TaaS: A Comprehensive Guide in 4 Easy Points

Introduction               

In today’s IT environment an important activity is software testing in order to ensure the effectiveness of the designed programs. Testing has become a crucial part of the continuous process that has to be undertaken by entities developing any kind of software along with development. This rising demand has opened up a new direction for the outsourcing of the same to a third party. Such outsourcing of a testing process to a third-party is called Testing as a service (TaaS).

1. What is Testing as a Service?
2. Types of TaaS
3. Features of TaaS
4. Benefits of TaaS

1) What is Testing as a service?

Testing as a Service (TaaS) is a model for outsourcing wherein the testing of software is outsourced to the third-party rather than being performed by the employees itself. The service provider replicates actual testing environments that help to identify and eliminate any software bugs. TaaS process involves Web Interface, Test Infrastructure, 24*7 availability, and TaaS provider.

TaaS may involve-

• Outsourcing of testing process to Service provider, or
• Engaging consultants to help and advise employees.

It aims at achieving maximum testing for the software application from functional, performance, and security aspects. Organizations always want to reduce the testing cost for saving money and under such a scenario, TaaS is the best choice.

TaaS is also known as on-demand testing whereas the traditional testing environment is manually created and maintained. Where no extensive or comprehensive knowledge of the system design is required, TaaS is suitable for such specialized testing. Other services such as security testing, automated regression testing, application testing,  performance testing, testing of major ERP (enterprise resource planning) software, and monitoring/testing of cloud-based applications are well-suited for the TaaS model.

In traditional testing test assets, test data, test documentation, and business domain knowledge are generated manually wherein TaaS they are dynamic/ dynamically generated.             

2) Types of TaaS

Various types of TaaS in different sections of an organization that take place at different parts in the life cycle of testing. Some of these types can be listed as follows: 

• Application Testing – in this application developed by the company is tested;
• Regression Testing – in this, new features are tested for any negative deviation from existing features;
• Load testing, in which the vendor tests the expected usage volume of a piece of software;
• Penetration testing – in this service provider performs simulated attack to test the company’s security robustness;
• Quality Assurance (QA) testing, in which the vendor helps the company ensure that a product — often software — meets specified requirements before release:
• Service-level agreement adherence – in this an application for SaaS is tested for conformance to the agreement

The above types of testing in TaaS can be sub-divided into the following categories:

• Functional TaaS – Functional testing includes integration, regression, User interface/ Graphical user interface testing. It also includes automated User Acceptance Testing (UAT) although not as a component of functional testing.
• TaaS of Performance – The application is accessed by more than one user at the same time. TaaS acts like an actual users environment by creating virtual users and performing the load as well as a stress test.
• TaaS of security– The applications and/ or websites are scanned by TaaS for any weakness.
• Server Load & Performance Testing – Services of testing performance include the transactions in a simulated production environment and analysis of scenarios faced by the user. Testing as Service providers can run simulations with a predetermined number of transactions, users, and views to evaluate the performance under different server loads and conditions of your application.
• Testing of Data Warehouse – Due to time constraints and the huge volume of information, verification of data quality and transformation accuracy manually is impossible when the developer companies are building a data warehouse with millions of data lines. The service provider creates a test that automatically measures data completeness, transformation accuracy, and overall data quality.

3) Features of TaaS

Some common TaaS features include the follows: 

• It is a self-service portal that helps to execute functional and load tests for running application.
• Test library with total security controls, configurable parameters and description of user scenario.
• On-demand accessibility for a fully automated test that includes the ability to make use of complex multi-tier applications, test tools, and test scripts.
• Shared hardware utilization, sharing of Cloud hardware resource pool helps to maximize the resource utilization while adhering to the security policies.
•  The detection of bottlenecks and problem solving for the application under test by monitoring it is ensured by the use of application diagnostics under TaaS.
• The function of metering of TaaS allows tracking of resources and accordingly charging for the services used by customers.

4) Benefits of TaaS

There are several benefits of TaaS which are as follows:

• Flexibility in test execution: The user of service can adjust the services as per their changing needs.
• Savings in cost: Outsourcing testing helps the companies achieve cost reduction/ cost savings of 40-60% of the cost through cloud testing, elimination of infrastructure cost, personnel fees, and licensing fees as against the traditional methods. 
• ROI is fast: This is achieved as there is no need of investing in hardware infrastructure, personnel, and software licensing.
• Availability at all times: TaaS companies offer service 24/7.
• Data Integrity: The tests are provided in a safe environment and data integrity is maintained by the TaaS companies at all times. TaaS ensures data integrity with access only to intended users.
• Pay as per use: Companies need to pay only for the services they use.
• Scalability: Services are curated to suit the need of the company.
• Quick delivery of the product: Delivery can be done in less time through swift procurement, setup of the project, and execution of the test.
• Reduction in cost: TaaS helps reduce operational cost and maintenance costs along with reduced investment cost.
• Bias free testing: Third-party testing ensures lower bias or bias as against in-house testing.
• Customer Support: TaaS provides customer support at no additional cost.

Conclusion          

                                                                                   
There are several benefits of TaaS. However, an organization may become dependent on the external organization for fulfilling testing needs. Thus the company should evaluate all the factors before outsourcing the testing process. TaaS may be the best option for tasks involving a testing process of specific nature which are simple, require lots of time or resources.

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