Emerging Opportunity - Testing Services

The market for offshore Testing Services is growing at a rapid rate and presents a major, untapped opportunity for Indian outsourcing vendors. Most key players in the industry, have in fact, built robust Testing Services portfolios and deployed Best Practices within this segment.

According to Gartner Inc., the worldwide market for Testing Services is forecast to grow to US$ 13 billion by 2010, with 45-50 percent (around US$ 6 billion) getting outsourced. Indian IT-BPO players generated export revenues of about US$ 280 million from Testing Services in 2006. A significant potential therefore exists for Indian IT-BPO companies providing solutions in this space.

The challenge facing the Indian testing services industry

The rapid growth in demand for software testing services has had a corresponding impact on the supply side. Of all the challenges faced by the industry, the most crucial was the paucity of skilled manpower In 2006 alone, there was a shortfall of 15,000 software testing professionals in India. This shortfall is stated to be a result of the following:

- The fact that young professionals are not aware of the career potential of the testing market.

- The lack of higher business domain knowledge, process knowledge and client
management skills among testing professionals, a major requirement for the
market.

- The absence of training and learning programs that cater specially to this
market. As specialized software testing as a career has emerged only in the
last 7-10 years, academic institutions as well as corporate entities are
not geared fully to nurture software testing professionals.

Clearly, Indian IT-BPOs focused on the Testing Services marketplace have to tune themselves to the emerging technology and business trends shaping this opportunity. Investments in the right testing tools, relevant testing methodologies and skilled manpower is becoming a must today. Indian IT-BPO organizations need to keep these factors in mind to step up their share in the fast growth Testing Services segment.