Quality Assurance Services

Quality Assurance Services

e-core: Offsite IT Service Delivery Model e-core s model has been designed to meet the highest quality standards in offsite IT consultancy and development services. It is based on industry standards of IT services management. This document describes the organizational structure, the development process and the communication plan aimed to support the services operation. e-core (http://www.ecoreusa.com) is a Brazilian nearshore application outsourcing company specialized in helping small and medium sized Independent Software Vendors and Software Enabled Companies to increase their productivity and quality by providing IT solutions using an optimum onshore/nearshore engagement model. With wide experience building high performance teams by allocating dedicated teams in our development center in Brazil and exchanging knowledge with customers about methodologies, tools and best-of-breed practices in software development, e-core creates innovative IT solutions that generates great value to our customers. Since 2008 selected as one of the best places to work in Brazil (IT & Telecom) according to Computerworld s annual report, e- Core has a strong global team composed of smart and talented individuals committed to delivering high quality work. Alignment with core values is a pillar for e-core s customerfocused culture. Working at e-core means living these values and being responsible for the success of every client in every interaction and project. Nearshore Methodologies Having attended corporate clients, e-core has acquired expertise in nearshore outsourcing, a variation of the offshore model in which IT services are carried out in a country which is geographically close to the contracting company s headquarters. E-Core offers its clients a highly flexible and optimized nearshore methodology that guarantees complete collaboration between onsite and offsite teams. Without forsaking quality and productivity, e-core s nearshore model blends convenience and efficiency with competitive prices, taking into account that the projects resources can be rationalized and adapted to the clients needs. 2

A customer making use of e-core s services can benefit from the already existing Onshore (U.S.A.) and Nearshore (Brazil) structures currently operated by e-core. Brazil offers a series of advantages, such as: Very competitive prices Convenient time-zone (GMT-3: only 2 hours ahead of EST) Cultural similarities Highly qualified labor force Low-risk geopolitical and economic environment Well established and secure infrastructure Talented resources Favorable economic environment Brazil Timezone proximity Cultural compatibility Cost efficiency As a result, each project can be dealt with according to its particular needs, and the presence of professionals at the customer s site can be easily arranged, either for a whole project or for specific activities, like requirements gathering and production deployment. At the same time, the offsite structure can provide high quality services at lower costs, while benefiting from the close relationship with the onsite team. 3

QUALITY ASSURANCE AND TESTING SERVICES Often overlooked during the Software Development Lifecycle, the Quality Assurance and Testing activities are paramount to the success of any software development initiative. These are the key processes that will allow a company to properly plan and manage the quality of its processes and products. e-core s Quality Assurance and Testing Services can help your company achieve a number of benefits such as: Higher quality software products Impartial quality assessment Lower time for testing cycles Lower costs Metrics around the quality of the products and processes Improved processes Audited processes Access to experienced and highly trained consultants Improved user satisfaction Higher adoption of systems Scalability through test automation Lack of quality control can lead to many negative outcomes ranging from a lack of user trust to legal suits due to unmet regulations, thus yielding negative financial results. Therefore, it is important to rely on a set of well-defined processes and qualified human resources to conduct the testing activities professionally and effectively. Due to their nature, testing services are a very good candidate to be performed by an independent group, which can be responsible for auditing and certifying the software. An offsite quality assurance project implemented using best practices and highly qualified personnel can generate high value-added solutions and help to solve the highlighted problems of scaling software development operations with competitive costs. e-core s experience with Quality Assurance services range through all of its processes, and can help customers deliver effective results to their business users. Definition e-core s Quality Assurance and Testing Services are flexible and adaptable to the needs of your business. A typical quality cycle composed by the stages of a project, represented in this picture, can be the framework for starting a new project or also be adapted for an existing process. Each step is executed following industry best practices and best of breed tools and technologies. Feedback Reporting Quality Cycle Test creation Execution Defect tracking 4

Steps for ensuring a high quality software Test Planning and Control The Test Planning should be an integral part of the overall project planning, and be strongly aligned with it in order to achieve optimal results. As it is certainly impossible to exhaustively test everything, planning and actively managing test activities are fundamental to achieving proper balance with the other project dimensions, mainly cost, time and scope. e-core s consultants understand the variables involved, and can plan and implement the testing processes in synergy with Development Managers expectations and constraints. The Test Strategy Document, containing information such as methods, resources, guidelines, target coverage and schedules guide the testing efforts of the project. Test Analysis and Design Test analysis and design is done based on both functional and technical application requirements. Starting by validating the requirements and functional specifications received as input, the analysis and design moves on to the creation of detailed specification of test input data, expected system behavior and expected output. Different processes and application sizes, technologies and business goals might require different levels of specifications. Nevertheless, it is important for any software development effort to be able to define what it means for the application to perform as expected. Test Implementation and Execution Based on the test analysis specification, test cases are created for either manual or automated execution. The use of proper tools also allows execution of tests and detailed information about defects to be logged and tracked from their creation to their resolution. e-core believes that a good combination between close integration with the development team, while keeping the autonomy to log and report defects brings the best results to the development process, accomplishing both low response times and high quality of the final product. Test Evaluation and Test Report By consistently assessing the results from the test efforts, better results can be attained for both the processes and the product. Based on the data about the test results from the implementation process group, it is possible to analyze, to report on and to refine the estimates for future test efforts. On top of that, the use of a dashboard, portraying information such as test coverage, number and origin of defects and the evolution of such indicators throughout time, makes it possible to actively plan and achieve quality goals. "Developing an event-driven social media network has many moving pieces. However, e-core stepped in to an extremely complicated situation and managed to make sense of it all. We trust e-core to get the job done on time and exceed our expectations. George Beardsley, Chief Strategy Officer Co-Founder UNATION 5

Tools e-core s services are strongly based on processes and best practices, and do not depend on a specific tool for its implementation. Customers can leverage their existing investment by using their existing toolset. They can also rely on e-core to help assess and choose the best toolset for their specific environment. Examples of Test Tools include: HP Quality Center HP Quick Test Pro HP LoadRunner Atlassian Jira Atlassian Bonfire IBM Rational Quality Manager IBM Rational Functional Tester IBM Rational Robot Selenium HQ Serena TeamTrack Serena Business Mashups Open Source Tools: BugZilla, JUnit, JMeter, TestLink Testing Activities Based on the aforementioned testing processes and guidelines, e-core s testing services include the following tasks and deliverables: Creation of Test Strategy Document Creation of Test Scenarios Creation of Test Cases Creation of Test Scripts Manual Execution of Test Cases Automated Execution of Test Scripts Load and Performance Testing User Acceptance Testing Unit and Code Coverage Testing Test Results Assessment and Reporting based on Metrics Test Results Analysis, Report and Dashboards Process Enhancement Suggestions and Implementation Assessment and Implementation of Testing Toolset Afterword E-Core is ready to offer the highest quality standards in Offsite Software Consultancy Development Services, Quality Assurance and Production Support backed up by its Onshore (U.S.A) and Nearshore (Brazil) sites. Its customer centric approach allows it to tailor its services to each customer s individual needs, including its personnel report structure and its Development Processes. Moreover, e-core has many years of experience with corporate projects for large sized companies, and understands the challenges involved with such environments. All aspects involved with the Offsite Services Delivery, such as communication, technical infrastructure, business understanding and customer relationship have evolved through previous experiences and the expertise developed by e-core can offer a stable and safe choice for your IT requirements. 6

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e-core Nearshore Application Development Quality Assurance Production Support Contact us: sales@ecoreusa.com http://ecoreusa.com http://blog.ecoreusa.com Offices: 50 Main St, Suite 1000 White Plains, NY (914) 682-2009 4915 Londonderry Drive Tampa, FL 33647 (813) 695-4068