Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
1.1.
Testing Being Commoditized?
Coupled with the benefits of offshoring, now it is possible to commoditize software
testing. For this, offshoring service providers have started the practice of setting
up a centralized testing organization. Whenever any project comes, it is put into a
queue. The organization evaluates for resource requirements and then allocates it to
the project. The project starts when the allocated resources become available for the
project. The project is executed and when finished, it is delivered to the customer.
This kind of organization structure requires special processing departments and
processing line similar to matrix manufacturing organization structures where we
have production lines and processing departments.
here is a paradigm shift here. You no longer have discrete projects as in the
traditional approach. Resources in the traditional project execution approach were
tied to specific projects and were not shared across projects. But in this case we
have special processing zones popularly called “Centers of Excellence” (CoE for
short) from where each project buys some time and resources are shared among all
projects that need this special processing. For instance, we can have CoE for auto-
mating functional test cases using Mercury Interactive's Quick Text Pro (QTP)
tool. Automation engineers belonging to this CoE write the automation script for
the project where automation script written in QTP is required and deliver it to the
concerned project. Business analysts belonging to another CoE (which specializes
in creating test cases for the financial domain) get requirements and design of the
project and write functional test cases and deliver it to the concerned project.
This way of doing things increases productivity tremendously. This results in
substantially lower costs, and the project schedule also shrinks. Quality is ensured
by requiring fanatical adherence to software engineering process models.
1.1.
Conclusion
Software testing is so important that any software vendor or internal software
development team cannot overlook it.
Sometime back I was working as a subject matter expert for a software vendor
who was developing a product that will do production planning, material planning,
and distribution planning for manufacturing and distribution companies. They
bagged some orders from customers while the product was still under development.
The development team worked round the clock to finish the product and deliver it
to customers. The development team consisted of some bright guys, and they deliv-
ered the projects within the scheduled time. Everything looked fine at this moment.
Customers were happy that the product was delivered in time, and the development
team was rejoicing. But within a month, everything changed. The company was
flooded with reports of thousands of severe defects from each of the customers.
For the next 9 months the company received tens of thousands of reports of severe
