Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Raw Material 1
Local
Market
Raw Material 2
Factory 1
Raw Material 3
Figure 12.1
Traditional manufacturing.
Mass manufacturing brought many benefits to society. Manufacturers started
sourcing goods from places where they could get raw material cheaper. This helped
in decreasing manufacturing costs, which resulted in lower prices for these goods
for the customers. Operating costs were substantially reduced due to reduction in
labor effort. This also resulted in achieving lower manufacturing costs, which in
turn resulted in still lower prices for these goods for the customers. Goods pro-
duced by these machines were also of better quality. So consumers benefited by
getting better-quality products. Because goods were produced at large scale, it was
possible to send them to wide geographic areas so that a large section of society was
able to consume them.
Overall, mass production introduced a huge improvement and society benefited
immensely. By commoditizing goods, costs were lowered, quality was improved,
and a large section of society was able to consume goods.
Can the same kind of revolution be achieved in the services sector?
Yes! It is possible.
In this chapter we will try to investigate in detail whether software testing is a
good candidate for becoming a commodity. We can then refer to this phenomenon
as “software testing mass services.”
Global Supplier 1
Global
Market 1
Factory 1
Global Supplier 2
Global
Market 2
Global Supplier 3
Factory 2
Figure 12.2
Mass manufacturing.
