The Pros and Cons of Independent Software Testing

Those in a nutshell are the advantages and disadvantages of Independent Software Testing.
Just to recap the advantages once again:

Project/Department level benefits through better Testing & Quality Results:

·         Unbiased and fresh view which reveals defects that can't be detected otherwise, but can be crucial for the market success of the software product

·         Strict adherence to customer's (not development vendor's) business goals and objectives

·         Independence of a development team so that they are unable to influence testing results

·         Substantial decrease of risks (e.g., unrealised cost reduction, unrealised quality promises) in outsourcing software development projects

·         Access to the scarce/expensive talents or vertical expertise

·         Access to innovations and large Knowledge Base

·         In-house testing processes improvement

Overall Cost and organizational level benefits:

·         Focus on core business activities, money is freed up for investment in business expansion or revenue-producing activities

·         Economy of capital investment: saving on test environment / tools purchasing and maintenance. Saving of office space, no need to hire, train, fire additional employees in the peaks of testing activities

·         Difference in personnel wages and infrastructure costs in different countries (Offshoring, as an option becomes available through testing services provider)

·         Better customer satisfaction, more revenue, higher ROI

·         More appeal for investors

To Know more about our ecommerce testing solutions contact:

Arun Kumar
arun.Kumar@tcl-asia.com

.....................................................................

About TCL:

TCL is a specialist consultancy in software testing.  As a company, our core purpose is to Develop and Deliver World Class Solutions in Software Testing that are Innovative, Structured and Professional.
The company exists to meet the needs of our clients who strive to ensure that their IT projects create value and demonstrate return for their investment.  We are geared to deliver services in all areas of software testing including functional, non functional and process improvement.
The first TCL company was based in the UK (Transition Consulting Limited) and the group has now expanded to include enterprises in the US and India.  A further expansion into Australia or New Zealand is expected within the next five years.
For more details visit: http://www.tcl-global.com/

Testing everything, and how the future might look

When we talk testing (we presume most of you are software testers) your mind would obviously jump to the last test case you ran or the last killer "bug" you detected and logged. 

But the word testing covers a wide gamut of possibilities, everything could  (some would say must) be tested. Including content for the web.

Now, how does one test content?

Of course there are spell checks and grammar checks, but apart from that what can be done to ensure that the content is optimised to deliver what it is supposed to?

Turns out there's a lot that can be done, if you have the right resources and if you are determined to approach digital marketing in a structured, result-oriented manner.

SAP for instance has set up a digital test lab to standardise the testing of all content to be published on the company's Web pages—including usability, design and registration forms—as well as on its mobile- enabled site launched recently.

In their own words:

“We take an idea [such as an offer] and look at all the things that lead up to a conversion—the process, Web pages, design, user experience, content, offer and actual registration process,” he said. “Then we do a blend of A/B and multivariate testing, and image testing [such as putting an image next to the offer], to see where we get the most significant lift.”

Similarly, HP is another company that is making content testing a priority.

“We have a publishing calendar every week, which looks at all the content we're pushing out to meet our corporate goals,we use LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to see what topics resonate.”

We won't get into too many details here, as this post is not about content testing, but
imagine that, entire teams dedicated to testing content!

As our world becomes more digital,data-driven, cloud-hosted and mobile, and as software becomes ubiquitous, present everywhere from fridges to cars and household robots, the lines between different types of testing, analytics and strategy consulting might blur.
What we might have are large Independent "testing" Labs that test everything, from design, to content, products, software and everything else.They would not only test, but would predict future problems and suggest strategies to overcome them.

Is that another way of saying "Full Services IT Company", we don't know, but we don't think so.
What we see as the next generation of Independent Testing Labs, are teams that would offer hybrid services of testing, analytics and strategy, but not necessarily design and development.

The skills that will be in demand would be the ability to grasp concepts, new business models and consumer insights, and being able to put together information in different ways, create virtual proofs of concept through high-end predictive data analytics (or sheer intuition) and being able to foresee problems and point them out in advance.

Customers will pay a premium for this ability to predict scenarios and outcomes, not by crystal-gazing, but through a combination of intuition, testing and advanced analytics.

To Know more:

http://www.btobonline.com/article/20120409/WEB05/304099947/marketers-embrace-digital-content-testing
http://www.cisionwire.com/nelsonhall/r/nelsonhall-publishes-software-testing-market-analysis,c9237640

.....................................................................

About TCL:

TCL is a specialist consultancy in software testing.  As a company, our core purpose is to Develop and Deliver World Class Solutions in Software Testing that are Innovative, Structured and Professional.
The company exists to meet the needs of our clients who strive to ensure that their IT projects create value and demonstrate return for their investment.  We are geared to deliver services in all areas of software testing including functional, non functional and process improvement.
The first TCL company was based in the UK (Transition Consulting Limited) and the group has now expanded to include enterprises in the US and India.  A further expansion into Australia or New Zealand is expected within the next five years.
For more details visit: http://www.tcl-global.com/

TCL India Introduce Web Check

Over the last couple of months we have developed a new solution, called Web Check, designed to service a clients web site and ensure that the user experience associated with its use is as the client would expect it and as both the client and the user would like it to be.

Web sites are now a medium often used by organisations as their prime marketing tool, reinforcement of their brand or as a means of communicating internally or externally. Some organisations only exist through their web site. Therefore the importance that this brings to the owner of a web site is potentially, extremely high and could result in the success or failure of their business, or a large proportion of it. Because of this, web sites are often changing, with new products on offer, new goods to sell or a new message to put across. Some of these changes are made by means of adding new software or functionality and a lot are handled by making changes to content. The reality is that web sites grow, alter and adjust regularly and that often, finding the time to ensure that everything is as it should be, is difficult.

When things are important to us as individuals, like cars, we take care of them by performing regular services, to ensure that they are safe and will perform the next time they are needed. We do not like to have failures occur. A breakdown, be it at home or on a journey, is something to be avoided. Web Check has been designed to perform a service of a web site, giving the site owner peace of mind that it is working correctly and that the user experience is a positive one.

Web Check looks at key attributes of each web site and by employing formal testing techniques looks to ensure that these work as expected. The output report identifies all of the checks that have been performed and the results of those checks. These are translated into a single quality percentage against the checks that have taken place, providing a singular view of quality achieved.


...................................................................................................................................................

About TCL

TCL is a specialist consultancy in software testing.  As a company, our core purpose is to Develop and Deliver World Class Solutions in Software Testing that are Innovative, Structured and Professional.
The company exists to meet the needs of our clients who strive to ensure that their IT projects create value and demonstrate return for their investment.  We are geared to deliver services in all areas of software testing including functional, non functional and process improvement.
The first TCL company was based in the UK (Transition Consulting Limited) and the group has now expanded to include enterprises in the US and India.  A further expansion into Australia or New Zealand is expected within the next five years.
For more details visit: http://www.tcl-global.com/