Sofware Testing: Gaining Ground

Software testing is gaining ground as an important phase in the software development life cycle, as quality comes under prime focusthe quality assurance space and testing have earned coveted positions in the last 5 years. The testing strategy for any software has always been a mix of white-box, black-box, and automated testing. The basic principles of determining the strategy are undergoing changes as the software development cycle as well as life of a software are both getting shorter. Development methodologies such as Agile Scrum are helping blur the distinction between the traditional view of testers and developers. There are also more specialized aspects of testing such as mobility and usability, which are beyond performance and security.

There are also questions on the merit of an independent verification and validation as a concept in certain industries. Today, more and more enterprises are trying to separate testing from development, as they are beginning to appreciate the value of independent testing vendors.

Software testing is affected by factors like global dispersion of development resources, an increase in test automation, and commoditization of IT. It is also finally becoming more aligned with the business needs. Outsourcing continues to be a trend. Test automation will increase, as it did in the last few years.

However, the use of manual testing will still prevail in certain areas, informs Gyana Pattnaik, senior vice president, Sonata Software.

Under the Scanner

Market demands and technology advancements (mobile/PDA/iPad) have also created the need for testing, as the end-user community is getting broadened and diversified. The survival of companies is subjective to the provision of the quality of the product, and software testing plays a vital role in providing reliability and quality to consumers.

Cloud creates an incentive for organizations to drop the legacy of old applications running on old languages and migrate to new innovative modern technology. Michel Guez, managing director, Smartesting India says, This poses a challenge to testing teams to ensure that migrations are seamless and new applications are equivalent in functionality and productivity bypassing expectations from the legacy. Another challenge is to utilize this opportunity to create valuable functional assets rather than a mere set of test cases.

Cloud based software is expected to not only bring down the cost of all softwares, but also the way software is sold/made available dramatically and disruptively. Test tools are no exceptions. We should see wider availability of tools at an affordable price. There will be a requirement to revisit the RoI calculations done in the past, which may lead to another shift in testing paradigm, says Pattnaik.

More and more companies now understand the importance and the opportunities of the cloud, and are building their services to be cloud-ready. Test Driven Development (TDD) is not a new methodology. However it is suddenly at centerstage, as it ensures that a companys product source code is thoroughly unit-tested in comparison with traditional methodologies, where unit testing is recommended but not enforced. Crowd testing is a new and emerging trend in which companies rely on virtual test teams, created on demand, to get complete test coverage rather than relying on a dedicated team of testers. Companies define their test requirements in terms of scenarios, environments, and the type of testing (functional, performance, etc).

Overall assessment on the cloud providers infrastructure and services including verification of cloud software systems, their coding process, and cloud vendors ability to manage well-established processes and so on, will see huge business demand. India, an emerging economy, is witnessing unprecedented levels of economic expansion, owing to investments from companies large and small and government spending, says Raja Neravati, senior vice president, AppLabs.

In the Limelight

While software defects or failures can negatively impact the financial performance of an organization, more damage is done to the reputation of the company and its brand, which might be gained after years of providing good services. The need for specialized testing services, skilled and experienced workforce, and reduced costs are the key factors that drive most enterprises to outsource testing to India, which has become the global hub for testing services.

Software is not a mandatory process except for sectors like the military, the Australian tax office, etc, and hence it had a dull flavor. Astonishingly about 45% of the features of an application are never used. This happens because it is difficult to test every aspect of the application and too much time is focused on frivolos aspects. Approximately 70% of our business is operated out from India, says David Taylor, president, Asia Pacific and Japan, Micro Focus.

In the industry, very few companies provide a clear-cut career path for testers deterring many from taking it as a career option. There are not enough mentors and guides to counsel people as well. In India, manual testing is still the dominant mode of testing software and Indias education system produces enough graduates( in any stream), who will be able to cater to this requirement with minimum training, feels Pattnaik.

For the next decade, more specifically with respect to the BFSI testing componentthere is a need to create a qualified workforce of 134,000 people (up from the present 32,000). This represents a massive increase of more than 100,000 new qualified and skilled entrants. The BFSI sector, which doles out almost 50% of the testing business and where additional domain related expertise and competencies are a must have skill.

The task looks very daunting in a situation where almost 80% of the fledgling graduates are unemployable and have to be put through a year or two of further training and coaching on the job. The only solution is for the financial sector and the testing sector to collaborate and go all out and create a specialized curriculum and on the job training framework leading to a Post Graduate Diploma is Financial Software Testing, feels Asvini Kumar, MD, Thinksoft Global Services.

Testing business has its unique challenges. One has to rely on various innovative measures to overcome them. Till recently though testing did not have many takers, but is slowly gaining momentum. Judiciously choosing recruitment channels to service immediate business exigencies and building a strong team for tomorrow will take the software testing industry towards newer horizons.