The Word ‘Agile’ refers to moving quickly; testers have to understand and adapt to rapid deployment cycles and changes in testing patterns. It involves testing from the customer’s perspective as early as possible, testing early and often as code becomes available and stable enough from module/unit level testing.

Agile testing integrates closely with outsourcing software development. Since software is released often, there is a need to test it often. This is mostly performed by using automated acceptance testing so as to minimize the amount of manual work. Agile Testing moves the project forward by providing information, feedback, and suggestions. Continuous testing is the key to ensure continuous progress. In this type of testing, reusable checklists are used to suggest tests. The focus is on the essence of the test rather than the incidental details. Also, in Agile testing, we test all the time, not just at the end which relieves us from tough test schedules.

Buggy software is hard to test and modify; and hence slows down everything. Keeping the code clean helps fix the bugs fast.

In agile testing, no conventional testing practice are applicable to wait until the completion of entire development cycle activities take place, whereas the testing is closely intact with the development and is done in parallel to as and when some part of code is developed.

Agile testing should be as quick as possible to test the parts of the code as soon as they are ready, stable, and final from developer’s unit or module level testing. This is to show the customer a high quality working product at regular short time intervals. So, agile testing is all about custom testing placing the customers’ quality & delivery needs for the software in the first place rather than the software vendor’s huge, repetitive testing lifecycle, and the quality strategies. The goal is shifted from “software testing as quality watch” to “a collective team effort towards a demonstrable quality”.

The agile testing drives the concept of “test-driven development” covering basic test cases to even out the main functionality of a requirement, thereby helping the developers to keep an eye on quality from the time of coding, keeping the code clean while covering the critical and fundamental test cases in their unit tests. With the test checklists already available even before the programming of the software starts, the testers are able to reuse them to easily manipulate and update the test cases for manual & automated testing, while managing the on-going requirement changes within the specific time frame.

Issue tracking software is helpful for many reasons. When it comes to running a business and keeping track of large amounts of data, things can sometimes go wrong to the point of your not knowing how to fix them. However, with an issue tracking software, problems with your project or database will be dealt with and solved immediately.

In an offshore  product development company, Issue tracking software installs a help desk right into your computer so that when something happens to your system database or the information system things can be controlled. Having someone at your aide can be of immense help, especially if computer maintenance is not where your strength lies. There is the feature of reporting the issue either over e-mail or by phone. This ensures that the help you receive will be intelligible and benefits your specific problem in a timely manner.

Issue tracking software does more than helping you to solve Issues. It lets you keep track of the status of the project like how far the project has reached in the execution stage. It helps you to assess your team’s Issue tracking efforts and you will be able to assess the important project metrics, such as testing, project progress, and more. Issue tracker software also lets new team members get up to speed quickly. They can see how far the software application is developed, what issues are open and closed, and who is assigned to each issue. A good Issue tracking software application should let you arrange the issues by categories too. You can easily track who is assigned what in the team. Issue tracker software can be a great management tool.

One of the important uses of Issue tracking software is to create a knowledge base so that team members and eventually the support staff can see the procedures used to solve issues. The new issue will be similar to one that has already been fixed, so by just looking at older issues, the new ones can be solved. Issue tracking software helps in generating reports. This is an imperative management tool and saves the time that managers spend on compiling information for reports so that they can actually spend more time in managing and less time in pushing paper. It can also be used in the employee appraisal process.

Issue tracking especially for large projects is a very complex process. A planned approach to software development with a detailed and automated process for addressing those issues that come up during development and even after the development when the application is in maintenance mode. Issue tracking software helps you manage issues by increasing the productivity, reducing downtime, more satisfied customers and greater communications between all the team members and other teams.

BlackBerry is massively popular among outsourced product development business users as its business friendly features prove very helpful to users. A BlackBerry phone’s usability is enhanced by downloading several third party solutions that are available and easy to download as well as use. With BlackBerry in your hand, you can virtually do anything and stay in touch with anyone at anytime. It is the new short cut of staying connected. Blackberry’s success has led to more than 28 million users of this smart phone brand. This fame led to the gradual development of Blackberry applications and outsourced software development market that has made this industry an ever growing and advancing field of survival. As and when, newer Blackberry mobile phones are launched with advanced features and exclusive technology; it is a challenge for the Blackberry application developers to beat the competition. Many applications and software are developed and launched in the market either for free or trial packs or buy-and-use packs, that composes of various messenger applications, games, internet browsers, themes, and advanced e-mailing software. All these features are largely downloaded and used by users.

Blackberries and iPhones have all become the latest and greatest items for any aspiring business executive. There is a great deal of potential profit to be made with the careful and tactical creation of relevant software applications. Once upon a time, software services and blackberry application development was the exclusive domain of a powerful oligarchy of outsourced product development companies and there was little room for anyone else. With the advent of the internet and more specifically software outsourcing websites, this has radically leveled the playing field, meaning that even if a person has no technical or programming experience whatsoever, they too can take the big boys on and give them a run for their money.

The software outsourcing company provides the technical know-how as well as experience and knowledge required for the successful completion of a project. All they need is a project outline by the person who is hiring them and they can take it from there. BlackBerry application development witnessed a speedier growth with the increasing demand of BlackBerry handsets. Slowly and gradually, more number of BlackBerry software development companies are emerging. This has led to boosting of the BlackBerry applications market. Several mobile application developers were entering this sector in awe of opportunity to create something that would mesmerize people. BlackBerry being mostly the first choice of buyers, saw the increase in developers choosing BlackBerry solutions market.

IndiaSoft 2010 is the country’s first IT event which provides the IT companies an excellent platform to showcase their IT products and services. IndiaSoft helps the participants to understand about technology, market development and dynamics about the industry. This meet will be visited by IT buyers from Latin America, Africa, CIS, Asean, North America, Europe, Japan, Middle East region.

India Soft is covering various areas of outsourcing and globalization. At IndiaSoft conference we get to meet industry leaders, executives, and practitioners who are leveraging global services to tackle economic challenges and to strategically grow their business. The Conference will provide the opportunity to network with global speakers and panelists including top enterprise executives, global sourcing providers and industry and business analysts.

Q3 technologies is also looking forward to an active participation in the exhibition. We will be displaying our IT products & services to make useful business alliance with the customer from all over the world. This year IndiaSoft focuses on commercialization of new and emerging technologies. IndiaSoft provides an opportunity to Exhibitors as well as Buyers globally looking for outsourcing IT services & solutions including KPO, BPO, Banking, Finance, Insurance, Telecommunications, Media & Entertainment, Bio Informatics, Engineering Design, Travel, Hotel, Hospitality, Logistics, and much more…under one roof. There will be around 100 Indian IT Tier II and III companies displaying their IT services and around buyers from 70 countries for business networking. This year the exhibition will emphasize on commercialization of new and emerging technologies.

Companies gain new customers from participating in exhibitions like IndiaSoft. Q3 technologies got many new customers last year from this event and we are hoping to get many more this year too by having a successful show at the event.

Germany is a significant market for Q3 technologies as this will be Q3’s fourth year in a row at CeBIT. Q3 is committed to providing the German market with superior Software products and services. At CeBIT, Q3 Technologies would be showcasing its expertise across a gamut of innovative solutions built around cutting edge technologies in Microsoft .Net, Java, Cloud and other open source platforms.

CeBIT provides an opportunity for companies to come together and present their strategies and products. The key target groups are users from industry, the wholesale/retail sector, skilled trades, banks, the services sector, government agencies, science and all users interested in technology.

Ramana Rao, VP of Engineering Q3 Technologies shared his opinion on Scrum and Agile development methods used by Indian software companies. “I think Scrum and Agile development methods have started making their mark in India. As a matter of fact, many companies have started moving away from the traditional Waterfall model. The change is imminent as customers start getting unequivocal in their demand of “quickly watch things working”. Companies will be successful as long as they are able to manage shorter learning curves, impose strict quality guidelines within constantly dwindling development iteration’s and at the same time reduce rework.”

Ramana also talked about the new Project Management approaches in India that have gained popularity in recent times. He mentioned “CMMi benchmarks stipulated by Software Engineering Institute (SEI) will continue to provide a significant and solid process and management foundation and will help companies to improvise on their project planning, execution, monitoring and delivery mechanisms.  In the context, it is pertinent to note that, of recent, best practices stated by PMI (Project Management Institute) are gaining a lot of popularity in the Indian IT Industry circles. The good thing is that both of the above approaches share a lot in common and  chances of conflict are none or minimal.”

Q3 Technologies will also be exhibiting at the IndiaSoft Meet to be held on 10 – 12 March 2010, at Jaipur, India. This meet will be visited by IT buyers from Latin America, Africa, CIS, Asean, North America, Europe, Japan, Middle East region.

Software testing is a process that ensures that the new software that will be released will work. Software testing helps the developers to find out whether there are technical problems in particular software before it is released. Software testing also ensures that the software that is being released by its manufacturer has passed standard quality tests. Software testing helps to avoid the hassles and cost that may be caused by faulty software’s that have been released in the market. When software that has not gone through software testing is sold in the market, it is likely to have technical issues that can arise from the software usage. This may have costly result particularly when software is used in applications that are crucial in the operation of business organizations.

There are mainly two types of software testing used by all software testing companies in India and across the globe, Manual testing and Automated testing. Manual software testing generally involves manual interaction with application, and observing the outcomes very carefully. In addition to this, a manual testing allows the tester to execute random testing in comparison to automated testing. However, automated testing is different from manual testing. Automated testing provides you with the facility to run automation against code that changes regularly to identify regressions in a sensible manner. Automated testing provides you the ability to run automation in mainstream scenarios. The latest techniques in software testing increase the quality of software products in a number of ways:

1) reduces the cost of software development and testing.

2) reduces the time spent on the development of new software products.

3) Improves the software performance. The benefits of using software testing tools directs to increase in team motivation and decrease in the time of testing the application.

Also, learn about Issue tracking software used for software testing.

ERP has many advantages which can benefit the company in the long run.  ERP helps in faster processing of information and reduces the burden of paperwork. It gives customer satisfaction in terms of prompt responses and follow ups. It helps in having a say over your competitor and adapting to the ups and downs of the market and business fluctuations. ERP is suitable for global operations as it encompasses all the domestic jargons, currency conversions, diverse accounting standards, and multilingual facilities. ERP helps to control the data and facilitates the necessary contacts to acquire the same. It helps in streamlining of financial and administrative systems.

One of the greatest benefits of incorporating ERP as a key business strategy is its ability to fundamentally eliminate multiple systems with no more redundancy. Individual agencies can hereby share important information in a standardized way, proving for a reduction in time spent doing this and a resulting improvement in productivity. All-in-all costs are reduced by implementing ERP for discovering only the best practices for all the business processes needed to be carried out.

ERP is a technology formed with the fusion of small, separate segments of an enterprise to form a larger, interactive unit. The atmosphere of ERP is inevitable and the architecture is robust. You can analyze data across all departments and interpret most important information. Information flow across boundaries experiences least viscosity, providing customized business solutions.

Modern businesses run systems, IT networks and corporate applications and manage business processes that often become unwieldy, complex and difficult to manage. An ERP solution with its business process transformation capabilities is generally favored by enterprise IT managers, chief information officers and chief technology officers to integrate and better manage business operations and ever-increasing business applications and network systems. The solution in its early deployment stages integrates key business processes and functions such as finance, manufacturing, purchase, production planning, human resources, sales and marketing.

A successful implementation of ERP software can result in medium-term business benefits. Top management are able to get real-time insight into business activities and operations across locations and can adjust short-term strategic objectives and goals. Employees can access and manage enterprise applications on demand. Over time, businesses learn to be more quick, competitive and productive.

Some of the principles behind the Agile manifesto are:

• Customer satisfaction by rapid, continuous delivery of useful software.

• Working software is delivered frequently.

• Working software is the principal measure of progress.

• Close, daily cooperation between business people and developers.

• Simplicity.

• Self-organizing teams.

• Regular adaptation to changing circumstances.

Agile software development is a framework for software engineering that promotes development processes throughout the life-cycle of the project. Agile allows your team to identify the most critical features of the software that can be completed within a short time frame and it delivers a complete build with this set of limited features as the first iteration. Once that is done, you can move those features to production or continue on to the next iteration. Agile projects are released to production months where Waterfall projects normally span a year or more before they are released to production.

Agile methods emphasize real time communication, preferably face-to-face, over written documents. Most agile teams are located in a bullpen and include all the people necessary to finish the software. At a minimum, this includes programmers and the people who define the product such as product managers, business analysts, or actual customers. The bullpen may also include testers, interface designers, technical writers, and management. Agile software development focuses on keeping code simple, testing often, and delivering functional bits of the application as soon as they’re ready. The goal of agile software development is to build upon small client-approved parts as the project progresses, as opposed to delivering one large application at the end of the project.

Advantages of Agile

• Agile methodology has an adaptive team which is able to respond to the changing requirements.

• The team does not have to invest time and effort in delivering the product.

• Face to face communication and continuous inputs from customer representative.

• The documentation is the crisp and to the point to save time.

• The end result is the high quality software in least possible time duration and satisfied customer.

OutsourceWorld is a pure-play business trade platform for executives who have a need to outsource business services. OutsourceWorld is the premier industry event, which focuses on sourcing and globalization and provides an excellent platform for software companies to reach out to the global market. OutsourceWorld is an event crafted for business leaders charged with strengthening their organization, improving competitiveness and increasing profit margins in an economy that has undergone significant structural changes.

At Global Sourcing Forum and Expo (GSFE), participating companies would get an opportunity to learn from influential leaders, executives, and practitioners who are leveraging global services to tackle economic challenges and to strategically grow their business.

This event is unique as it brings academics, thought leaders, sourcing executives and global suppliers from over 25 countries, all in just 2 days under one roof to discuss debate and learn about the challenges and opportunities posed by changes in their industry. This event has a great significance for medium and large-sized companies that are increasingly adopting global sourcing and offshoring as a competitive tool.

Exhibitors like Q3 technologies use this platform as a launch pad for their latest products. This is a 2 day IT event that will have the largest presence of  IT and ITES (IT enabled companies) companies with their innovative IT products & services. In addition, Q3 will explore established and emerging client destinations and follow best practices to successfully source, manage and deliver global services.

At OutsourceWorld 2009, Q3 technologies would be showcasing its expertise across a gamut of innovative solutions built around cutting-edge technologies in Microsoft .Net, Java and other open source platforms.

The next few days will see hectic activities in the company’s development center (India) and overseas offices as preparations are made for OutsourceWorld 2009. Q3 Technologies will also be exhibiting at the ESC IT Meet to be held on 9^th Nov’09 at Bogota, Colombia. This meet will have presence of  software companies with their innovative IT products & services.