GPSJ - SPRING 2025 - Flipbook - Page 26
GPSJ
IT & IT SECURITY
Why public sector software must be held to
higher standards in the age of AI
By Andrew Power, Head of UKI, Tricentis
Andrew Power
At the start of the year, the
UK government published its
State of Digital Government
review, highlighting that
digital transformation of
the public sector could
lead to £45bn worth of
savings. The report outlined
digitalisation, including “AIdriven automation of manual
tasks” as one of the main
opportunities to drive public
sector reform.
The review followed the release
of the AI Opportunities Action
Plan, an initiative led by the
Prime Minister with the goal of
positioning the UK as one of the
global leaders in AI. The plan
highlights how AI can be best
leveraged to enhance public
services and spur economic
growth.
AI is trusted - but guardrails
are missing
This drive for AI adoption across
the public sector appears to have
been welcomed, according to
recent research. The 2025 Quality
Transformation Report from
Tricentis has revealed that 92%
of UK public sector technology
leaders plan to increase AI usage
in software quality assurance
26
over the next year, and 88%
are con昀椀dent in autonomous
AI making software release
decisions.
However, while AI is largely
trusted across the public sector,
the research also highlights that
important guardrails are missing.
Only a third (34%) of public
sector respondents feel they have
su昀케cient controls in place to
validate AI-driven decisions, while
12% believe their organisation
does not have adequate
safeguards.
This raises some fundamental
questions around accountability,
especially where citizen data
and essential services are
involved. Meanwhile, another key
consideration and challenge facing
public sector departments today
is how to ensure digital services
remain stable and reliable.
High risk of software outage
in the public sector
The impact of the CrowdStrike
incident last summer shone a
global light on the signi昀椀cant
impact of failing to adequately
update and test software.
Worryingly, 昀椀ndings from the 2025
Quality Transformation Report
indicate that the UK public sector
is among the most exposed to
software failures globally.
When asked how at risk
their business is from su昀昀ering
a software outage/impact this
year, 62% of UK public sector
respondents said they were
extremely or somewhat at risk.
This places the public sector
more at risk than manufacturing
businesses (60%) and close
behind the retail industry (64%).
This is particularly concerning
given the public sector’s role in
maintaining critical infrastructure
and delivering essential public
services. But what is causing
this risk? It can almost certainly
GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC SECTOR JOURNAL SPRING 2025
be traced back to the alarming
frequency with which software
is being released without proper
testing practices in place.
Untested code is a
widespread problem
Pressure to release software faster
is leading to risky practices across
the UK public sector, according
to further 昀椀ndings from the 2025
Quality Transformation Report.
Over three-quarters (77%) of UK
public sector organisations said
they routinely release untested
code - without full integration,
regression testing (checking
that updates to code haven’t
caused functionality issues) or
performance testing (evaluating
how the software or application
functions in terms of areas
including speed and stability).
When questioned as to why this
is such a common practice, over
half of respondents (51%) said it
is simply because testing slows
down the release cycle, while one
in four public sector organisations
said they are not even sure
what they need to test. A lack of
conviction is also evident, with
less than 20% of public sector
decision makers saying they have
full con昀椀dence to release software
on schedule.
Serious consequences more than just downtime
Poor software quality across
government departments doesn’t
just lead to outages - it can
erode public trust, disrupt service
delivery, and ultimately open the
door to compliance and security
failures.
There is also an associated
昀椀nancial impact, with the average
cost of poor-quality code to the
UK public sector totalling £1.34m
per year, according to the 昀椀ndings
of the 2025 Quality Transformation
Report.
Poor-quality software is not
simply an IT issue, however. It
also leads to people problems
and security risks, as well as
the aforementioned 昀椀nancial
losses. More than a third (36%) of
public sector-based respondents
identi昀椀ed lower team morale and
higher sta昀昀 turnover as a key
factor, while 31% highlighted
increased likelihood of more
frequent security breaches or
compliance failures as a result of
poor quality software.
Software testing is a public
sector responsibility
While AI-driven solutions have
the potential for positive,
transformational change across
governmental departments,
secure, robust and regular testing
of these technologies should be a
prerequisite.
Software testing and quality
engineering should be viewed
as a civic duty when considering
the volume of citizen data and
essential services involved, serving
tens of millions of people up and
down the UK. The implementation
of robust software testing
practices will help ensure the
delivery of reliable, e昀케cient and
accessible services for the public,
while also mitigating software
failures, vulnerabilities and
downtime.
It is time for a sea-change
in how public sector IT leaders
de昀椀ne what software quality
means within their agencies
and departments. Embedding
testing into digital transformation
strategies should be far higher up
the priority list to ensure public
sector organisations are able to
fully embrace AI and avoid the
threat of serious software outages.
