Quality assurance strategy for distributed software development using managed test lab model

Abstract

Distributed software development is becoming the norm as it is considered a more cost effective way of building software. Organizations seek to reduce development time with concurrent teams spread across geographical spaces as they jointly collaborate in designing, building, and testing the evolving software artefacts. However, the software evolution process is not an easy task, and requires many iterations of testing for ongoing verification and validation with some pre-determined design quality criteria. This is further complicated in distributed teams which interact over lean virtual platforms. This study investigates a distributed environment spread across Japan, India, and New Zealand to inform on how managed test lab model (MTLM) is used to facilitate quality assurance practices for testing of the evolving artefacts within the overall software development lifecycle process. The paper describes the operational aspects of using MTLM as an online framework in which responsibilities are assigned, test scripts are executed, and validation processes are formalized with appropriate use of toolkits to coordinate allocated task breakdowns across the three countries.