SQA: Untapped, lucrative potential

Software Quality Assurance (SQA) has always been a lucrative industry that has been gaining momentum over the past few years and is becoming a strong contender in the IT/ITES sector. As projected by Gartner, independent application testing as a separate business segment is said to see a growth of 30% to 45% since 2009 while Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) is predicted to increase by 17% beyond 2012.

SQA is the umbrella of risk identification and mitigation strategy for assuring quality of a product. Cost of errors in software can vary from nothing at all to large amounts of money. Software errors or bugs have caused huge financial losses, which could have been avoided through effective SQA.

Virtusa Corporation, a Sri Lankan turned global IT services company that offers a broad spectrum of business consulting and outsourcing services, competes with some of the largest IT services and consulting companies in the world and frequently comes out triumphant.

They also work with dozens of Fortune 500 companies. In conversation with Virtusa Sri Lanka Independent Software Quality Practice Head Waruna De Silva, he said: “Quality assurance or testing is essentially becoming an independent segment of the IT/ITES industry. What was once considered an emerging trend has converted into a norm that makes third party software testing a criterion in unbiased assessment of the software, developed.”

What sets Virtusa apart from other IT firms is that they provide their clients with complete integrated Independent Software Quality (ISQ) solutions. While not only ensuring customised comprehensive solutions, Virtusa is also equipped with a highly competent work force and systematic process analysis and superior infrastructure that allows the exact simulation of the original situation that the software is utilised in.

“We have what it takes to enhance ISQ to the next level. At Virtusa our superior infrastructure and multi faced, qualified and competent work force ensures the highest possible quality assurance certification for our clientele,” Waruna commented.

He further stressed that there is a vast influx of new opportunities in SQA market due to evolution of the ‘Millennial Enterprise’ and the role of technological innovation is mainly driven by the advent of services such as mobility, social networking, big data and cloud computing.

Most importantly this enforces a paradigm shift in the software quality industry, where many new dynamics and challenges need to be addressed by developing and adopting diverse solutions and approaches.

While the SQA segment is still relatively untapped, Virtusa Sri Lanka single-handedly spearheads the market. In fact Virtusa acts as a third party software quality assure for multiple global clients while also doing for the same for multinationals such as MIT within Sri Lanka.

Virtusa currently provides ISQ services to healthcare, banking and finance, aerospace and insurance industries around the world. “It is important to note that there are so many career opportunities in the field of independent quality assurance, especially when the talent is well versed in subjects over and above software engineering.

“The potential is limitless, and at Virtusa we have every intention of pushing the envelope and be recognised as leaders in this space,” Waruna concluded.