What are the major concerns of organizations right now and in the future when it comes to software testing? India’s most topical and up-to-date testing conference, Siliconindia Softec, was held in Chennai on Jan 29th, was the ideal platform for many to discuss this. The conference provided clear guidance in helping with the challenges and issues faced in testing today, how best to address them and how to cope with changing conditions and the need to optimize every effort.

Nagarajan Pichumani Founder and CEO, Softsmith shared his views on the pains faced by testing teams regarding hardware, software, tracking tools and human resources and said, “To avoid the pains while testing hardware and software, the mantra is “go to cloud”. Use cloud and minimize cost. Testers do well when they feel “I learn every day”, “I learn things other than project stuff as well”. Also Softsmith provides a free, hosted SaaS product QAMonitor. This will help process streamlining for SMEs. This is a revolution that we started in the testing field”.

T Ashok, Founder and CEO, STAG Software spoke on the topic “Accelerate defect detection using Hypothesis Based Testing (HBT)”.He said “HBT Testing focuses on how a scientific approach to detecting defects, a personal test methodology enables rapid defect detection. Testing is not mere executing of test cases that can speeded up by automation or by using a light weight process. It is an intellectual activity that requires good thinking to understand, strategize, design , automate, execute and course correct. Sharp goal clarity(clear expectations), purposeful activities (great strategy), wide net (test cases) are vital for good testing and cannot typically be speeded up by mere tools or the organizational process. HBT provides the individual with a means to sharpen his/her intellect to enable these activities to be done rapidly and effectively.

Pradeep Janakiraman Offshore Delivery Head, Zylog Systems spoke on ‘Globalization testing- Getting your software World-ready’ the session dealt deeper into the nuances of Globalization testing and touched upon the advanced areas of Pseudo translation and automation for multilingual applications.

The event witnessed 300 professionals and was a great platform for testing end users especially those who are connected to day to day execution issues and applicability. The audience as well as the speakers found it a great platform for interaction. The testing function in many organizations is evolving and sometimes the division of roles between testers, developers and users are becoming less rigid as new developments in software development and testing make testers out of developers and end users, and developers out of testers. The event provided a holistic view of testing, seeing the product from the user’s point of view.