Software testing market resilient despite crisis: report

More companies are outsourcing testing services, with India establishing itself as the favourite provider, the report by industry consulting firm Ovum said.

"Both the outsourced and in-house testing services markets will grow over the next four years but not at the heady rates seen over the last four years," it said.

"Despite this slowing, testing services will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 9.5 percent from 2008 to 2013, faster than most other (information technology) services."

Computer software and systems are tested in-house or by specialist companies to evaluate their capabilities and find errors, including potential bugs.

Alexander Simkin, a senior Ovum analyst and author of the report, said India is catching up with European and North American testers in terms of quality while continuing to offer cheaper rates.

"Indian testing services providers used to compete purely on price through labour arbitrage. That's changing," Simkin said.

"They are now climbing the value chain and offering the same capability as North American and European testers."

However, the high demand has resulted in a skills shortage in India "so we could see increasing numbers of testing services jobs going to other low-cost territories such as China, Malaysia and North Africa," Simkin added.

(c) 2009 AFP