ETESTWARE IN 2020

eTestware in 2020

The team at eTestware, part of theICEway ecosystem of companies, is getting very excited about 2020 and all that it holds for us. For over 20 years, theICEway has provided a complete IT solution for cruise and travel, along with healthcare and various other industries, via managed services, consultancy, cyber security and more – including testing, which is where we come in. Over the coming months we will be sharing our experiences, thoughts and analysis of this vitally important discipline, one which is growing in importance as technology continues to push boundaries in work and in play, and we’ll be starting off by revisiting the articles thus far published by our test experts…

Using a Testing Service - Knowing You’re Getting Your Money’s Worth – August 2017A little over 2 years ago we decided to focus upon how companies might assess the basic value of implementing a testing service. To refresh yourself on this article, click here.

Here we reiterate some of the salient points that were included in that piece.

To fully understand the value of outsourced testing services to your business, you must first establish measurements around the core metrics, most notably including productivity and cost.

You should then decide whether or not to investigate additional measurements, at all times keeping the value to the business at the forefront of your thinking. Metric data can be gathered from all ALM tools, plus task or test management tools such as TFS / MTM, Quality Centre or JIRA.

To really derive a sense of value you will need to dive into individual productivity metrics at a team level, and include measurements based upon each testing cycle – for example, you would probably include the number of tests executed and the defects entered, amongst other factors.

You may also need additional data analysis for complete accuracy, as well as separate test execution metrics for different types of tests (i.e., automated).

Testing schedules are impacted by downtime on QA environments, so it is vitally important to keep detailed logs on both the total number of tests carried out and the individual downtime incidents.
The final factor to consider, and one of the most important, is the total cost of the testing, which should include the time spent by the outsourced testing team plus the internal manpower allocated to the project.

It is only once you have covered all of the necessary metrics that you will have enough data to determine whether or not you are getting your money’s worth from the outsourced testing team, because that data will give you the answers to all the relevant business questions.

GlossarytheICEway – an ecosystem of companies:

- ICE (Consultancy, Managed Services, Cloud Services, Rapid Development)
- AIVR Labs (Future Technologies)
- CRIBB Cyber Security (Compliance)
- eTestware (QA Testing)

ALM – Application Lifecycle Management

TFS – Team Foundation Server

MTM – Microsoft Test Manager

Quality Centre – A test management tool from HP

JIRA – A tool from an Australian company, Atlassian, that is used for project management and to track issues and bugs in mobile apps and software

QA environments – An environment in which upgrade procedures are tested against hardware, software and data that simulate a production environment

Top Tip

If you have any further questions on testing, or are looking to start a testing project, our experts will be more than happy to help; in the meantime, if this article has given you a thirst to read more, you can visit our article centre here…