The cost of fixing a software bug increases exponentially with the time taken for its detection. With so much of code being churned out, software quality assurance has become a complex task. Various testing methods are used to validate and certify software quality. Traditionally, review done by domain experts along with testing has been the way to ascertain software quality.
The software industry is driven by ever-evolving customer demands centered on continuous innovation in technology and new business models. ISVs have traditionally been leveraging the On-Premise model to deliver their products to customers. However, with the evolution of Cloud Computing and associated delivery models, software vendors are actively considering SaaS business model for their products.
In today's cloud centric environment, it has become imperative for the enterprise to focus on IT agility and on-demand availability of applications. This has translated to a need for IT to accelerate the application lifecycle to achieve faster time-to-market for these applications. There are two key areas in the Application Lifecycle Management where significant optimization can be achieved using cloud/virtualization technologies - DevOps and Developer-TesterCollaboration. There is a strong need to minimize lead time due to manual hand-offs and thus automate all processes as far as possible while integrating processes, tool sets and people using cloud/virtualization technologies.