Payformance Corporation, the nation s leading provider of healthcare payment simplification solutions, is pleased to announce a technology partnership with QualEDIx Inc. to ensure timely 5010 testing for all constituents. QualEDIx Inc. through their product AgilEDIx revolutionizes the test data generation process by instantly constructing 5010/ICD-10 test cases in any data format for providers, clearinghouses, vendors and health plans. What typically takes months to accomplish with manual tools and processes, AgilEDIx generates pre-built test data in minutes for testing a payer s 5010 TR3 and companion guide requirements. AgilEDIx creates HIPAA 4010A1, 5010, XML, Paper Claims, Flat Files, Image Files and even partial data files in any format, with either ICD-9 or ICD-10 diagnosis and procedure codes that is required for testing a specific technology or covered entity. At QualEDIx, we deliver a highly advanced managed service that can verify and validate any input or output file in any HIPAA or proprietary format. Because we are software testing experts, we specifically designed testing protocols and methodologies for testing every internal code change needed for a successful HIPAA 5010 implementation, states Mark Lott, CEO of QualEDIx. Payformance takes the HIPAA mandated 5010 initiative seriously and QualEDIx will bring 5010 testing expertise and automated capabilities to augment our staff and provide subject matter expertise in resolving any 5010 issues, said Dwayne McAfee, CEO of Payformance. In addition McAfee states, Payformance will be able to use this service to accelerate payer integration testing readiness by emulating inbound customer files. Payformance Corporation has completed customer specific analysis and has supplied information to customers to assist with planning and coordinating testing efforts. The AgilEDIx toolkit will streamline the process and move Payformance quickly to the test execution stage. About Payformance: Payformance is the leading provider of payment solutions to meet healthcare payment settlement requirements. Far more than ERA and EFT, Payformance focuses purely on healthcare payments and provides every stakeholder in the healthcare industry with comprehensive solutions that reconcile, correlate, and explain their payment information. The Payformance Healthcare Payment Exchange lays the foundation for unprecedented healthcare payment interoperability. Source Link: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/07/prweb4296124.htm

In the humdrum and often mind-numbing world of software coding, Mukesh Sharma found his true passion and a business opportunity when few others did. He discovered software testing. Today, QA InfoTech, his $10 million company (estimated FY 2009-10 revenues) is among a handful of players in this niche and growing industry. Testing involves finding errors and bugs that could affect the usability, compatibility or security of new software or web programs, before they re released to customers or end-users. The testing industry is estimated at $13 billion worldwide with dominant players like Virtusa, Applabs and Mindtree (in India). An engineer from BITS Pilani, Sharma grew up on campus where his father was a lab technician. I wanted to be in the civil services but my father pushed me to get into IT. I m glad I took his advice, says the 36-year-old Sharma who began his career in 1996 with DCM Data Systems writing code and applications. Dad was making little money and we were hand-to-mouth. I took tuitions on weekends to support my income. Within a year Sharma was posted onsite at IBM s Research Triangle Park facilities in Raleigh, North Carolina. Testing in those days was considered a secondary job. But I started liking it because it gave an end-to-end idea of the overall system, a greater sense of ownership, and more interaction with people across the development chain, he says. Sharma s big moment came when he joined Quark Systems in Denver, Colorado and soon rose to a testing supervisor s role. Four years later my friends were still doing coding and I was sitting in management meetings, he recalls. But he began to feel that being part of the development team, the independence of testing within the organisation was usually defeated. There was clearly a conflict of interest as the testing team and developers reported to the head of development. So an independent third-party testing service made sense. The idea of starting his own testing firm took seed as he moved to Thomson Gale (now Gale group). On one of his trips back home he registered QA InfoTech in India. Subsequently, he relocated to India with Adobe Systems and switched full-time to running his company in October 2005 by which time it was already a $300,000 company in revenues. Much of the business now comes through word-of-mouth. We didn t hire a sales team till late last year, says Sharma. With 400 employees, he says the biggest challenge has been to find people with the right mindset. Testing engineers have to think of what-if scenarios. Those questions are not there when you develop the product. But can you do all the scenarios? The answer is no. It comes with experience. QA InfoTech s business comes mostly from overseas clients, especially the US. And e-learning contributes 40% of revenues. With the recession, more people were going back to higher education and learning, so we benefited. Domestic demand is very limited though it has large potential, especially in the e-governance projects, says Sharma. Meanwhile new areas of testing are coming up such as device testing. Last year QA InfoTech began testing mobile phones given to farmers under the IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Ltd project. The use of cloud computing is another emerging area and Sharma says early results with some clients have been well-received and encouraging. Sharma recently joined a Rs 50-crore early stage fund launched by Vivek Bihani of InSync Advisors. Source Link: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/india-emerging/Software-testing-is-a-passion-for-QA-InfoTechs-Mukesh-Sharma/articleshow/5446683.cms

Regular readers may have gathered that I m old, even though Network World is still using a picture of me from 10 years ago when I started writing this column in 2000. Certainly the (mostly) 18 to 22 year-old students in my freshman through senior classes at Norwich University perceive me as absolutely ancient. Readers older than they may be shocked to realize that these young adults were not born when the Morris Worm hit the Internet on Nov. 2, 1988 – and that when I tell them that I began programming in assembler in 1965 it s a bit like someone telling me (I was born in 1950) that they started writing on stone tablets with chisels in 1928. Nonetheless, mostly by making fun of myself and of what to them is my advanced age, I still seem to reach the students with experiences from my years working in industry. Today I ll tell you more about fundamentals of software testing, in which I ve been professionally involved since (gasp) 1979 when I first began programming for pay. On the Offensive: The Power of Hosted Email Security: Download now In general, software developers and systems engineering experts have found that the cost of correcting mistakes rises by about 10 times with every additional stage of the software development life cycle (SDLC) and related software development processes (you can download a PowerPoint lecture reviewing these topics from my software engineering course notes by distinguished author and teacher Ian Somerville, author of the well-known text Software Engineering, 8th Edition). The 309-page study, The Economic Impacts of Inadequate Infrastructure for Software Testing prepared in May 2002 for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) summarizes the situation as follows (pp 5.3 & 5.4): The relative cost … of repairing defects found at different stages of software development increases the longer it takes to find a bug. . . . For example, errors introduced during this stage and found in the same stage cost 1X to fix. But if the same error is not found until the integration and component/RAISE [Reliability, Availability, Install Serviceability, and Ease of Use] system test stage, it costs 10 times more to fix. This is due to the reengineering process that needs to happen because the software developed to date has to be unraveled and rewritten to fix the error that was introduced earlier in the production process. However, bugs are also introduced in the coding and integration stages of software design. Related Content • Pushing for software quality assuranceBLOG • Software development and quality assuranceBLOG • Los Angeles chooses Google Apps over Microsoft • Buyers Guide to Endpoint Protection PlatformsWHITE PAPER • Google Apps basics View more related content Get Daily News by Email Human testing can be highly effective, especially if it is applied after analysis and design but before coding. Inspection using a team approach gets the programmer who wrote the code to explain every line to other programmers; tests repeatedly show that the teams find 30% to 70% more errors than the original programmer. Particularly effective are walkthroughs, (described in a lecture my 1990sSQA course at John Abbott College) which are inspections where programmers pretend to be the computer and discuss how every line of code is going to be executed). Just a week before writing this article, I was explaining to a second-year computer science student that practically the only way to debug assembler code is to establish a matrix of registers across one axis vs. steps in the code across the orthogonal axis and to keep a record (for example in a spreadsheet) of exactly what the contents of every register is at every step of execution. We also discussed debug tools. The basic approach in debugging is to run a compiled program in a shell that allows setting breakpoints where the programmer can inspect and, if necessary, change the state of stored information (control flags, array indexes, loop counters, and so on) in an attempt to understand and correct for programming Source Link: http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/sec/2010/042610sec2.html

uTest, the world s largest software testing marketplace, today announced that CEO Doron Reuveni will present on The Mobile Apps Quality Challenge at STAREAST 2010 in Orlando, FL on April 29th at 3:00pm. In this session, Doron provides insight into the growing need for testing and QA around mobile applications. He will also address how crowdsourced testing is now filling the need that traditional outsourcing or offshoring has failed to meet for so many mobile app developers. Attendees will learn why testing mobile apps is tougher, how to build quality into their mobile products from conception, and how tapping into a diverse crowd of professional testers enables them to launch higher-quality iPhone, Android and BlackBerry apps. A recent survey by Sterling Commerce found that enterprise leaders believe mobile app deployment is critical to long-term corporate success, said CEO of uTest, Doron Reuveni. In fact, 90 percent of respondents referenced increased productivity and responsiveness among the top reasons for adopting mobile apps. uTest s community of 25,000 professional testers ensure that these mobile apps are thoroughly tested for quality, privacy and security under real-world conditions. STAREAST 2010 is being held at Rosen Shingle Creek, located at 9939 Universal Boulevard, Orlando, FL. About uTest, Inc. uTest is the world s largest marketplace for software testing services. The company provides real-world testing services through its community of 25,000+ professional testers from 162 countries around the world. More than 1,000 companies - from web startups to global software leaders - have signed up for the uTest marketplace to get their web, desktop and mobile applications tested. More information can be found at About Software Quality Engineering Software Quality Engineering delivers training, support, research, and publications to software managers, developers, test professionals, and quality engineers worldwide. Since 1986, we have been at the forefront of software quality improvement technology and were instrumental in setting the stage for the software industry to view testing as a distinct discipline. Today, Software Quality Engineering produces several of the most respected conferences in the software testing industry and provides testing and development training for more than half of the Fortune 1000. Source Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/utest-ceo-discusses-the-mobile,1271564.shtml

OULU, Finland & LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Codenomicon Ltd, a leading vendor of software security testing solutions, today released a toolkit for automated penetration testing. These tools revolutionize the penetration testing processes by eliminating unnecessary ad-hoc manual testing. The required expertise is built into the tools making efficient penetration testing available for all. The new solution makes fuzzing an affordable solution for consultants. You don t need to be an expert to use Codenomicon solutions such as Defensics fuzzers or our Network Analyzer, says Ari Takanen, CTO of Codenomicon. But professional security testers will also benefit from our new tools. The tools quickly find around 95% of easy flaws allowing specialists to focus on vulnerabilities that are harder to find. When conducted manually, penetration testing requires substantial knowledge of the systems that are tested. Thus, most penetration testers only feel comfortable testing web applications. Codenomicon s penetration testing solution utilizes a unique fuzz testing technique, which learns the tested system automatically enabling penetration testers to enter new domains such as VoIP assessment or to start testing industrial automation solutions and wireless technologies. Test automation increases the test coverage of penetration tests. With this new toolkit, Codenomicon aims to make our industry leading tools affordable by all penetration testers, says David Chartier, CEO of Codenomicon. One of the key components of the penetration testing solution is the Codenomicon Network Analyzer, which enables you to map real network traffic and to determine what really needs to be tested. It automates the work-flow for threat analysis and attack surface analysis. Thus, you can target your tests and reduce test run times without compromising test coverage. The penetration kit is an adjustable package with flexible project-based licensing, answering your changing penetration testing needs. The test suite package contains a combination of systematic model-based fuzzers, which best suit your current testing needs. In addition, the Defensics Traffic Capture and XML Fuzzers enable you to test any protocol or XML application. About Codenomicon Codenomicon develops security and quality testing software, which allows users to quickly find and identify both known and previously unknown flaws before business-critical products or services are deployed. Their unique, targeted approach to the fuzz testing of networked and mobile applications exposes more flaws and weaknesses than any other testing platform or methodology. Companies rely on Codenomicon s solutions to mitigate threats, like Denial of Service (DoS) situations and Zero Day Attacks, which could increase liability, damage business reputation and cripple sales. Codenomicon is a member of the SDL Pro Network. Source Link: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Codenomicon-Automates-bw-2206575213.html?x=0&.v=1

Web Performance, provider of web testing software and services, today reported record first quarter sales. The increase is attributed to new cloud testing features of Load Tester 4, and increased interest in testing services. Web Performance, provider of web testing software and services, today reported record first quarter sales. Net sales for the first quarter ended March 31, 2010, were up 70% compared to the first quarter of 2009. Michael Czeiszperger, founder of Web Performance, said, We have experienced tremendous growth due to an enthusiastic response to the cloud features of Load Tester 4, and increased interest in engaging our services team. We are set to have a record year in 2010. We have experienced tremendous growth due to an enthusiastic response to the cloud features of Load Tester 4, and increased interest in engaging our services team. He continues, Load Tester 4 s cloud testing features have enabled our customers to conduct realistic testing outside their networks at a very reasonable cost. Our team of testing engineers has saved our customers time and money by identifying bottlenecks quickly. Chris Merrill, Chief Engineer at Web Performance adds, More of our customers are opting to take advantage of our expert performance engineers. They are finding that we can work with them to develop smarter test cases and help them solve problems quickly. The company is planning to release Load Tester version 4.1 in May. The new version will include a new bandwidth analysis test optimized for measuring web-based network throughput, support for Dynatrace Java and .NET code profiling, control over DNS hostname resolution, and improved reports, including an executive summary. About Load Tester 4 Web Performance Load Tester , Version 4 (WPLT4) is the only web testing tool smart enough to tell how many users a website can handle. At the push of a button it generates load from outside the network to test the entire application stack, including the firewall, or generates load from inside a test lab to concentrate on server performance by itself. Detailed, configurable reports are available in HTML format, and WPLT4 Application State Management feature analyzes test cases and configures dynamic variables for most websites automatically. The automated record and configuration process means no complicated hand-coding, and no scripting languages to learn. WPLT4 automatically detects and configures the test cases for most situations. The software works with most technologies, on most platforms, including AJAX, Apache and httpd, PHP, Java and J2EE, IIS, ASP and .NET, and Virtualization. About Web Performance, Inc. Since 1999, Web Performance, Inc. has helped customers meet their performance goals with a suite of automated load testing software applications and server-based performance testing services. Source Link: http://www.prweb.com/releases/WebPerformance/Q1growth/prweb3925924.htm

uTest, the worlds largest software testing marketplace, today reported that its customer base and testing community grew more in the fourth quarter of 2009 than during any other quarter in the companys history. During this time, uTest also launched a number of new product features aimed at enterprise customers, including test cycle cloning, custom NDAs, real-time coverage testing reports and more. With the number of approved apps in Apples App Store topping 100,000 and Android already nearing the 20,000 mark, the recent boom in mobile apps has pushed uTest to the next level, said Doron Reuveni, uTest CEO. Getting high-quality web, desktop and mobile apps to market ahead of the competition is more important than ever before. And by enabling apps to be tested in as little as 48 hours, and for a fraction of the cost of traditional outsourced testing shops, uTest is helping our customers thrive. Customer, Community and Company Growth : During the fourth quarter, uTest grew its marketplace, and successfully: * Signed more than 50 new customer deals, including online stock broker, Zecco; desktop security company, Security Coverage; and Electronic Medical Records software provider, Soapware. * Added nearly 2,500 new testers, growing its community to more than 21,000 professional testers from 160 countries worldwide. * Bolstered its executive team, naming John Montgomery Vice President of Project Delivery. * Launched Battle of the E-Tailers, uncovering 500+ Bugs in Amazon.com, Walmart.com and Target.com, which was covered by USA Today, Mashable, Fast Company and eWeek. Adding New Platform Functionality: New uTest platform features make it faster and easier to assemble the right testing team for web and mobile projects. Bug reporting is quicker and more accurate, and bug data is more structured and easier for customers to analyze. Heres a snapshot of new features: * Test Cycle Cloning: Customers can create a new testing project using all the settings from a previous test cycle (e.g. scope of work, testing requirements, locations, environments, and the list of testers) with just a few clicks. * Custom Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs): Customers can upload and attach a custom NDA to any project, which testers must read and agree before starting a release. * Incorporating Test Cases: Testers can submit a completed test case directly through the platform and customers can track testing coverage in real time. * Efficient Test Team Building: Customers can more easily invite back favorite testers from previous projects. * Real-Time Coverage Reports: uTest now provides its customers with real-time reports that track testing coverage across tester locations, OS, browser, handset makers and wireless carriers. Recent Awards and Accolades: Additionally, uTest won several independent awards in Q4 of 2009, including: * Top 5 Best Corporate Blogs in Mashables Open Web Awards (after half a million votes for 80,000+ sites) * Top Innovator Winner at the New England Venture Summit by youngStartup Ventures * Commendation of Excellence Award from the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) * Under the Radar Graduate Circle, one of only five companies named sector leaders * GTAC presenter, CEO Doron Reuveni was chosen to present at 4th Google Test Automation Conference Source Link : http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/uTest-Software-Testing-Marketplace-Reports-Record-Breaking-Q4-Growth-1107834.htm

uTest, the world�s largest software testing marketplace, today announced that CEO Doron Reuveni will be presenting at Insight Venture Partners� Research and Development Forum held at the Sentry Conference Center in New York, audience for this invitation-only event is CTOs, CIOs and other top tech executives. Reuveni is one of three executives chosen by Insight Venture Partners to discuss �Testing Scenarios� at the forum, in addition to Seevast�s Dave Casion and Syncsort�s Karen Lieberman. In this session, Reuveni will explain the growing trend of crowdsourced software testing and the role that community-based testing is playing in the overall QA strategies of software and media companies. He will also address the benefits and challenges of the crowdsourcing model compared with conventional testing options. With 24,000+ professional testers from 162 countries, uTest has built the world�s first crowdsourced marketplace for web, desktop and mobile application testing. uTest customers report increased application quality, faster time to market and dramatically reduced testing costs. uTest, the world s largest software testing marketplace, today announced that CEO Doron Reuveni will be presenting at Insight Venture Partners Research and Development Forum held at the Sentry Conference Center in New York, NY on April 8th. The audience for this invitation-only event is CTOs, CIOs and other top tech executives. Reuveni is one of three executives chosen by Insight Venture Partners to discuss Testing Scenarios at the forum, in addition to Seevast s Dave Casion and Syncsort s Karen Lieberman. In this session, Reuveni will explain the growing trend of crowdsourced software testing and the role that community-based testing is playing in the overall QA strategies of software and media companies. He will also address the benefits and challenges of the crowdsourcing model compared with conventional testing options. With 24,000+ professional testers from 162 countries, uTest has built the world s first crowdsourced marketplace for web, desktop and mobile application testing. uTest customers report increased application quality, faster time to market and dramatically reduced testing costs. Source Link: http://www.prlog.org/10615346-utest-discusses-crowdsourced-software-testing-at-insight-venture-partners-rd-forum.html

Tampa, FL - Pilgrim Software, Inc., a world-leading provider of Enterprise Risk, Compliance and Quality Management software solutions, recently announced the availability of a complimentary, on-demand webinar series, Quality in the Global Supply Chain - Strategies for Effective Value-Chain Process Management as part of its Supplier Quality platform. The nine-part educational series examines the ins and outs of supply chain management, from regulatory impacts, import/export issues, supply chain risk management, supplier sourcing, supplier auditing, receiving inspections, and supplier quality in distribution and logistics. The educational webinar series was created to acknowledge and address the continuing growth in supply chain complexity, from simple domestic sourcing, manufacturing and distribution, to a complex evolution of global sourcing, manufacturing and distribution centers around the world. Pilgrim Software has observed that as a consequence of the growing complexity, an increasing number of regulations are being handed down by the FDA, EMA and other regulatory bodies, with emphasis on outsourcing and suppliers, document retention down the supply chain tiers, and industry guidelines concerning the control of outsourced processes. As a result of the growing complexity and awareness of the global supply chain management process, companies need to sit up and pay attention to their supplier quality programs, said Prashanth Rajendran, Pilgrim s Chief Operating Officer. Through this engaging webinar series you will hear how global organizations can efficiently and effectively manage their value-chain processes as global regulatory oversight continues to expand. Presenters across the series include quality industry consultants, corporate QA directors, legal consultants, university liaisons, and Pilgrim Software s own risk, compliance and quality management solutions experts. A product demonstration of Pilgrim s automated solution for supplier quality management is also available. Each webinar in the series runs approximately 45 minutes and all are available for downloading, either individually or as a series, through Pilgrim Software s website. About Pilgrim Software, Inc. Pilgrim Software, Inc. is a world-leading provider of Enterprise Risk, Compliance and Quality Management solutions for global organizations. Named North American Enterprise Compliance & Quality Management Company of the Year - Best Practices by Frost & Sullivan, Pilgrim helps organizations manage industry and regulatory compliance, reduce manufacturing costs and improve customer satisfaction. Source Link: http://www.foodonline.com/article.mvc/Pilgrim-Software-Launches-Supplier-Quality-0001?atc~c=771+s=773+r=001+l=a&VNETCOOKIE=NO

Quality assurance tests play an important role in the process of creating software products. Measures ensuring the quality of a software product meets the requirements are welcome in every step of creating the software product. Testing is one of the final and most important steps in creating a software product. Both software development and software testing have undergone substantial evolution over the years. The early stages of software testing were primitive and did not fully meet intended goals. Software testing has already gone through at least two clearly identifiable phases. In Software Testing 1.0 , software testing was misunderstood. It was an afterthought or adjunct to the development process an was left to less skilled, lower-paid individuals who actually viewed software testing as the entry point on a career path to becoming a software developer. There were few useful testing tools and methods for achieving a high degree of automation. Those that existed were expensive, difficult to use and ineffective at addressing productivity needs and concerns. In this phase, executive management was mostly disconnected from software testing - assuming that somehow, it would get done. With Software Testing 2.0 came the recognition that software testing was and is an important part of the development process. Software testing was recognized as a valuable part of application development, and everybody started to test in earnest. With the high degree of acceptance across functional groups, came ownership issues - issues of where testing fits organizationally, how it is budgeted for, and from where testing should receive its direction. There was also an explosion of available tools. These tools often further distracted the testing efforts, turning the process into one of tool selection without clear goals, architecture or direction. Within this phase, executive management s understanding of testing was still rudimentary as was their involvement. Then better quality products were developed with broader and deeper testing coverage, taking less time to test and reducing quality-related costs. The current state-of-the-practice, referred to as Software Testing 3.0 , is now emerging. Software Testing 3.0 offers the culture, methodologies, beliefs, and techniques that will enable software testing to truly deliver the full potential of quality engineering, test automation and global resources. Software testing is finally evolving to a point where it can meet and exceed management expectations. The global software testing market is worth $13 billion today. Saltmarch Media is organizing Great Indian Developer Awards to honor software products across 12 categories, based on their productivity, innovation excellence, universal usefulness, simplicity, functionality and most importantly on the ground feedback from India s software developer ecosystem. Source Link: http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/Evolution_of_software_testing_in_India-nid-66616-cid--sid-.html

Once considered a not-so-exciting career option compared to the more glamorous software development, software application testing, which essentially is all about ensuring that the software code created by developers is fool-proof and error-free, is rapidly gaining ground in the industry. With more testing jobs shifting to India because of recent cost-cutting measures by the US and the UK companies, hiring activity has intensified in this segment that is finding favour among job-seekers too. According to Ms Nirupama V.G., Managing Director, Ad Astra, a recruitment consulting firm, the requirement for testing professionals has gone up 20 per cent from last year. More challenging The IT landscape is getting more challenging and the need for quality control has increased. Today s software applications support millions of users at any point, making the process of testing a lot more critical than ever before. Apart from offering back-end solutions, several IT applications run business-and-support-revenue-generating activities. They are thus crucial to business and their non-performance could severely impact a company s balance sheet. It is this combination of complexity and high business impact in today s software applications that has made the role of quality assurance important to the overall success of a company, says Mr Manish Tandon, Vice-President and Head � Independent Validation and Testing Solutions, Infosys Technologies, which employs 7,300 professionals solely for testing. According to Mr Pradeep Bahirwani, Vice-President � Talent Acquisition, Wipro Technologies, testing has significantly matured over the years and there are enough opportunities to grow in the field. We do not differentiate at the recruitment level for testing professionals, he says Though there are definite signals of improvement in hiring for testing professionals, it is characteristic of the industry where new searches and trends come once in 18 months. Says Mr E. Balaji, CEO, Mafoi Consultants: The reason for a sudden spurt in hiring testing professionals could also be because more there was more software production last year and, therefore, more user-acceptance tests. Despite the surge in hiring, there is a shortfall of 15,000 testing professionals in the country, according to a Hewlett-Packard spokesperson. To counter the shortage, the industry is picking raw talent and grooming it to suit client requirements. The process also serves another purpose � it ensures testing professionals don t see themselves playing second fiddle to programmers. HP tie-up HP, which provides the software for testing, has tied up with the Indian Institute of Hardware Technology to offer specialised training in software testing to students. Infosys has a testing academy where trainees are put through a very stringent training programme to keep them abreast of the latest developments in the testing space, says Mr Tandon. The global application testing market is estimated at $13 billion. In 2008, the Asia Pacific market was at $102 million, with India alone contributing 21.3 per cent . The India application testing market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 17 per cent by 2012. According to industry sources, application testing accounts for 15-20 per cent of the business of companies such as Infosys and Wipro. Source Link: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2010/03/27/stories/2010032750260400.htm

Sonata Software, a leading IT consulting and software services provider, today announced that it has joined the TMMi Foundation. The TMMi Foundation is an independent non-profit organization dedicated to improving testing processes and software quality on a global scale. As a part of this initiative, Sonata will contribute to the development and review of new levels of TMMi. Sonata will also participate in the overall awareness and growth initiatives of the foundation that are targeted towards improving global testing standards. TMMi Foundation is committed to promoting the uptake of TMMi model as an international industry standard for assessing and rating organizations testing process capabilities. Over the years, the TMMi standards have gained acceptance with many organizations across the globe, for standardizing and streamlining testing processes as well as optimizing the overall cost of quality. Sonata has established itself as a prominent player in software testing services, helping organizations achieve predictable and improved software quality levels to meet their business goals. With Sonata s Test Consulting Services (SonnetQcheck), based on the Test Maturity Model (TMM), customers have experienced 30 to 40 percent improvement in efficiency, both in terms of costs and quality, in addition to faster testing cycles and better control on RoI. By joining hands with TMMi Foundation, Sonata will further enhance its capabilities of developing a common, robust model of test process assessment in the industry. Mr. C.V. Narayanan, Head - Testing Practice, Sonata Software, said, More companies across geographies are looking at streamlining their testing operations and are using software quality as a catalyst to optimize the overall cost of IT. The metric and KPI-based TMMi framework, combined with Sonata s expertise in implementing a continuous improvement framework, will especially benefit enterprises that are looking at adding credibility to their testing processes. Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Klaus Olsen, Commercial Work Stream Chair, TMMi Foundation said, The TMMi Foundation is pleased to welcome Sonata Software as one of its newest supporting organizations. The Foundation is dedicated to improving test processes and practice in the software industry. Our prime focus is the development of a common, reference model for test process assessment and improvement in IT organizations. Our association with Sonata will enable us to work actively and continuously towards our stated objectives and improve testing processes for everyone. The partnership with TMMi Foundation will help Sonata to reinforce its position as a leading provider of Consulting-Led Testing Services in the industry. We will be able to strengthen our offerings by aligning our approach completely with TMMi best practices. Sonata will leverage this enhanced capability to help its clients in adoption of latest TMMi methodologies to mitigate testing challenges, improve testing efficiencies and reduce the overall cost of operations, Mr. Narayanan further added. Sonata s Testing Services also include ERP Testing, Tools Setup, Test Automation, Managed Testing as well as Performance and Security Testing. Source Link: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sonata-partners-with-tmmi-foundation-88900097.html

Bangalore: Bharatbook.com has added a new report on Pure Play Independent Software Testing Services Market in Europe 2008-2012, which is helping the companies improve the quality of software considerably by incorporating corrections during the development phase. Pure Play Independent Software Testing Services (Software Testing Services) refers to the testing process of developed software, by an independent company. Such a company offers only testing services, without product development or system integration services. It tests the software for its quality, completeness, accuracy, and security. In addition, it includes execution of a program or application for identifying errors, and comparing the actual output with the expected one, by feeding a set of inputs. These services also include test improvement services, such as training courses, transformation test reviews. Earlier, testing was carried out post-completion of software development, for detecting defects and bugs. However, since the past few years, software testing is carried out during the development phase itself. This new method is helping the companies improve the quality of software considerably by incorporating corrections during the development phase. There is a growing trend of outsourcing testing services by the enterprises in Europe. Cost savings, business process improvements and requirement of specialized and professional skills are driving companies in Europe to outsource testing process. Further, the need for quality, and to meet both functional and non-functional testing requirements is driving this trend. The report forecasts the size of the Pure Play Independent Software Testing Services market in Europe over the period 2008-2012. Further, it discusses the key market trends, drivers and challenges of the Pure Play Independent Software Testing Services market in Europe, and profiles some of the key vendors of this industry. Source Link: http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/Pure_Play_Independent_Software_Testing_Services_Market-nid-64260.html

Having built a cloud-based testing and development environment for its own purposes, IBM has this week unveiled a commercial equivalent Computing giant IBM this week announced a cloud-based testing and development environment, which will allow customers to rent virtual systems on which to test software they have developed. The company has surprised some commentators with the decision to base the system on virtualisation software from enterprise open source vendor Red Hat, rather than the more commonly used Xen open source hypervisor. The commercial offering, which will be launched later this year, is analogous to a test and dev cloud that IBM built for its own internal purposes. Speaking at Information Age s Business Applications & Infrastructure event in 2009, the company s worldwide global test cloud executive Walter Falk explained the advantages. We ve seen a return on investment (ROI) of over 1,000%, he said. It paid for itself in under 6 weeks. Cloud computing, like virtualisation and open source operating systems before it, is commonly used for software testing and development, as it reduces the requirement for capital investment in non-production systems. IBM may be especially well placed to exploit the opportunity, as unlike other popular cloud providers it also sells software development tools. Source Link: http://www.information-age.com/channels/development-and-integration/news/1206333/ibm-announces-test-and-development-cloud.thtml

Software provider Micro Focus (LSE:MCRO.L) announced the availability of SilkTest 2009 R2 and Silk4J 2009 R2 from Borland Software Corporation, a Micro Focus Company. According to the company, the new suite of applications testing software enables customers to increase their return on investment (ROI) while reducing time expended on the critical testing process. SilkTest 2009 R2 provides functional and regression test automation for technologies including Web 2.0/RIA, Java and Microsoft technologies, enabling the testing of workflows that span multiple applications or multi-technology applications. The new release also offers a robust environment that improves effectiveness by allowing different stakeholders to build test automation frameworks. In addition, the new version of SilkTest includes the following enhancements: improved open agent technology; full cross-browser AJAX support; enhanced support for system functions by the SilkTest Open Agent; and dynamic port allocation. The company also announced the availability of SilkPerformer 2009 R2, a new release of its load testing solution. This latest software release continues on the theme of openness and technical excellence with improvements in test creation, execution and maintenance and provides support for new technologies and the Microsoft Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 operating systems. SilkTest 2009 R2 provides functional and regression test automation for a number of important technologies like Web 2.0/RIA, Java, and Microsoft technologies in a seamless fashion, which enables the testing of work-flows that span multiple applications or multi-technology applications. It also supports testers and developers by offering a robust and powerful environment that improves effectiveness by allowing different stakeholders to build true test automation frameworks and maximize ROI. Joachim Herschmann, product director Test Automation at Borland said, Early adopter customers have already noticed the speed and automatic synchronization enhancements provided by this new version. SilkTest 2009 R2 allows customers to reduce the cost, risk and complexity of testing state-of-the-art applications, increasing confidence in the quality of their applications. In addition to the SilkTest interface, which has proved very popular with Quality Assurance professionals, the Silk4J Eclipse plug-in is bringing testing capabilities to the developer environment, Herschmann added. The new version of SilkTest includes : . Improved Open Agent Technology � Dynamic Object Recognition allows for a decoupling of an application s Graphical User Interface (GUI) object hierarchy from its representation in test scripts, resulting in significantly lower script maintenance. Advanced synchronisation capabilities eliminate the need to modify test scripts to include wait times, providing advanced automation for testing today s dynamic Web applications. . Full cross-browser AJAX support � SilkTest now provides completely automatic synchronisation for testing Web2.0 applications on Firefox 3.0 and 3.5 as well as Internet Explorer, 6, 7 and 8 through its open agent technology. . Enhanced support for system functions by the SilkTest Open Agent. . Dynamic Port Allocation � The SilkTest Open Agent also now uses dynamically allocated ports. The dynamic port allocation feature for the open agent makes it possible to leverage the supported technologies for SilkPerformer 2009 R2 GUI value unit tests. Source Link : http://www.tradingmarkets.com/news/stock-alert/borl_fcusf_micro-focus-introduces-silktest-2009-r2-and-silk4j-2009-r2-712028.html

CINCINNATI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Seapine Software, a leading global provider of quality-centric application lifecycle management (ALM) solutions, today announced that the New Zealand Ministry of Justice has implemented Seapine QA Wizard Pro and TestTrack Studio products to better manage its service-related, applications testing and quality assurance processes. These solutions allow the Ministry of Justice to automate and streamline the testing of applications, improve team collaboration, and closely control the development and delivery of quality applications. The quality assurance (QA) team at the Ministry of Justice is using QA Wizard Pro to automate the testing of its service-related applications. The QA team indicates that QA Wizard Pro has helped to significantly reduce the application testing time from four hours to eleven minutes, while enabling the team to deliver higher-quality applications. The QA team is also using TestTrack Studio, which is comprised of Test Track Pro for issue management and TestTrack TCM for test case management, to track and manage all details of their testing efforts. The New Zealand Ministry of Justice was looking for a complete and fully integrated software quality assurance solution, said Rick Riccetti, president and CEO, Seapine Software. �The seamless integration of QA Wizard Pro, TestTrack Pro, and TestTrack TCM enables the Ministrys QA team to efficiently test software, track defects and defect fixes, create and manage test cases, and manage scripts in one fluid cycle. Automated processes help the testing and development teams work together more effectively, so they can consistently deliver quality applications on time. In addition to the quality assurance benefits, the QA team at the New Zealand Ministry of Justice can now maintain a complete audit trail of issues found during application testing and track the resolution of these issues for closed-loop accountability. The QA team uses TestTrack�s audit trail logging to record the information that is modified when an issue changes. The QA team is also using TestTrack to create customized workflows to manage testing and QA processes and electronic signatures to track who modifies issues. Source Link: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/New-Zealand-Ministry-of-bw-1001011032.html?x=0&.v=1

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Quantros, Inc., a leading provider of safety and quality software and professional services solutions for the healthcare industry, announces the creation of a new healthcare IT consulting division. Quantros has named software industry veteran Michael Tulloch, MBA, as Director of IT Consulting Services. Tulloch will work from the company s new Marlborough, MA office. The expansion into IT services is a natural one, explains Tulloch. Quantros has been developing software for the healthcare industry for nearly a decade. We have relationships with a number of different entities within the industry including payers and quality agencies. We also have access to specialized technical resources, both inside and outside our company, that are unavailable to most healthcare organizations. Some of the services that the Quantros IT Consulting group offers include application development and re-engineering, business intelligence, application management and maintenance services, data migration, software testing and secure access solutions. The department is also preparing to undertake a number of International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10) conversion projects to help healthcare organizations comply with changes to the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). HIPAA mandates that all health care organizations eligible for Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement convert the codes used to report diagnoses and inpatient hospital procedures in health care transactions over to ICD-10. The conversion presents a huge challenge to virtually all healthcare organizations. Quantros software applications provide decision makers with the information they need to positively impact the quality of care and financial health of their organizations, explains Tulloch. Leveraging our experience and resources in service of the IT goals of those organizations is simply an extension of our core mission. Quantros (www.quantros.com) is a leading software and services provider for the healthcare industry in the areas of safety and risk management, quality and performance improvement, accreditation and compliance, real-time surveillance and centralized decision support. Today more than 2,000 healthcare facilities use Quantros solutions to improve performance and provide a safe, high quality environment of care. Key product decisions are driven by experts in healthcare quality and performance improvement, safety, compliance, risk management and nursing. Quantros team members include physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals. Source LInk: http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1800431/safety_and_quality_software_developer_quantros_inc_launches_healthcare_it/index.html?so urce=r_health

Online Holiday Shopping Rush Exposes Widespread Application Performance and Scalability Problems; Projected Jobless Economic Recovery Likely to Stretch IT Teams Further, Worsening Software Quality Issues BOSTON, MA and LINZ, AUSTRIA--(Marketwire - December 15, 2009) - According to a recent survey of IT professionals in the US, UK and Central Europe, more than 90 percent of organizations experience pressure to deliver software releases in unrealistic timeframes, while fully 62 percent believe that this pressure directly and negatively impacts the performance and overall quality of the software they create. Many pundits predict a jobless economic recovery in 2010(1). In this environment, IT and software development organizations are under tremendous pressure to do more with less. Applications of all kinds, particularly Web-based e-commerce applications, are seen as engines of growth that can deliver the elusive combination of increased revenue at a low cost. As a result, pressure to deliver new and improved releases of applications is unrelenting. Almost two-thirds of the survey respondents cited unrealistic lead times in delivering software as a problem of high or medium impact in their organization. For consumer-focused companies, deadlines imposed by the holiday shopping season place a particularly acute strain on development and IT operations teams to create, fix and update the applications their organizations rely on to turn a profit. Almost half of the survey respondents report losing at least one day every week reproducing and fixing performance and availability issues. This indicates a loss of hundreds of hours that could otherwise be spent building new features to attract, engage and retain customers. Aggressive application delivery deadlines don t allow for such inefficiency. As a result, the scramble to meet target dates often results in lower-quality, slow-performing software that can disappoint end-users. This can damage a brand and hurt a company s bottom line. These challenges, noted in a report by Keynote Systems, observed that almost all leading retail sites slowed down on Black Friday and some even had major outages(2). According to Forrester Research, on average, companies that provide a superior experience have 14.4 percent more customers who are willing to consider them for another purchase than companies in the same industry that offer a poor customer experience(3). App dev shops are under increasing pressure to deliver apps faster, but hasty application development can result in lower quality, said Mike Gualtieri, senior analyst at Forrester Research. A poor user experience created by bugs or performance problems in applications can be disastrous to a firm s bottom-line. Increasingly, companies are learning that application performance is the most important determinant of the online experience, and that features and elegant user interfaces cannot compensate for slow-loading Web pages. Research from Google and Microsoft, released earlier this year, found that performance issues resulting in delays of as little as a half-second can distract users and greatly impact business. The results of user performance tests, revealed at the June 2009 Velocity Conference by Microsoft s Eric Schurman and Google s Jake Brutlag, assess the aspect of performance that is most important -- speed. The growing complexity of today s applications can lead to delays caused by poor performance, which their research found not only distracts users, but can cause them to abandon sites altogether. The survey, hosted by dynaTrace, a provider of application performance management (APM) solutions, examined the challenges and costs associated with delivering scalable and high-performing applications. Based on responses from almost 500 developers and IT professionals, the study assessed the impact of new technical and organizational trends that complicate efforts to ensure strong application performance. It also evaluated the ability of organizations to deal with these new challenges. Source Link: http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Dynatrace-1090811.html