operate and earn revenue. This disconnect can be risky. Especially during turbulent times or budget cuts, testing is sometimes first in line for reductions, seen as a cost rather than an investment.
To change this, testers need to start asking: How does my company make money? Who are the stakeholders? How does quality impact our bottom line? Developing this awareness empowers testers to align their activities with business goals, making their contributions tangible and valued by decision-makers.
Testing isn’t just a headcount or a salary line in the budget. Marta Firlej reminded listeners that employee costs extend well beyond paychecks: onboarding, taxes, benefits, training, bench time, company events, and more all play into the actual investment a company makes in its teams. On top of this are indirect costs: branding, marketing, legal fees, changes to product strategy, and operational overhead.
By understanding these layers, testers can appreciate the financial pressures companies face and recognize how every role, including theirs, carries a responsibility to deliver value.
A recurring theme was the importance of numbers. While testers are adept at qualitative analysis, business leaders respond to quantitative arguments—figures that demonstrate how testing impacts revenue, savings, or risk mitigation. Marta Firlej has seen firsthand how translating test outcomes into monetary terms can win buy-in and protect testing from being overlooked.
For example, when making the case for test automation, don’t just show coverage percentages. Instead, calculate how many hours of manual effort automation saves, what it costs to write and maintain those scripts, and what the return on investment will actually be. For risk-based testing, work with product owners to estimate the potential losses if critical functionality fails and use that information to prioritize and justify testing work.
Not all test automation is worth the investment. The pace of business change means some products or features may be short-lived or rapidly evolving, which can make investing significant time in automation wasteful. Marta Firlej pointed out that automation is only justified when it aligns with long-term business needs and is cost-effective when ongoing maintenance and knowledge transfer are factored in.
Testers should be pragmatic—investing only where automation delivers measurable benefit over the lifecycle of a product, and being willing to cut their losses if a test suite is no longer relevant.
So how can individual testers start to build this business perspective?
Audit Your Role: Begin by calculating your true cost to the company, factoring in salary, taxes, and benefits.
Research Company Operations: Understand how your company generates revenue, how projects are staffed, and what overhead exists.
Collaborate Cross-Functionally: Partner with product managers and project leaders to get visibility into business goals, maintain realistic test plans, and identify where you add commercial value.
Communicate in Business Terms: When reporting on testing, distill findings into implications for risk, cost, or savings. Share concise test reports that matter to stakeholders.
Challenge Assumptions: Don’t be afraid to question whether ongoing automation is still delivering value, especially in fast-changing projects.
Discussing money shouldn’t be taboo, especially in quality assurance where the topic is so often avoided. The future belongs to testers who treat quality as a business enabler, not a checkbox. By learning to weigh costs and articulate value, testers can ensure their contributions remain core to the company’s success, even when budgets tighten.
As Marta Firlej concluded: companies exist to make money. The more we understand and communicate how our work contributes to that goal, the more essential we become.