December 3, 2020
There’s a better way to test the software applications powering your latest business services. It’s called Testing as a Service. TaaS helps to improve the quality of your applications in a way that’s faster, more scalable, simpler and cheaper than traditional testing approaches.
The need for a better, faster and more cost-effective way of testing applications is clear. Applications play an increasingly important role in the products and services that businesses deliver in today’s digital economy. However, ensuring that applications are offered effectively, securely and cost-effectively at speed remains a challenge.
Traditional testing models are neither predictable nor cost-effective. Because they often fail to leverage best-in-class processes and tools their quality may be lower than required. What’s more, the cost of traditional testing is based on the number of testing professionals involved, their skill sets and the engagement’s duration. So extra costs can easily accrue for certain skills, equipment, even desk space. Estimating your total cost can be tricky.
A more efficient way
TaaS is far more efficient than traditional testing models, too. Service providers offer an output-based delivery approach with an efficient and flexible consumption-based procurement model.
With TaaS, customers procure testing services from a catalog of standardised deliverables that they can use to assess the functionality, technical quality, performance and even security level of their applications. The deliverables are determined based on the testing outputs needed at different stages of the software development lifecycle. That might be the creation of a test strategy, plan or automated test script or the execution of an automated test.
To make that easy, TaaS supports both modern Agile and DevOps approaches as well as more traditional lifecycles such as Waterfall.
What really differentiates TaaS from traditional testing models is that customers gain tremendous flexibility. They can adjust the type and quantity of deliverables they receive, as well as when they receive them. Customers can quickly and easily tailor their testing to meet their changing project needs, and to scale testing services up or down based on their evolving business demand, avoiding unnecessary costs.
This kind of flexibility is especially important for Agile projects. There, the development teams may prioritise and re-prioritise from sprint to sprint, based on what will deliver the most value to the business.
More scaling, less cost
TaaS is highly scalable. If your testing volumes are lower than expected, the service can be scaled down. Conversely, if demand increases and testing needs to be scaled up, more testers can be quickly rolled in to create the necessary deliverables.
Also, since TaaS is based on output, the service provider is responsible for managing the staffing and availability of tools. This lets the customer focus on higher-value items. Because the service provider manages the day-to-day activities and resources of the testing team, adjusting capacities as needed to meet demand, there’s less complexity and hassle for customers. Costs are less, too, since the customer pays only for what they consume. Because consumption prices are fixed, estimating total costs is easy and accurate.
While TaaS tests are conducted via a public or private cloud, TaaS is not a cloud-only service. It can be used with both your cloud and on-premises systems. Test management software, if required, can also be included as part of the service. The license cost is included in the service, so you won’t have to invest in long-term licenses. That said, if you’ve already made those investments, TaaS can be easily configured to use your existing test-management products.
TaaS is also a lot more than Software as a Service. SaaS includes only the tools. But with TaaS, you also get test cases, test automation, execution and sophisticated tools.
Adopt TaaS and your benefits can include:
- Testing services with higher quality, faster speed and lower costs
- Greater flexibility and scalability to adjust testing to meet your evolving business needs
- Increased testing coverage and efficiency
- Freedom from up-front investments and maintenance fees
Here’s a real-world example of attaining lower costs: One of our customers wanted to merge the back-end systems of several companies it had recently acquired. This was to be a multi-year project that would include systems for manufacturing, packaging and shipping. The first phase needed to cover more than 300 requirements and 600 test-case executions. The company would also need to test more than 45 third-party application interfaces. With TaaS and our help, the company successfully completed this project phase at a cost of nearly 40 percent lower than originally forecast.
Get testing
When you’re ready to get started with TaaS, DXC can help. Our Enterprise Technology Stack incorporates application development and management, and we have more than 10,000 testing professionals available virtually worldwide. We’ve been working with the TaaS model for nearly a decade, having migrated our first customer back in 2011.
Looking for a better way to test your applications? Try Testing as a Service. Compared with more traditional testing approaches, TaaS is simply better.