As usual, XBOSoft has been mentioned in another market report on Agile Testing Solutions. The market continues to grow as more and more software companies arise out of the natural need to digitize their offerings. Locks, garage doors, speakers, watches. You name it, they all include a software component now. Five years ago, they were stand-alone items you could purchase. Now, they are connected to everything else and more often than not, include a monthly subscription.

And as more companies realize they need to become software companies, they begin to see that it’s not so easy. No longer can they develop a product and sell it for several years. Rather, they’ve got to connect it to a mobile phone and ensure the product can evolve with the software component via firmware and software upgrades. Additionally, they then begin to understand that their customers and end-users have become to expect upgrades and new functionality on a continuous basis, not just every few years!

For this, they soon find they need to be agile… And hence, Agile takes on a new meaning. This is why the Agile Testing Solution market will continue to grow over the next decade as Agile as a development process does not specifically have testing as part of its main principles as per the Agile Manifesto. Instead, proponents have had to define and establish where testing should take place within Agile and who should be responsible. Companies who implement Agile have thus had to forget their own path in figuring out how to ensure quality in their software with no ‘formal’ testing organization and the Agile Testing Solution market has responded with many solutions from tools to hybrid testing organizations that do more than what was typical in waterfall development practices. Rather, Agile testing organizations have a much wider scope of activities, getting involved with product managers in validating requirements while also working with developers to ensure that requirements are clear, complete, and testable. 

atsqa logo 1Agile testing and its mysteries in effective implementation are so well known that there have been entire books written on the subject and it’s continually being covered in magazines and articles. XBOSoft’s CEO recently did a webinar for the Association for Testing & Software Quality Assurance, titled, Five Key Habits For Testing in an Agile Environment.

In the webinar, Phil Lew, discusses 5 tips or habits based on his 15 years’ experience in how to effectively ‘test’ or better put, provide quality assurance in an Agile process including:

  1. Focus on efficiency and effectiveness
  2. Treat the user as royalty
  3. Maintain an improvement frame of mind
  4. Be agile then Do Agile
  5. Think long term

So, if you’re looking for a QA partner who’s been in the ring for a while and understands the ins and outs of implementing an Agile Testing Solution along with the pros and cons of the tools out there to support you, let XBOSoft lend you its 15 years of experience. [email protected].