If your business is considering an IT consulting partner for software application or software product development, you should ensure that the partner or service provider has documented, proven quality standards, processes and methodologies, and a stable, dependable testing environment.
Find out whether the service provider ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System (QMS) certified and if they passed the independent ISO 9001:2008 audit for all major processes, including offshore development, project management, and software product development and after sales services. This certification is an assurance that the vendor designs and develops software products and projects with a solid quality framework of software engineering processes, including project planning and project management, requirements management, design, development, quality control, deployment and installation and support. Certification to this internationally recognized quality standard provides an assurance that the service provider consistently follows and complies with well-defined, internationally accepted quality standards. Ask if the service provider understands and uses the Capability Maturity Model (CMM). CMM is a development model that relates to the documentation, formality and optimization of processes, and was designed to improve and optimize software development and supporting business processes.
By engaging an expert IT consultant, the business can enjoy a comprehensive suite of testing and quality assurance services. Critical testing is planned and executed by a team of professionals, thereby mitigating the risk and omissions often experienced when the testing is done by the same team that developed the software. This added perspective and objectivity ensures thorough testing and positive results. If your business employs experienced, skilled IT software testing services, it will enjoy numerous benefits:
- Optimized software product releases, and minimized patch and bug fix releases
- 24/7 support and reduced downtime
- Improved customer, partner and employee satisfaction
- Assured security, standards and regulatory compliance
- Improve scalability and interoperability
- Improved ROI and reduced TCO
- Dependable systems and data integration and access
- Optimized in-house IT resources
- Coordinated testing and migration processes and methodologies
- World-class, dependable testing services with no training investment
- Flexible testing services that grow and shrink to meet enterprise requirements
- Expert team with objective perspective and testing techniques will ensure positive project outcome and success
- Test environment, planning and consulting including regression testing, stress testing, security testing, load testing, manual testing, user acceptance testing, mobile application testing, functional testing, automated testing, application performance testing, usability testing, commercial software product testing, test design, development implementation, support, use case and test case development and fulfillment, test data generation and integration with the testing process.
If you employ an experienced service provider with proven quality and testing standards, you will ensure that your applications and software products are scalable, dependable solutions and will provide quality output and usability. While some businesses give little attention to quality and testing processes, the wise business manager knows that he/she will reap financial benefits and increased customer and user satisfaction by doing it right the first time!
