This presentation talks about the adverse effects of a faulty software, lessons learnt and actions that need to be taken to improve quality of testing.

1. Adverse effects of a faulty Software
by
Dr. Prakash Mutalik
EKA TechServ
1

2. Introduction
EKA TechServ
2
 There is hardly any business which is not run by or supported
by critical software systems. There can be no excuse for not
thoroughly testing the software before it is deployed for
business.
 History is full of examples of documented disasters due to
poor testing.
 World must have lost billions of dollars due to poor testing.
Most businesses understand that a thorough testing needs to be
done ; but then testing is the first activity likely to be skipped
when it comes to a crunch.

3. Contd…
EKA TechServ
3
 Business week almost filled the issue with disaster stories
(Refer to the article , “Software Hell” in Business Week in issue
dated Dec 6, 1999). Web is now full of such stories

4. Few Scenarios
EKA TechServ
4
 In October of 2013 the U.S. federal government opened a
new health insurance exchange web site that, during its first
few months of operation, generated major national and
worldwide press coverage of its many reported problems. The
problems were attributed to, among other things, inadequate
time allowed for system testing. A well-publicized ‘tech surge’
was initiated to attempt to improve the site.
 In February 2013 a mobile device manufacturer reached a
settlement agreement with the U.S. government because,
among other things, it “failed to provide its engineering staff
with adequate security training, failed to review or test the
software on its mobile devices for potential security
vulnerabilities…”. The company agreed to a series of
remedial actions

5. Contd…
EKA TechServ
5
 A bug in a major operating system’s handling of ‘leap seconds’
(an occasional adjustment to the world’s atomic clocks) resulted
in system problems reported worldwide in July of 2012.
Although a fix for the bug had been developed earlier in the
year, some versions of the OS had not yet been patched.
 Media reports in January of 2005 detailed severe problems
with a $170 million high-profile U.S. government IT systems
project. Software testing was one of the five major problem
areas according to a report of the commission reviewing the
project. In March of 2005 it was decided to scrap the entire
project.

6. Key lessons drawn
EKA TechServ
6
 The lessons we need to draw from these stories are important.
We (businesses) need to address some of the pertinent
issues—
1. Do I need to invest in testing : (yes, the investment needs to
be judicious. Our precious funds are required for many other
activities )
2. Don’t skimp on testing if the software is business critical.
3. Just ‘any’ body wont do good testing. Testing productivity
vary widely from 1 (in experienced fresher ) to 100 (
experienced tester ).
4. It pays to invest in test productivity tools

7. Contd…
EKA TechServ
7
5. If you are frequently releasing new versions of the software it
makes sense in automating part of the testing.
6. If you are developing several software systems, it makes sense
to build a test team and test processes. If you do not want to
build processes on your own, you can license good test
frameworks which can significantly increase tester
productivity.

8. Conclusion
EKA TechServ
8
 In a nutshell, to conclude, always give importance to
software testing and do thorough testing and invest
on testing as mentioned earlier. You can also have a
look at the products for better quality of testing
which has been developed at EKA TechServ.
 For more details you can visit
http://ekatechserv.com/