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Integrating In-house Tesing with Outsourced Development For many companies the lure of cutting costs by outsourcing, particularly with offshore software
development, is very tempting. Unfortunately, if handled incorrectly, the highly touted short-term savings can evaporate due to quality issues that ultimately result in higher maintenance and support costs. For the past few years Steve Splaine, an experienced project and test manager, has lived in a world where some development projects have been sent offshore to speed development.
To leverage cost savings while ensuring that quality is not compromised, his company has instituted a software development lifecycle that integrates in-house QA testing with outsourced, offshore development. Steve describes the development lifecycle that works at his company and explains the new audit role that his and other QA test groups fill. Learn about the special processes and critical
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Steve Splaine and Padmanabhan Surendhar, Nielsen Media Research
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Can You Find Bugs in Your Pajamas? Becoming an Effective Telecommuting Tester Distributed development teams, including test engineers, are becoming more the norm than the
exception. Many individual testers and test managers perform some of their job duties from
home. Test engineer Andy Roth is an extreme example of this situation-telecommuting from his
Maryland home 300 miles from his company’s office. As a “tele-tester” Andy has become a
manager in addition to his testing duties, managing his personal test lab, his time, his peer
relationships, and even managing his manager. If you are considering becoming a tele-tester,
already are one, or manage tele-testers, join Andy for a discussion of what it takes to survive and
flourish in this environment. Find out the necessary prerequisites and qualities of successful teletesters
and the tools of the trade that make life easier and most productive.
- The case for tele-testing and its limitations
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Andy Roth, IBM Rational Software
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Plans, Processes, and Practices for Successful Test Outsourcing There are many reasons why outsourcing IT activities requires extra attention, especially when it concerns software testing. Examples of complete failures are common, and "backsourcing" is not uncommon today. Outsourcing test activities requires a comprehensive planning roadmap from the initial idea to implementation steps and ongoing processes. Martin Pol discusses creating a service level agreement for test outsourcing, managing the transition, approaches for cultural adjustments, and ways to monitor the outsourced work. An outsourcing relationship can be compared to a marriage, from the initial flirting through matrimonial happiness. Faith, flexibility, and openness based on trust are required for both a happy marriage and a successful outsourcing relationship. The difference is that outsourcing requires arrangements for ending the relationship before the wedding.
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Martin Pol, POLTEQ IT Services BV
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Mainframe-Class Recoverability Testing The corollary to the axiom "all software has bugs" is "you will never find them all." Even if you could, hardware and environmental failures always are lurking about, waiting to crash the software. If you accept the premise that failures are inevitable, then part of your testing should confirm that the software gracefully recovers from failures, protecting customer data and minimizing downtime. In this presentation Scott Loveland helps you face the issue head-on by explaining novel ways to force failures and then test the software's ability to recover. Having spent his career with IBM in test for z/OS and its predecessors, MVS and OS/390, and most recently Linux, Scott reveals the tools and techniques proven for testing recoverability of industrial-strength software in the trenches of the IBM mainframe development lab.
- Methods for injecting errors and monitoring recovery of large, complex systems
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Scott Loveland, IBM Corporation
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Asia as a Test Outsource Center Outsourcing testing software projects to countries in Asia is a trend that is here to stay. You have a growing number of choices for an outsourcing country in Asia-India, China, Taipei, Korea, and others. Although India currently dominates the scene and both Taipei and Korea have historically provided excellent quality, though at a higher cost, China is quickly moving to become the leader with even lower billing rates and a large number of experienced and educated engineers. In this session, Jacob Hsu offers an overview of the Asian outsource scene including the latest trends and data. Take away a checklist of best practices for successfully outsourcing product testing to Asia, including how to manage distributed testing teams, how to overcome language/cultural issues by country, and what types of testing should (and should not) be outsourced offshore.
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Jacob Hsu, Symbio Group
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Testing in an Outsourced World Many of us have worked on projects where some or all of the development is done by third parties, sometimes in a different country. While cost savings may make such arrangements attractive, projects face significant new challenges in an outsourced world. Rex Black offers a testing perspective and lessons learned from his involvement in successful-and not-so-successful-- outsourcing projects. In this revealing session, Rex addresses the following questions: What are the critical logistical issues when we manage testing or work as testers on outsourced projects? What good advice can we offer executives who are considering outsourcing testing or development? How does ISO or CMM® certification of the outsource firm change the testing picture? How should we approach integration testing when some components are developed by an outsourced company? How will outsourcing affect the way we build and test systems?
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Rex Black, Rex Black Consulting
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Key Factors for Making Offshore Development Work Inexpensive and technically competent labor in developing countries has made outsourcing some software development and testing activities an attractive alternative. As a result, more and more US-based companies are looking to India, China, and other countries to develop software. The success or failure of an outsource operation and whether or not it is a viable alternative depends upon some key factors important to both the outsourcer and the software provider. Using his personal experiences and others at Hewlett-Packard, Bhushan Gupta discusses the aspects of program management, communications, teamwork, process, interim deliverables, and cultural issues that will make or break an outsourced development project. Find out what types of outsourcer-vendor relationships work and ones that will most likely lead to failure, and get a first hand view of outsourcing at the ground level.
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Bhushan Gupta, Hewlett-Packard USA
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Enabling Technologies for Outsourced Testing The outsourcing of test case development, automation, and execution presents opportunities for some organizations seeking new sources of competitive advantage. Compared to software development outsourcing, test outsourcing has unique technical requirements that must be understood and carefully managed. Based on his experiences, Rob Spade explains the ideal technical capabilities you need for test outsourcing. Find out what you need to know about test management infrastructures, remote test lab configuration, real-time collaboration across different time zones, monitoring capabilities, statistical analysis, and much more.
- The benefits and payback potentials for outsourced testing
- Enabling technologies required for effective outsourced testing
- Use these same technologies for remote and multi-site testing for in-house test activities
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Rob Spade, Lumenare Networks
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Test Outsourcing Approach and Implementation If your organization is considering outsourcing some parts of its testing activities, you'll learn valuable lessons from UBS Investment Bank's approach to and implementation of test outsourcing. By utilizing a component-based operational model for test execution, automation, and environment management, UBS was able to outsource many low-level test functions and focus their smaller in-house test groups on strategy and process issues. Keith Klain discusses the vendor selection process (RFI, RFP, and reviews of outsourcing vendors), service agreements, knowledge management issues, training on in-house technologies, specific testing delivery and management processes, and lessons learned.
- Strategies for qualifying your organization for outsourcing testing activities
- A risk-based approach to test execution outsourcing
- An organizational road map to outsource testing
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Keith Klain, UBS Investment Bank
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Keeping Your Outsourced Testing Under Control As companies focus on their core business, the option to outsource software testing becomes more and more attractive. And there are plenty of organizations out there that specialize in the practice. But implementing outsourcing can feel like an uncertain proposition. In this session, Martin Pol explains how you can effectively select, implement, and audit outsourced testing activities. He shows you step by step what needs to be done to make outsourcing work for you and your company.
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Martin Pol, POLTEQ IT Services BV
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