What is Testing as a Service (TaaS)?

Testing as a Service (TaaS) is an Software testing outsourcing model in which testing activities related to some business activities of an organization are performed by a service provider instead of internal engineers.

TaaS can involve hiring consultants to help and advise employees or simply outsourcing a test area to a service provider. Usually, a company will still do some internal testing. TaaS is best suited for specialized software test efforts that do not require a lot of in-depth design or system knowledge. TaaS is sometimes referred to as testing on demand. Software testing service that fit the TaaS model well include automated test regression, performance, security scanning, applications, ERP as well as supervised test and software development for cloud-based applications.

How does testing as a service work?

TaaS is when an organization hires a 3rd party to perform testing processes that would have traditionally been done internally. Organizations purchase software testing tools, testing and develop software, and infrastructure from vendors, often on a pay-per-use basis. TaaS can refer to part of the software quality assurance testing process, such as a platform, a combination of software and infrastructure, or outsourcing an entire department. Regardless of the form of TaaS implementation, it involves the vendor taking on part of the organization’s testing responsibility.

TaaS can be used for automated testing processes that would take longer for internal staff to complete manually. It can also be used in situations when the client’s organization does not have enough resources to perform the tests themselves. Resources can be time, money, employees or technology. TaaS may not be the right choice for organizations that require in-depth knowledge of the company’s infrastructure.

There are different types of TaaS with their own specific processes, but in general, a TaaS will follow these steps:

• Step 1. A scenario and environment are created to execute the test. For software testing, this can be referred to as user scenarios.
• Step 2. An experiment is designed to gauge the company’s response to that scenario.
• Step 3. The test is run in a secure test environment provided by the vendor.
• Step 4. The vendor monitors the performance and evaluates the company’s ability to meet the objectives set out in the experimental design.
• Step 5. Vendor and company work together to improve the system or product being tested to improve performance and future results.