The recent credit crunch a.k.a. the global financial crisis has been the subject matter in fact the center of attention of majority of the discussions in the recent past. Everyone has been much concerned with the enormity of this crisis as it has significantly affected most of the industries. Even such institutes which the world deemed to be as rock solid were severely hit by this crisis as well as it had a ripple effect across the globe on everyone.
Even though the adverse effects of the global financial crisis (which started in early fall of 2008) have been felt by almost all the industries; however the IT industry (particularly the software testing industry) hasn’t been much affected by this crisis as compared to other industries. In fact it wouldn’t be wrong to say that this crisis was a blessing in disguise for the software testing industry.
Huge corporations and software houses that have been affected by this crisis have been looking for innovative and efficient ways for decreasing costs while improving customer satisfaction. This need makes them outsource their businesses to places where they can get the same quality standards at cheaper rates.
Forrester Research (an independent research company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice to global leaders in business and technology) has predicted in one of its research reports that around 1.2 million (or even more) European IT industry jobs will be outsourced to other territories by 2015.
One of the studies commissioned by SQS (Software Quality Systems: one of the world’s leading specialists in software quality) entailed that most of the firms have already been working to optimize their software testing activities and the rest of the firms are looking forward to do this via measures like comprehensive standardization of software testing.
Majority of the firms are increasingly engaging with offshore software testing service providers for the sake of achieving higher quality standards while reducing costs. The study also shows that due to this financial crisis; majority of the firms are now seeking blended services delivery (a combination of onsite and external test services.)
Software Testing activities are definitely the integral part of software development processes as they guarantee that the software meets all quality standards. Although testing software sometimes costs you a lot of time, money and effort but (if done the right way) in the long run this cost can turn into a fruitful investment.
Anyhow; as ironic as it may sound, Software Testing Industry Owes Big time to this start of the century, global financial crisis!!
