04 July 2005
Cresta’s TestStrategist Project wins Information age Effective IT award in Professional Services
TestStrategist®Project, Cresta’s test management and reporting application, won the “Most Effective Use of IT in Professional Services” award at the Information Age Effective IT Awards on 23rd June. Over 400 companies were competing for awards across 13 categories, and judges included the CIOs of Barclays and British Airways and the CTO of easyGroup.
Cresta, a specialist independent software testing consultancy, developed TestStrategist Project to provide instant visibility of the health of a software project from a testing perspective, with evident benefits in terms of planning, decision-making, quality-assurance, and process improvement.
Award-winning ROI
Edgar Smith, Head of Research and Development at Cresta, outlined what he saw as the winning formula: “From the start, development was based on a very strong ROI proposition. We built an application to cut testing risks, improve project management and quality, and ultimately reduce costs. It’s a great story about an application initially designed to support our consultancy projects that has solved these problems so well it has since found a market in its own right.”
As well as having been used on Cresta’s consulting projects interfacing with Mercury’s TestDirector™, TestStrategist Project has been purchased in its own right and used by organisations including Vodafone, egg, and GSK.
A model of efficient software development
The award acknowledged not only the effectiveness of the application but also the way in which it was built. Edgar explained that, “As you might expect from a company that specialises in helping to deliver quality applications, TestStrategist Project was built following the same Agile development and testing model we have championed with many of our clients. This award is solid proof of a successful outcome.”
Development was built around people with a clear knowledge of the business requirements and an understanding of the challenges the application needed to solve. As a result, the functionality is precise and to the point: focused on solving issues in the most efficient way possible.
A promising future
According to Edgar, “TestStrategist Project has proven to be especially useful in situations where there is a pressing need for up-to-date, reliable management information on development progress, for example where companies are managing offshore resources or monitoring 3rd party contractors. As outsourcing increases, the need for this product will become even clearer.”
In the near future Cresta plans to adapt TestStrategist Project to work with the innovative TestPoints route to managed testing, where a client pays for work completed rather than man-hours. So there is every chance that this will not be the only award won by TestStrategist.
ENDS (415 words)
NOTES TO EDITORS
About TestStrategist Project
Cresta designed the TestStrategist suite of programs as an easily implemented set of tools that can be brought in to supplement an existing test process or help implement best practices from the very beginning. TestStrategist Project is a finger on the pulse of software quality giving you a clear understanding of project status and go-live ability. The clear metrics reporting in TestStrategist Project enables informed management decisions, such as how to structure project resources to maximise testing progress.
TestStrategist Project analyses a number of key measurements from your central test repository. It collates and stores these measurements over time and presents them in an intuitive console interface, allowing quick status analysis of individual areas, and of the project as a whole. Status indicators cover the following areas:
- Preparation (Tests Scripted vs Tests Identified)
- Execution (Tests Executed vs Tests Scripted)
- Quality (Tests Passed vs Tests Executed)
- Risk (Tests Passed vs Tests Estimated)
By projecting trends into the future, TestStrategist Project allows you to predict the likely timing of successful software implementation and pinpoint areas of concern, allowing rapid decisions based on clear cut quantifiable information.
About Cresta
Cresta Group Limited (Cresta) is a specialist, independent testing organisation with a world-class track record in testing and test strategies. Through our principal offices in London, Dublin and South Africa, Cresta implements and tests mission-critical systems to minimise risk, cost and time and has delivered these services to organisations such as Deutsche Bank, GlaxoSmithKline and Egg.
Our track record is achieved through the framework of the Structured System Testing Methodology™, which provides the Processes, Tools and Techniques required to effectively manage and execute the complete lifecycle of testing within a project. Our Enterprise Testing Education Centre runs a programme of continuous education to our consultants and clients alike, so that all are kept up-to-date with the latest industry best practice and technologies. We pride ourselves in the quality and calibre of our consultants.
Cresta is proud to be a top-tier partner of Mercury Interactive, the global leader in business technology optimisation (BTO) software solutions. From its establishment in 1996, Cresta is now one of the fastest growing independent testing organisations in the UK and it is the dedication to quality and delivery that has underpinned this success.
For more information about Cresta Group please visit http://www.cresta.net
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