“Building a brand for testing, a way to grow”

The practice and infrastructure pertaining to information security for a testing company is a critical component as we directly work in a customer’s test environment, says Vanaja Arvind, COO, Thinksoft

Vanaja Arvind is the COO of Thinksoft, a fast-growing independent software validation and verification services company with Global 500 firms as clients. An alumnus of Madras University and the University of Pittsburgh, US (1986), she has several years of experience in the IT industry, and has filled a variety of roles and responsibilities. Prior to joining Thinksoft, Arvind has worked with Citibank, IBM Global Services and AT&T. At Thinksoft, she has put into place the needed organisational structure, systems and processes for account management, project planning and tracking, services delivery, quality certification, etc.

She says that Thinksoft's unique value proposition is built around its domain expertise in the banking and financial services arena, its proven testing methodologies and delivery model. In an exclusive interview for this issue, Arvind shares her views on the industry and her company's business offerings. Excerpts:

The team size of almost all the major testing companies in India is less than a few hundred. Is there a higher ceiling for growth?

Independent testing and testing specialisation is still at a sunrise stage, but has been identified as a future growth area. A lot of work is being done by big software integrators in-house by cross- selling to their existing customers. A large portion of this will shift to the independent companies as there is better value addition by this to the end customer. The numbers will change substantially over the next three years.

Logically, pure testing can be seen as an integral part of software development. How solid is the concept of having testing as a stand-alone industry, separate from the mainstream development industry?

Testing done as part of the software development process, though necessary, will not be comprehensive, rigorous and fully objective. It is the users of the system who need to test and accept the system, and any testing that is done on behalf of the users needs to be an independent activity similar to independent audit for financial controls.

Being a pioneer in the industry, could you highlight the evolution in client (software developers and end users) engagements, engagement at the end of the projects, or engagements that run throughout the SDLC?

Our services are outside SDLC and should not be confused with SDLC. We in fact operate in the PULC (Product Usage Life Cycle), which is far longer (5-7 years) in duration. An analysis of past budget data may in fact show that a lot of money spent in PULC is on various types of acceptance testing.

Do you think that creating a brand for testing the Veritest approach is the way to go forward for India-based testing companies?

That would definitely be one way to grow. Veritest has the certification approach for branded software products.

There is lot of user acceptance testing which involves domain knowledge which does not fall under this category; it constitutes an independent and large chunk of business.

Invariably, all testing companies try to have a focus on one or two domains. In this context, is their expansion possible only through acquisition?

This statement is not exactly true. Most testing companies focus on testing and do not focus on specific domains. Testing companies also focus more on staff augmentation where they source people for clients.

How critical is the practice and infrastructure of a testing company pertaining to information security?

More critical than in development as we directly work in a customer’s test environment using Virtual Private Networks.