Software Testing Services - Softtek

As Software Testing in the Cloud Comes of Age, How are Outsourcers Capitalizing?

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Nearshore Americas - In terms of business value, Warren Ross, Global Director of Cloud Services at Softtek, talked about the paradigm shifts of mainframe, client-server, web, and now Cloud. “When you shift paradigms and are building and migrating apps it really makes you look at process maturity.” That process maturity has come a long way in the testing environment over the last 10 to 15 years. Once upon a time it came into the project life cycle late, was rushed to fit the available time left, contributed little to quality, and was expensive.

Mobile Application Security Challenges

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Aldo Salas

Technology is not just a luxury in our daily lives; it has become a necessity. From new car models to cutting-edge cell phones, we see that each day we’re able to do more and more. It all started with making and receiving calls—the ability to communicate using your voice without a wire. But today’s cell phones are no longer considered just call-making devices; they are being referred to as smartphones due to their number of capabilities and features. And precisely those features are what have caught the attention of the bad guys. This white paper will discuss the main challenges every company faces when trying to deliver content to mobile users, i.e.: smartphones.

Testing Services for the Software Industry

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Testing Services for the Software Industry

Improving time-to-market and quality through a cost-efficient testing solution

The Client

A world leading developer and provider of systems, software, services, and solutions which enable its customers to store, protect, optimize, and leverage their information assets.

With revenues of over $11 billion, the Company is a component of the S&P 500, and is represented by more than 100 sales offices and distribution partners in over 50 countries, employing more than 30,000 people.

The Challenge

With an industry evolving rapidly and competition releasing new and more manageable devices with larger capacity (almost doubling every year), the challenge to release more products faster became a critical part of the overall market plan.

In addition to that, the Firm needed to keep supporting past versions and upgrading their software accordingly, which made the quality assurance and overall product release a critical component of their business cycle.

Softtek suggested the implementation of a suited testing framework that would enable the Client to:

Make the QA process more efficient; to get the product faster to market with no defects.
Market faster high quality - highly differentiated software for storage solutions.
Develop an efficient Knowledge Transfer process, a critical component, considering the complexity of the technology, limited availability of resources and lack of documentation.

The Solution by Softtek

Softtek defined and implemented a Testing Framework that included people, processes,
methodology and tools which were made to size for the Client’s needs. The framework provides a fully automated regression test team, which would fit into their product development life cycle and test over multiple platforms and versions in early phases of the development lifecycle. Also, it brings a mature test strategy for their products, assuring defect detection rates of 99% or more.

Softtek developed an internal and self sufficient Knowledge Transfer strategy program specialized on massive storage devices and drivers knowledge; provided the Near Shore® model through which the team can dynamically be on site and Nearshore when needed.

The project comprises a team of 14 people, and a local test laboratory at Softtek’s facilities in Mexico which included the Client’s manufactured hardware and software components.

The Benefits

The solution, which addressed the first tier of the multi-tier QA strategy implemented by the Client, made the phase managed by Softtek the most effective QA stage, detecting the majority of the defects in the early stages of the product life cycle, thus improving the end product.
A high defect discovery rate in the early stages of the lifecycle, makes a tremendous impact in the cost of product support for this Client. The earlier the defects are discovered, the higher the cost savings.
Since the solution was implemented, the Client has not reported severe defects released into the final phase, nor to the market versions of its products.
Ability to replicate the Client’s lab in Mexico (Softtek’s Monterrey Global Delivery Centre), which significantly reduced the customer’s indirect costs.
Overall impact of the testing framework translates into faster time-to-market, a better product, at a lower cost.
Overall management and outsourcing program has matured faster due to the nature of the Near Shore® model’s interactivity and flexibility.
Overall customer experience improved for the Client due to high interaction with Softtek.
Adoption of automation culture across the organization.
Successfully automated regression tests, which allowed the Client to use its own experts in higher value functions.

The Voice of the Customer

“…. (Softtek’s specialists) have worked very effectively as part of the team completing a set of complex tests allowing our Company to meet a very aggressive feature delivery schedule to QA.

Due to their efforts, we achieved this milestone which allows the Company engineering to target a Q3 release date for a product that will generate significant revenue for The Firm.”

About Softtek

Founded in 1982, Softtek is a global provider of IT and business process solutions with over 6,000 associates across 30 offices in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia. With eight Global Delivery Centers in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Spain and China, Softtek provides in-depth, high-quality and cost-effective solutions to top-tier corporations in over 20 countries through on-site, on-shore and its trademarked Near Shore® service delivery models. Creator and leader of the Near Shore® Industry, Softtek is the largest private IT service provider in Latin America. For more information, visit the Company’s Web site at www.softtek.com.

Copyright Softtek Integration Systems, Inc. 2001-2009. All Rights Reserved. Softtek, the Softtek logo, Near Shore® and other Softtek products and services mentioned herein are registered trademarks of Softtek Integration Systems, Inc. in USA, Mexico and several other countries. Global Nearshore™: Trademark Registration Pending.

Software Quality Assurance for the Insurance Industry

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Software Quality Assurance for the Insurance Industry

A cost efficient model to increase quality of business applications

The Client

A Fortune 500, leading global financial Company offering businesses, individuals and institutional Clients a wide range of financial products and services, including retirement and investment services, life and health insurance and banking through a diverse family of financial services companies.

The Client has $270.1 billion in assets under management and serves some 18.2 million customers worldwide from offices in 11 countries throughout Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America and the United States.

The Challenge

As part of their competitiveness strategy, the Client needed to reduce IT services costs while improving the overall quality of their applications, minimize the failures in production that hampered their brokers and agencies operations, as well as find a way to assure that all new applications did not have quality issues. The QA culture in the Company was not fully integrated across the business and IT areas, and considering the competitive landscape, the Company had little time to evolve their current products, release new ones, as well as be compliant in a highly regulated industry. In addition, due to the dynamism of the environment, the organization was under constant change, thus making a remote work model less feasible, since due to market pressure, cycle times needed to be reduced not extended.

The Firm needed to set up a Testing Centre that would let them:

Increase the reliability of their IT applications to do business.
Adapt to constant change to keep them as leaders in the insurance market.
Constantly renovate and migrate efforts to support a Company-wide QA culture which was being deployed.
Effectively respond to the immediate demands of specific strategic insurance business initiatives for Health, Disabilities, Policies, Claims, Benefits, Marketer Services (Logistics and Distribution Channels) and SOX Compliance.

The Solution by Softtek

Softtek defined, tailored and implemented a Dedicated Testing Centre to serve all the QA and testing needs across different businesses and groups from Softtek’s Near Shore® Delivery Centres in Mexico.

This initiative included a complex Knowledge Management Process and on going maintenance, as well as the development of new products and services for the Customer.

As part of Softtek’s Test Plan and Strategy, an inclusive methodology of QA was implemented, providing mentoring to the Client’s test leads and managers. Also, change management mechanisms were facilitated by high interaction and real time communication.

The project comprises a team of 50 people, that supports 10 Global Applications, with a steady flow of 1 or 2 modules per application at a time, plus Individual projects which run between 3,000 to 5,000 men/hours each.

The Benefits

Overall management of quality of applications.
Significant cost reduction rate due to defect prevention and sustainable production support.
The Client was able to refocus on delivering value to the business through IT, thanks to higher quality business applications which released valuable resources for new developments.
Improvement of their release cycles for new or renovated products as well as their quality levels.
Softtek implemented a solid documentation policy facilitating future Knowledge Transfer capability.
Support the deployment of best practices in QA and test projects and standardization of these best practices.
Enable more mature analysis and design capability due to participation of QA.

The Voice of the Customer

“… I think things are really shaping up nicely and I have received comments from senior leadership recognizing that QA tasks seem to be running very smoothly. The whole testing team gets credit for that. Thanks”

“I just want to thank the both of you for working so hard on this project. You’ve done an awesome job. Although it’s not complete, I feel the first phase was very successful and we couldn’t have done it without your hard work and dedication. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!!!”

About Softtek

Software Quality by Design: Starting at the testing stage, too little too late

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 12:00:00 +0000

Ricardo Garza, Softtek Process Improvement Mentor

Think about software quality. Most likely the immediate reference takes you to the Testing phase. Indeed, software quality is measured by the number of defects the product contains, and it isn't until this phase when we start worrying about them, as the software’s initial level of quality manifests itself "magically"—or or tragically—in the first round of testing. But at this stage, quality is merely an emergent property, a byproduct.

For instance, Apple’s recent antennagate scrutiny provoked a lot of discussion around an alleged lack of testing involved, or a rushed time-to-market. However, with the iPhone 4, as in any software project, testing could only be performed on a small subset of the field conditions. In order to meet or exceed client expectations, quality should be engineered in the process—designed, rather than tested.

This webinar will unveil the groundwork for achieving these software quality principles, which may often be overlooked at the expense of the organization’s performance.

Is your Software trustworthy?

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Global Newsletter, July 2010

EDITORIAL
IS YOUR SOFTWARE TRUSTWORTHY?

On a recent flight, the movie I was watching was suddenly interrupted. The screen in the backseat in front of me went black, followed by a series of Linux system re-booting messages. The system had crashed; the software had a bug.

I couldn’t avoid thinking about how many of the numerous systems on that plane depended on good quality software. Let’s say that I was not as relaxed for the rest of the flight.

Software has become pervasive. It has penetrated deeply into almost every aspect of modern life. The need to constantly enhance software quality and testing practices is imminent.

For this issue we have gathered a series of resources, including a client-provider conversation, an analyst webinar, and case studies and lessons learned, all around a pressing topic of the IT industry: Increasing the reliability and trustworthiness of software.

Alex Camino
Softtek VP of Marketing & Communications
acamino@softtek.com

ON-DEMAND WEBINAR
ANALYST TAKE: CLOSING THE GAP BETWEEN BUSINESS ANALYSIS AND QA

Featuring Forrester’s Margo Visitacion, this Softtek-sponsored webinar will present the latest findings on how organizations are increasing the business to the value without sacrificing quality, and how companies are closing the gap between business analysis and quality assurance. Download Slide Deck .

EMPOWERED TESTING CENTER: A PROVIDER-CLIENT CONVERSATION

Based on practical experiences, Karla Garcia, global director of product management for Softtek, and Dean Lythgoe, director of GroupWise and teaming engineering for Novell, Inc., share their views on the empowered testing center. View Session

FROM THE TRENTCHES
10 BEST PRACTICES FOR EFFECTIVE TESTING & QA IMPLEMENTATION
By Jose Vargas and Julio Córdoba, Financial Services Division of Fortune 50 Organization

After years of polishing and fine-tuning a division-wide testing & QA efforts, we thought it would be a good idea to share the top ten items we now consider key for successful outcomes. Read on for the Top Ten list of things to consider for a frictionless implementing strategy. Read More

EXPERT CORNER
TESTING & QA: A YING-YANG APPROACH TO INCREASE BUSINESS VALUE
By Leticia Barceinas, Testing & QA Product Manager, Softtek

How do testing & QA contribute to the business? That’s a question we’re hearing more and more often. In this short article, we argue that the solution lies in an Integrated Quality Assurance and Testing approach that does away with isolated views of these practices. Full Article

CASE STUDIES
A COST-EFFICIENT MODEL TO INCREASE QUALITY

Discover how an insurance carrier with close to 20 million clients minimized failures in production that were hampering brokers’ and agencies’ operations. Download

QA AS ENABLER OF APPLICATION INTEGRATION

New applications can bring innovation, but also pose challenges. Learn how Softtek enabled robust QA and undisrupted operations for a leading insurance carrier that was facing change. Download

NOTEWORTHY
FEATURED ARTICLES AND PRESS RELEASES

Softtek CEO Named 2nd Most Influential Executives for Nearshore Outsourcing According to Nearshore Americas’ Power 50 Report, June 7, 2010 PR – Power 50 Report

Ranking the Six Leading IT Cities for Skilled Human Capital - Monterrey Rates Number One – Nearshore Americas, May 12, 2010 – Full Article

Softtek Ranks 40th on IAOP Global Provider List – Nearshore Americas, April 30, 2010 – Full Article

CIOs Slowly Pry Open Dusty Wallets – E-Commerce Times, March 25, 2010 – Full Article

CEO Interview: Softtek’s Trevino Speaks Openly About Leadership, Acquisitions and the Region’s ‘Sweet Spot’ – Nearshore Americas, March 24, 2010 – Full Article

Softtek Named Socially Responsible Company by Mexican Center for Philanthropy –March 17, 2010 – PR

Softtek Holds Official Inauguration Ceremony of Wuxi Global Delivery Center – March 3, 2010 – PR

About Softtek:
Founded in 1982, Softtek is a global provider of IT and business process solutions with close to 6,000 associates across 30 offices in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia. With nine Global Delivery Centers in Mexico, China, Brazil, Argentina and Spain, Softtek provides in-depth, high-quality and cost-effective solutions to top-tier corporations in over 20 countries through on-site, on-shore and its trademarked Global Nearshore™ service delivery models. Creator and leader of the Near Shore® Industry, Softtek is the largest private IT service provider in Latin America. For more information, visit softtek.com.

Closing the Gap Between Business Analysis and QA — An Independent Analyst Perspective (Softtek Webinar)

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 12:00:00 +0000

Margo Visitacion, Vice President, Forrester Research, Inc.

This Softtek-sponsored conversation with special guest Margo Visitacion, Vice President at Forrester Research, Inc., takes a look how requirements-based testing is changing companies' ideas about quality and how they are addressing the testing challenge.

Organizations must develop applications that return the greatest value at a reasonable cost. In order to do that, they must continuously improve productivity while maintaining quality. New trends are showing that companies are closing the gap between business analysis and quality assurance — having these key resources work more closely together enables stronger alignment focused on building applications that not only deliver necessary business support but are also pragmatic from a technology perspective. This closer relationship is shifting how companies are working with their testing partners.

Empowered Nearshore Testing Center - A provider-client conversation

Tue, 25 May 2010 12:30:00 +0000

By Karla Garcia, Global Director for Product Management, Softtek
Dean Lythgoe, Director of GroupWise and Teaming Engineering, Novell Inc.

One of the toughest challenges for software testing is designing an approach compatible with economic constraints and fast product release cycles. Balancing quality, cost and time-to-market for maximum ROI is difficult to achieve, and focusing on the "perfect testing center" is time-consuming, expensive and subject to numerous changes--all this, without guaranteeing added value to the organization. An empowered testing center may present an option to address the issues.

This conversation will focus on sharing practical ideas/examples on how to obtain a testing organization that's mature, low footprint and adaptable, to effectively capitalize on value for a wide range of software testing requirements. Softtek has provided software testing services to Novell for the last 3 years. In this session, specialists from both companies will share their views on the topic and answer questions from participants.

The following topics will be discussed:

Combining the best talent and empowering them through a managed services approach
Decision-making at Testing team level to boost effectiveness
Fulfilling the quality promise efficiently through effective knowledge acquisition
Communicating effectively with customer’s key business roles
Boosting productivity through the right global delivery strategy

Preparing a Strategy for Application Vulnerability Detection

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:00:00 +0000

By Juan Calderon >> Setting the basis to secure critical information assets

Having the overall picture of the company’s information assets exposure is vital for Information Security Officers, since it allows them to make the right decisions regarding where the fixing efforts should be spent. This white paper will share some key tactics that can help answer questions like: Where should application security testing start?, Which applications are most critical to the company?, What kind of testing method should be used?, What tool is best for the job? And, what verification requirements should be considered for the application security policy?