featured posts:
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Cognizant Automates Testing of Point of Sale Terminals
Feb 17, 2020, by Dominique RaviartIn a recent blog, we highlighted how Cognizant approaches the testing of connected devices. Testing connected devices brings new challenges to QA at two levels: conducting hardware testing and automation. Cognizant’s TEBOT IP is based on a combination of traditional test automation (mostly based on Selenium test scripts) and hardware powered by a Raspberry Pi, triggering physic[...]
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test IO: Strategy Update on EPAM’s Crowdtesting Business
Feb 03, 2020, by Dominique RaviartWe recently talked to test IO, the crowdtesting vendor that was acquired by EPAM Systems last April. We wanted to understand the crowdtesting positioning of the company, learn more about the User Story crowdtesting offering launched in December 2019, and understand how test IO fits within the larger EPAM organization. Founded in 2011, test IO today has 200 clients, many in the ret[...]
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TCS Positions Data Testing Capabilities Around Big Data & AI with BITS
Jan 08, 2020, by Dominique RaviartIn the world of testing services/quality assurance, data testing has in the past been somewhat overlooked, still largely relying on spreadsheets and manual tasks. While much of the current attention has been on agile/continuous testing, data testing remains an important element of IT projects, and gained further interest a few years ago in the context of big data, with migration o[...]
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Tech Mahindra Refreshes Functional Test Execution with AI & UX Capabilities
Dec 16, 2019, by Dominique RaviartWe recently caught up with Tech Mahindra’s QA practice, Digital Assurance Services, to assess recent progress with their IP strategy. Digital Assurance Services’ test automation strategy is based on IP and accelerators in its LitmusT platform. The company has been aggregating and integrating automation artifacts within LitmusT and intends to automate the full testing l[...]
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Amdocs Simplifies the Test Case-to-Test Script Process with Ginger
Nov 29, 2019, by Dominique RaviartWe recently chatted with Amdocs about how the company has been progressing with its automation framework, ‘Ginger by Amdocs’. Amdocs launched Ginger four years ago, initially as a test automation framework designed for use by non-automation engineers. Since then, Amdocs has aggregated some of its test IP around Ginger and has become its main test automation platform, with[...]
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Tech Mahindra Introduces Performance Testing Platform Based on Open Source Software
Aug 02, 2019, by Dominique RaviartNelsonHall has commented several times about the role of platforms in quality assurance (QA) and how these are playing a central role in functional testing in the world of agile methodologies and continuous testing. Platforms take a best-of-breed approach to software components and rely, by default, on open source software, sometimes including expert functionality from COTS. In th[...]
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Not Just About the Crowd: Crowdtesting Embraces Automation
Jul 15, 2019, by Dominique RaviartIn the world of testing services, crowdtesting stands out. While efforts towards automation are accelerating in testing services/quality assurance (QA), the perception that crowdtesting is labor intensive and relies on communities of tens of thousands of testers seems at odds with this. This perception is no longer valid: the crowdtesting industry has changed. Managing crowdtestin[...]
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Cognizant Looks to Automate Testing of Connected Devices
Apr 10, 2019, by Dominique RaviartNelsonHall has been commenting recently on the future of testing, looking at how AI algorithms and RPA tools fit in the context of QA. This blog takes a different perspective by looking at how one of the tier-one software testing service vendors is approaching its testing of bots and connected devices. With the fast adoption of connected devices, automating testing of consumer or ind[...]
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HCL Technologies’ RPA Initiatives for Software Testing
Mar 12, 2019, by Dominique RaviartNelsonHall has commented several times on how vendors have been introducing AI into their QA/software testing activities; for example, to enhance defect analysis and prediction. We have talked less about the use of RPA because it did not seem to bring much innovation on top of what testing software products already offer. Testing software products have been around for over 20 year[...]
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Expleo, the New Home of SQS, Invests in AI Offering
Feb 22, 2019, by Dominique RaviartNelsonHall continues to examine the AI activities of major testing service vendors. In the past 18 months, many testing service vendors have expanded their AI capabilities around analytics, making sense of the wealth of data in production logs, defect-related applications, development tools, and in streamed social data. We recently talked with Expleo with regard to its AI-related [...]
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Amdocs Automates Chatbot Testing with BDD
Feb 14, 2019, by Dominique RaviartNelsonHall continues to explore how cognitive is reshaping software testing services, and here I look at how Amdocs is automating chatbot testing. The market is shifting from continuous testing to cognitive Over the last year, for many testing services providers, the focus evolved from creating continuous testing platforms (in the context of agile and DevOps adoption), to incor[...]
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Wipro’s Topcoder & The Future of Crowdsourcing
Dec 19, 2018, by Dominique RaviartWe recently had a briefing with Topcoder, an entity acquired by Wipro in 2016. Topcoder is known for its crowdsourcing capabilities and its extensive community network and recognized for the wide range of services it offers across several areas of technology services, with a focus on agile development, digital design, and algorithms/analytics. Topcoder’s four main operational principl[...]
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Infosys Testing: ML Initiatives & Autonomous Testing On the Horizon
Nov 29, 2018, by Dominique RaviartSoftware testing services continue to show vitality in their adoption of tools to increase automation. One of the areas in which vendors are investing heavily is AI, not just leveraging AI to increase automation through an analytics approach, but also in testing of AI systems. Back in November 2017, we reported on how Infosys was expanding its testing service portfolio in the areas o[...]
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Sogeti’s Strategy for AI & RPA in Testing
Nov 26, 2018, by Dominique RaviartWe recently caught up with Sogeti, a subsidiary of Capgemini, to discuss the use of AI and RPA in software testing. In testing, AI use cases are focusing on making sense of the data generated by testing and from ITSM and production tools. For RPA, adoption of RPA workflows and chatbots in automating testing services has to date been minimal. Continued investment in Cognitive QA[...]
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Quality Engineering Becoming A Reality: TCS Launches Smart QE Platform
Oct 26, 2018, by Dominique RaviartIn our last testing blog on TCS in July 2018, we discussed the work TCS has conducted around UX testing and the introduction of its CX Assurance Platform (CXAP). In this blog, I look at the IP that TCS launched in mid-2018 addressing another feature of the digital world: DevOps and AI. TCS’ Smart QE Platform is built on existing TCS IP, including: NETRA – automat[...]
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TestingXperts: Focusing on Next-Gen & Technical Testing Services
Oct 23, 2018, by Dominique RaviartWe recently caught up with TestingXperts (Tx), a software testing/QA specialist. Tx was set up in 2013 and has presence in Harrisburg, PA, London, and Chandigarh and Hyderabad in India. Revenues of Tx in 2017 were $15m, and its current headcount is 500. The model of the company is based on Indian delivery: currently, around 80% of its personnel are located in India, primarily in H[...]
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Tech Mahindra Continues to Shift Performance Testing Portfolio Toward Next-Gen Services
Sep 13, 2018, by Dominique RaviartWe recently talked with Performance Engineering, a horizontal unit within Tech Mahindra and a growth story within the firm’s testing practice: the unit’s headcount has nearly tripled in the last four years to 1.2k. Part of this success relates to changes that Tech Mahindra has made to its service portfolio, which has expanded from a specialized testing offering (perfor[...]
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TCS’ CX Assurance Platform: a Bold Ambition for Digital Testing
Jul 19, 2018, by Dominique RaviartIn the past five years, NelsonHall has observed software testing services vendors adapting their portfolio around digital testing, focusing initially on agile and DevOps, and with a sense of urgency given the accelerating adoption of agile development methodologies. The transformation towards DevOps/continuous testing is ongoing, with most vendors now having their DevOps testing buil[...]
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Tech Mahindra’s ATA Tackles the Challenges of Model-Based Testing
Jun 15, 2018, by Dominique RaviartTech Mahindra recently briefed NelsonHall on its new model-based testing (MBT) offering, Automated Test Assurance (ATA). To date, enterprises have shown interest in MBT technology, but take up has been low, partly because they had already invested in creating test cases and test scripts and were reluctant to make a further investment in creating a new a set of process models/diagrams[...]
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Testbirds Continues to Experiment with its Crowdtesting Portfolio
May 14, 2018, by Dominique RaviartWhen NelsonHall published the first crowdtesting vendor evaluation in the industry in 2017, it was striking to see how the main crowdtesting players had different strategies and were developing their services in different directions. And crowdtesting continues to surprise by bringing novelty to the testing service industry – an industry essentially based on process and, increas[...]
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Accenture’ s Teach & Test Methodology for AI Testing
May 11, 2018, by Dominique RaviartIn the past three years, testing service vendors have been looking at how to adopt more automation and apply AI to testing. Accenture, meanwhile, has been approaching things from a different angle, looking at how to test AI software itself rather than applying AI to the delivery of testing services. Here I look briefly at Accenture's approach to AI testing, which used a two-ph[...]
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Infostretch: Leveraging AI for Software Test Optimization
Apr 17, 2018, by Dominique RaviartI have touched several times on how AI is being used in the context of software testing for reducing the number of test cases, optimizing coverage, and estimating the number of defects in an upcoming release of an application. And, as AI technology is becoming pervasive, we are expecting more use cases to emerge for software testing soon. We recently had a discussion with Santa Cl[...]
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What M&A Activity at SQS Means for its Management Consulting Model
Apr 05, 2018, by Dominique RaviartWe recently spoke with QA specialist SQS about how its acquisition of Moorhouse Consulting and its own acquisition by Assystem Technologies (AT) are each supporting its management consulting (MC) services ambitions. SQS continues to deploy its MC units across geographies Firstly, Moorhouse Consulting. This U.K.-based company brings in ~140 consultants and £22m in annual r[...]
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Sogeti Deploys AI & Analytics in Testing, Unveils Cognitive QA
Feb 15, 2018, by Dominique RaviartWe continue to assess the impact of AI on software testing services in its various forms (ML, NLP, deep learning), talking to the major suppliers in the industry. Vendors have been accelerating their investment in AI technologies to make sense of the wealth of data available in defect management tools, production logs, and ITSM software tools, creating use cases – mostly around[...]
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Assystem Technologies' Acquisition of SQS: Scale Achieved, IoT Services a Major Priority
Dec 19, 2017, by Dominique RaviartIn something of a surprise move, Assystem Technologies (AT) recently announced its intention to acquire Germany-headquartered but LSE-listed SQS. AT is offering 825 pence per share, valuing SQS at £281m, and has secured (on an irrevocable basis) 31.4% of the shares of SQS from founders, executive management, and board members. This is a generous offer - 56% over SQS’ shar[...]