The Hindu Business Line : Don’t miss this test

Sai Chintala is Vice-President, Testing Services, of the Hyderabad-based software-testing specialist AppLabs Technologies. He heads the software testing professional services group and has been with the company since December 2002.

According to research from Gartner Inc, the global market opportunity for Indian software testing companies will reach $8 billion by 2010 from the current $2 billion.

In a telephonic chat with eWorld, Chintala speaks about various trends, and the initiatives taken by the company, in the Indian testing space. Excerpts:

What is the importance of software testing? What are the benefits of testing BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) software?

Software testing is the process used to measure the quality of computer software that was built against a set of requirements.

Usually, quality is constrained to topics such as correctness, completeness and security. It can also include technical requirements described under the ISO standard ISO9126, such as capability, reliability, efficiency, portability, maintainability, compatibility, usability and so on.

It is common for most organisations to spend time on software barely a few weeks/months ahead of the final release.

As most software ends up behind schedule and being over budget, the time and resources allocated for testing is the first thing to get cut. However, a definite trend of testing right from the early stages of software development is fast gaining credence across the globe as well as in India.

With BFSI services becoming ubiquitous, focus on the quality of products and services being offered is an absolute must. The rate of technology adoption in the financial services industry is quite high. From ATMs to Internet banking to online trading — all of these require investments in application software that is core to serving the end customer.

According to an estimate, the financial services industry could be losing a staggering $6.5 million per hour in brokerage operations, and $2.4 million per hour in credit card sales applications due to dysfunctional Web sites.

Page load times in excess of eight seconds could cause as many as 30 per cent of online buyers to abandon the transaction. The combined losses of these problems could be a staggering $362 million a month!!

Are software-testing practices meeting industry needs? Which areas do you think need improvement?

No, current software testing practices do not meet the needs of the industry. They are very much reactive in nature.

With rapid changes in technology, it is difficult for all testing practices to meet industry needs, as it does not pay to generalise all practices. We know that there are gaps. However, companies and research institutes are coming up with innovative ways to improve testing practices.

There are still areas that need a lot of improvement, such as measurement in test coverage, finding adequate testing, etc. Practices are made to help test engineers improve their productivity; the changes in development technologies, however, challenge the practitioners.

We always have the question, “how good is good enough?” So, I say software testing practices may be good, but need to be better to challenge the rapid growth of technology. In order to constantly improve, AppLabs invests in COEs (Centre of Excellence). We have COEs in areas such as Test Automation, Performance Testing, Security Testing, and Test Process Consulting.

How well received is testing in the Indian market?

Over the past two years, we have seen increased interest in outsourcing testing services in the Indian market. Prior to this, the trend was to get everything done by the developers and business users, and invest very little in testing.

Now, most companies in India understand the importance of testing and agree that it must be started very early and performed by professionals who are trained in testing methodology and are aware of mature test processes.

Earlier, Indian players preferred outsourcing testing in niche areas such as test automation, security testing, and performance testing.

Now we see increased interest in end-to-end testing, and test processing consulting.

Testing is also well received in the Indian employment space, as it provides fast-track career growth opportunities to engineers. Many fresh graduates are opting to start their career in this space.

Although it is a challenge to keep these engineers motivated, the plethora of new trends, tools, and methodologies are keeping them engaged.

What is Applabs’ target for the Indian markets? Which other verticals are you concentrating on to increase business?

AppLabs is currently targeting over $5 million of business from the Indian market. In addition to BFSI, we are focusing on the retail, pharmaceuticals, life science and telecom sectors.

adith@thehindu.co.in