We’re back with the most basic question haunting many of us! What’s this noise all about.. Why is everyone becoming so ‘Quality’ conscious by each day. According to a survey at a Software Testing conference held in Australia 91% of organizations have either implemented, are implementing or are planning to implement software testing solutions. As software projects are becoming more and more complex, organizations are realizing that they can not afford to test their end products in an ad-hoc manner. Though, software services industry is growing at about 10-12 percent, testing is growing at more than 50% each year. Leading IT companies in India today obtain up to 10% of their revenues from independent software testing. QUALITY IS BECOMING MORE IMPORTANT.

In the previous years the prime focus was on functionality. The emphasis has now shifted more towards performance, scalability, response time, usability and meeting business needs. Although testing is inherent to SDLC, it is best to keep it independent from development. In the bygone days, software testing merely stood for executing a series of steps manually or using some key strokes to break the application and it was usually carried out after the entire development process was complete. Today the whole arena is transformed and testing related activities begin right from the requirements definition stage and go on till the product is shipped to the market. From simple products like soaps to medical products to space research, testing for the practical implementation of a product is mandatory in today’s space.

A lot of companies take advantage of automated software testing, with the in-house team of developers taking up the responsibility. Despite the rapid deployment of testing frameworks and solutions, the magnitude of software testing that has been automated is still very low. It seems that many organizations do not have the capacity to invest in automated solutions, despite the fact that they do see value in it. This is a challenge that we need to consciously try to overcome in the coming years.

The fact that the software development industry has woken up to take software testing as serious business can be vindicated by two facts. One, testing already is responsible for over 30% of the finances in the software development market and two, the net worth of the global testing services account for almost a whopping $13 billion. With almost all the companies now hiring professional software testing services prior to releasing any product, the scope and prospects of growth in software testing is huge! With the rising demand, software testing is also emerging as a lucrative career option for the upcoming talent.

However, Software testing should not be misconstrued as an alternative to software development; instead testers should work closer with domain experts, developers, business analysts and customers. Deployment of testing solutions is just part of the voyage - automation is the destination. Each one of us needs to introspect and see for ourselves what better testing and hence, better Quality holds for us - business advantage, savings in cost, time and money, or brand image. So, let’s wake up, rev up and get our software tested.

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