SpaOnDemand

Software Performance Assurance

Can you Improve Software Product Quality and Reduce Testing Costs with On-demand Testing?

Testing bandwidth for what you need, when you need, how you need it …

“More and more companies now

leverage specialist service providers

in place of building in-house

capabilities for non-core areas.”

This document is confidential and proprietary. It may not be circulated or disclosed in whole or part without the written permission of Software Assurance,

LLC. No representations or guarantees are made or implied. Plans and projections are subject to change Software Performance Assurance www.sp-assurance.com [email protected]

AN ONDEMAND APPROACH TO TESTING

BUSINESS AS USUAL? Revenue growth in the form of new customers is always font-and-

center for business leaders. But what about Revenue Continuity? In

this post-recession era, it’s more important than ever for companies

to keep the customers they have happy and, ideally, gain a greater

share-of-wallet from those customers. Why? Simply, new customer

acquisition is expensive, and it is impossible to have predictable and

growing revenue and profit streams with high levels of customer

churn.

The reality is that many companies simply don’t invest enough in

keeping their existing customers happy (and loyal), hence they have

a customer churn problem. You only get satisfied customers by

providing reliable, high-quality products and services that do what

they are supposed to do, AND you have to do it better, faster, and cheaper than your competitors.

Software vendors and service providers who cannot or will not ensure a high-quality product are being increasingly

marginalized. In this post-recession era, your customers likely run very lean and will not be willing or able to burn scarce

resources to address poor quality in your product. If that’s the position you are putting your customers in, one thing is

certain …. They will not be your customers for long.

THE WRITING IS ON THE WALL ... There can be no argument that you must provide a high-quality product.

High quality for software products implicitly means that you must have

an efficient and effective testing process and infrastructure to assure

that your product is ready BEFORE your customers ever see it.

An effective testing infrastructure recognizes that the cost of defect

caught post-release is exponentially more expensive than a defect

caught pre-release. It detects and corrects defects before the product is

ever released to your customer. An efficient testing infrastructure

optimizes the cost-risk equation, minimizing the cost for testing

activities while maximizing the probability that your product will meet

or exceed your customers’ requirements.

Arguably, many companies do have reasonable functional testing capability. However, they seriously lack the regression,

automation and performance testing capabilities that could greatly improve the quality of their product in the eyes of

their customers. Why? There is constant pressure to invest scarce resources to deliver more and more features to stay

ahead of the competition. AND, this typically happens at the expense of testing. Test automation and performance

testing are activities that companies always seem to plan, but never actually get the resources and time to perform

thoroughly.

Would you sleep better if …

You had highly effective, specialized

resources available at all times to assure

that your product will meet your

customers’ requirements, BEFORE it’s

released

You had those resources in a variable

cost arrangement, where you only had

to pay for them if and when you needed

them.

You knew you had consistently effective

defect detection that gave you ample

time to react

What’s keeping you up at night?

We’re over budget on development and

testing

We might not make our committed release

date.

We are in danger of exceeding our budget

Our customers will find defects that we

should have found

We could have a catastrophic failure in the

field



HOW CAN YOU ADDRESS THESE ISSUES Sophisticated test automation can provide consistent

coverage, and save significant time and cost in a short-

medium time period by ensuring that changes to the

product or its platform do not introduce defects. Well-

defined and executed performance testing that includes

load and stress, benchmark, and soak tests can ensure that

your product consistently meets your customers’

performance requirements, even during peak loads.

It’s hard to argue that this type of testing isn’t needed.

However, does your company have skills and bandwidth to

perform these tests? If you are like most other companies these days and have leaned your workforce to the bone,

chances are that you must focus your limited resources on introducing features to stay ahead of competition.

How then do these mission-critical testing activities get done?

There are options, of course. You could build the capability in house. BUT you may end up needing more resources and

time than you have to build a team, define effective and efficient processes, and establish the purpose-built

infrastructure. For a lot of companies, hiring people and investing capital in areas that are perceived to be outside the

core, revenue generating activities of the company is simply not an option.

You could outsource testing to a generalist IT service provider, BUT this testing is really a specialized activity and you

could find yourself with exactly the same quality, management, and cost issues you had to start with.

A better option may be to leverage new breed of specialist testing service providers that already have people, processes,

and technology infrastructure that is purpose-built for this type of testing. In essence, you plug into an optimized highly

effective, highly efficient testing cloud. Risks are reduced, costs are controlled, and results are predictable. Problem

Solved.

WHAT IS REALLY NEEDED? If you think a specialist partner might be the right path for your company, here are some things to consider …

If you want to be reasonably confident that you’ll see a measurable ROI in a short time period, then partner with

a specialist, not a generalist. A true testing specialist will have specialized knowledge including application

knowledge management, test tool knowledge, scripting knowledge, test automation and performance testing

expertise. They will also have a purpose-built process infrastructure, AND specialist staff. Most generalist

software outsourcing companies, simply can’t make this claim.

You likely don’t need these specialized capabilities at a constant level throughout the entire project life cycle.

This makes it difficult to justify full time hires, so most companies try to backfill with functional testers, or worse,

developers, with the typical result being sub-standard results as functional testers and developers likely do not

have the requisite specialized skills. A better arrangement would be one that is On-demand or pull based, where

you pull in specialized capabilities when and how you need them, paying as you go.

Outsourcing these testing services to a qualified specialist provider should not require major changes to your

existing processes. You really should be able to plug in to your partners specialized capability with minimal

disruption to current activities

Think about it …

Lack of test automation capability results in

inconsistent test coverage before a product is

released while, at the same time, wasting an

exorbitant amount of resources on manual

testing

Lack of performance testing capabilities results

in performance problems in the field. As more

strain is placed on the system, performance

bottlenecks start surfacing



Not every application is a candidate for an on-demand approach. On-demand services can be very applicable and

affordable for low-to-medium complexity applications such as SaaS, web applications, and other enterprise

applications.

SOLVE THE PROBLEM – SPAONDEMAND SPAOnDemand is an innovative, low-touch service that allows

you, for all practical purposes, to have effective testing resources

and infrastructure on stand-by, but not have to pay for it until

you use it and only pay for what you use. The goal … to

measurably reduce field defects AND better manage testing

costs.

This is a compelling proposition when you consider that 30% or

more of a typical IT budget might be consumed by testing, AND

that full-time regression automation and performance testers

may spend 30% of their time on stand-by anyway. For certain

applications, SPA’s Testing OnDemand service can mean

significant savings, without sacrificing quality and results.

SPA is a testing specialist …. It’s all we do, and this is precisely how we can offer a service like SPAOnDemand. .

SPAOndemand is only made possible by our extensive testing expertise and specialist resources, purpose-built process

infrastructure, extensive technology/tools infrastructure, and pre-built knowledgebases and frameworks. In essence, you

are plugging into a sophisticated testing cloud with the same benefit cloud offers from an applications perspective.

There are 6 core elements for SPAOnDemand:

Readiness Fit: Not every application is appropriate for SPAOnDemand. With some minimal discovery, a SPA

specialist will offer honest counsel on whether or not your application is appropriate, or is better handled with a

traditional project outsource model.

Ramp up: We assign a SPAOnDemand Resource Manager, and then leverage sophisticated and proprietary

knowledge management tools (i.e. Q-Patterns ,Risk-based Prioritization) to capture, maintain, and continuously

enhance information about your application. We use a very structured approach for initial information gathering,

one that maximizes knowledge transfer but tightly manages demands on your resources.

Request Management: For SPAOndemand cycles, you will be able to schedule test requests through a secure online

portal. You will submit requirements/enhancements, fixes, known issues, and other relevant information. You are

also able to see previous requests and related details.

Resource Management: We assign a SPAOnDemand Resource Manager (RM) that manages the knowledgebase for

your application, and assigns and tracks testers, test beds, and other resources online. You will always have a single

point of contact with your SPAOnDemand RM.

Test Management: Your SPAOnDemand team efficiently and effectively maintains your test environment and

updates test documents by leveraging our sophisticated and purpose-built knowledge management infrastructure).

A communication plan (ie. Meetings, status, etc) will be established between you and your SPAOnDemand RM.

Feedback Mechanism: Your SPAOnDemand Dashboard will show results in a graphical format. You will enjoy near

real time 100% visibility to progress and results.

SPAOneDemand is a true on-demand, pay-as-you-

go testing service that can offer extraordinary

benefits in certain situations …

Specialized regression test, automation

and performance testing resources on

standby, and you only pay for what you

use.

Access to a highly refined, purpose-built

infrastructure, without having to build it.

An innovative way to cut your testing

costs, AND improve product quality



CAN SPAONDEMAND WORK FOR ME? SPAOnDemand is not suitable for all type of software applications. Our experience allows us to qualify, and disqualify,

applications with a relatively high degree of certainty. Some questions we might ask about your application:

Does application require extensive specialized test bed / test environment such as Telecom network?

Is application SaaS or web-based? These types of applications are typically very suitable for SPAOnDemand, but,

other enterprise and low-medium complexity applications can also be good candidates.

If applicable, is server access available?

Your SPAOnDemand Resource Manager uses a well-defined process to determine whether an application is suitable for

SPAOnDemand, or is better served with a traditional project-based engagement.

WHY SHOULD YOU PARTNER WITH SPA? SPA is a specialist provider of software testing services. It is all we do and we are experts. Our patented technology and

infrastructure has been covered in trade magazines and our senior management team is recognized for its software

testing expertise. We are a different breed of service provider:

We are software testing specialists. It is all we do and we do it very well.

We have extensive set of testing platforms and pre-built frameworks to provide cost effective testing solutions.

We have purpose-built and streamlined infrastructure and processes that captures industry best practices.

We leverage state-of-the-art processes, methodologies, and test tools routinely in the course of our business

Our Service Delivery model assures constant feedback based on real data and metrics. It is our business to

identify real and potential issues as early as possible, eliminating surprises.

We have a proven track record of providing test automation and performance testing services to companies of

all sizes and in many different industries and domains.

We are experts in multiple domains including cloud testing / SaaS testing, web application testing, eLearning

testing and mobility testing.

We leverage a blended onshore-offshore model to reduce cost further.

We are experienced and comfortable working with startups as well as large, global organizations

We will measurably improve your testing and verification process, thus improving your customer’s

perception of your product. AND, we’ll save you money in the process …

Technology

SpaOnDemand