Reasons to Hire a Third-Party Software Testing Firm

 Despite several cases of disappointment, including several truly spectacular business tragedies, a large number of small to medium-sized product-driven startups, as well as bigger full-fledged app development outfits, proceed on the perilous journey of establishing their own Quality Assurance teams.

 Although many excel in getting their goods to market on schedule and at no extra expense to their owners, most end up with bug-infested products and lengthy time-to-market. Any of them even end up with possible time bombs hidden under them in the shape of high-severity defects.

 Setting up a full-fledged QA method necessitates both expertise and time. Due to a scarcity of capital in their region, many smaller IT companies find assembling an in-house QA team to be too difficult. Others find it inconvenient due to the tight timeframes of their ventures.

Some well-known tech vendors who have invested in an in-house QA team are disappointed with the consistency of their products. Typically, they are undecided on whether or not to invest more money in something they can't seem to change.

For all kinds of businesses searching for options, they don't find that there are many.

In fact, there is normally only one option: outsourcing one's Quality Assurance needs to an Independent Software Testing Company. Is this a feasible alternative? When do you think about it? Is there anything to be learned by handing over QA-related responsibilities to others?

When Does It Make Sense and How Can You Benefit?

First and foremost, those who are forced to outsource Quality Assurance because it is their only alternative and those who have a preference should be mindful that taking in an external QA contractor is in no way a concession on their priorities and quality requirements. In most cases, an external vendor is a boon (provided you choose the right one) in terms of pricing and time-to-market.

Based on our comprehensive experience delivering QA and testing services, there are a few common scenarios that could indicate that a startup or full-fledged tech vendor requires or will benefit from collaboration with an Independent Software Testing Company.

Set the Correct Testing Objectives Is Challenging for The In-House Team

A product's core features (the consistency of which will impact the product's time-to-market) and the functionality that makes your product stand out from the pack are both crucial for a QA team to concentrate on. QA teams with little experience sometimes struggle to do so.

A veteran software testing services company can typically hire many skilled QA engineers who have worked on both highly technical products and strict deadlines. These quality assurance professionals know how to focus their activities. Their presence would increase product consistency while still allowing for a faster time-to-market.

The Product Quality is Affected by The Company's Internal Business Processes

Time constraints and other delivery-related needs can also impact the relationships of a corporation's in-house QA experts with its developers. Then, on-the-fly stopgaps are used to replace full-value bug-fixing approaches. Due to the increased amount of QA specialists working on your initiative, the presence of an independent QA & testing firm will mitigate this situation without compromising time-to-market.

Excessive Involvement of Company Executives in the Quality Assurance Process

You have a variety of responsibilities as a corporate executive or business manager. As a result, you'll need an end-to-end solution that will guarantee the high quality of the product while still being simple and fast.

Purchasing more office rooms, recruiting and hiring more quality assurance professionals, educating, empowering, and supervising them could not be the right choice. Your investment would consume much more of your time, effort, and financial resources.

With a very well tech QA outsourcing firm, you can easily stop worrying about software quality and start taking your product's high quality for granted. Simply look at their past experience to ensure they are the best choice.

Inadequate Quality Assurance Expertise May Affect the Product's Time-to-Market

It can be difficult for small to mid-sized businesses and startups to identify and retain the unique kind of QA experience that is needed for proper product testing. Their internal quality assurance departments can test their products less thoroughly than an Independent Software Testing Company.

Through enlisting the help of an external QA consultant, you'll be able to recruit research engineers who can enhance the accuracy of the product by using not just their skills, but also a larger and more suitable set of methods and techniques.

New Software QA Standards Reduce Credit Card Theft

 The growing number of cyber-attacks are making security a top security concern for enterprises. they tend to take preventive actions and secure all their digital platforms with the best possible solutions. In the current situation, anything that could help in slowing down the theft of credit card data, could be useful for businesses. Software testing and new QA standards are helpful in achieving this and this is why when a firm hires an independent software testing company, it should ensure that they are testing according to the new quality standards. 

Over the years, the Payment Card Industry Standards Council (PCI SSC) has published new software security standards from time to time. These standards include PIC Secure Software Standard (PCI SSS), and PCI Secure Software Lifecycle (PCI SLC) that are a part of the new PCI Software Security Framework (PIC SSF). These standards are expected to be valid till 2022. However, whatever the timeframe and labels, the need for these security checks remains. Credit card data theft is as old as the emergence of credit cards. Thus it is important for enterprises with online businesses to secure payment modes.  And similar standards should be used by an independent software testing company to ensure compliance. 

According to PCI SSC chief technology officer, Troy Leach, the new standards are designed to accommodate the expanding ecosystem of the software development process, ‘with an alternative approach to assess software security, designed to help ensure payment software adequately protects the integrity and confidentiality of payment transactions and data’. 

The key factors of this approach include:

• Critical asset identification

• Secure default configuration

• Authentication and access control

• Sensitive data protection 

• Attack detection 

• Vendor security guidance

The main aim is to ensure protection of payment data by the software that stores, processes or transmits information. Although these new standards would require changes in the coming few years, as there is a much wider range of upcoming technology. The main goal of implementing these checks is not just compliance but to provide better application security. If these standards work as per expectations, that would work in the best interest of organizations. There is no way to find their effectiveness unless they are fully implemented. But according to the experts the expectations are much higher.

When looking for an independent software testing company, it is important to bring in testers who have experience in similar market verticals that may meet the delivery pipelines. Engaging independent software testers into the specific particulars of a business environment will boost efficiency and also ensure that business-critical security standards are duly met. Enterprises also invest in security testing services to ensure that they are safe from cyber-attacks. But some security experts suggest that they use pen testing and software application testing, but it is more useful to utilizes security testing tools and techniques based on the above-mentioned new security standards. Last but not the least, there are more changes expected in the PCI SSC standards that will be designed to secure credit card payments in the near future. 

Author Bio:

As a Senior Marketing Consultant at Kualitatem, Ray Parker loves to write tech-related news, articles, specifically quality assurance and information security. Apart from his techie appearance, he enjoys soccer, reading mysteries, and spending long hours working over at the New York office.

Data Breach - What is it? And what are its types?

 Advancement in technology has made it possible to rely heavily on the use of systems, software, and the internet. Every single sector including banking, health care, education, technology, and more are bound to use this modern way of operating their routine activities. With the rapid growth in connectivity and the use of systems or software for storing or feeding personal and financial information, we frequently hear a term as a data breach. Most individuals suggest others not to install particular apps, not taking a credit card from a certain bank, or not dealing with XYZ company to protect your information and money. These indicate data breaches. 

With such extensive use of systems and technology, various insects have been born. These creepy insects can stick to your sensitive data until they have an access to it. And that’s what data breach is all about. But let’s delve deeper into the data breach concept.

What is Data Breach?

The availability of sensitive data and information in an untrusted manner by unauthentic resources, without taking permission from concerned individuals and organizations is known as a data breach. This involves personal data of employees or individuals, their financial information, their confidential or sensitive information, etc. Sometimes we call it a data or information leak. 

This poses to be a great threat to organizations. Data breaches can have legal consequences, so eliminating vulnerabilities has become a top priority for all organizations. It is important to understand that it is not external factors that are trying to access your data, but other intentional and unintentional things may happen within the company, which may lead to data leakage.

What are the types of data breaches?

After discussing what is a data breach let’s delve into its types;

Cyber Attacks - Today, cyber attacks have become commonplace. We often hear militant groups slander government websites. A more common word is hackers. In other words, cyber attacks refer to attacks on computers, networks, or servers by stealing information, tampering with, and deleting data, thereby causing serious damage to other organizations.

One of the common forms of cyberattacks is the use of malware that catches the sensitive data and information of users and hence causing serious damages to the user’s and organization’s assets. Just like at the individual level, it can be used to collect a person's bank login credentials, which can then be used to transfer their funds to other accounts. Some malicious software can help you completely control other systems so that you can perform tasks at your command.

To get rid of the cyber attacks and threats, organizations often refer to independent software testing company for their assistance. An independent software company gets into the system or software and dig out the errors and vulnerabilities that are of high chance to get exploited. 

Social Engineering - This is another common forms of attack. Here, criminals and hackers impersonate legitimate and authorized personnel and try to collect sensitive information from company employees. Phishing is a common method. This includes e-mails that look real and people want to open them or click on links in them to compromise security.

Ransomware - One of the rapidly growing cyber threats all over the world is none other than ransomware. This malware or ransomware encrypts all the files in your system if there is no decryption key, all data may eventually be lost. At this point, the attacker can blackmail a large number of funds to share the decryption key.

This can be very dangerous for many organizations because even with all the network security the malware can easily find its way to enter your system via phishing emails, attachments, etc. 

Robbery - The system in the organization has plenty of information stored in it. Physical theft is another cause of data leakage. This includes computers, hard drives, and even hard copies of documents that are not shredded after use.

Theft does not necessarily mean that someone breaks into the office, it can also happen outside the organization. Just like an unattended laptop by an employee in a coffee shop, or an important file that has not been shredded in the trash can, if the data is not completely erased, the laptop and other digital media will be buried in the trash and discarded. Into the wrong hands. Lead to data leakage.

Conclusion

Since now you are aware of what damages data breaches can cause to your systems, you must be cognizant about these data breaches and must have completed your homework to fight against these leakages.