Custom Software Development

Offshore Software Testing services have undergone a drastic change in recent years. Thousands of IT companies and those of different domains have opted for software testing providers in India due to their cost-effectiveness and good work quality. Here are some of the best practices about outsourcing software testing for offshore software testing companies revealed by world’s best analysts:

1) It is important to analyze test results in detail and not ignore the test result. Tests that have failed are equally important as the pass results because the failed results can give a hint to the eventual solution. Write test cases for the program by making divisions.

2) Additionally write test cases for the intended functionality according to the requirements and also as per the valid conditions, followed by test cases for invalid conditions. This will put into light the expected as well as the unknown results.

3) Be positive in finding out bugs in the program. Don’t assume beforehand that the program is free from bugs. Go with the intention of finding many of them and one might even find the subtle errors which one might have easily overlooked.

4) It is feasible to write test cases during the design phase or the requirement analysis itself. This will ensure that all the requirements have passed through the testing phase at least once.

5) Prior to coding, it is mandatory to keep the application in the hands of the developers and not wait for the final application testing phase, assuming that there are more bugs to come. Your re-work time is automatically saved as developers will review and analyze your tests to create a nearly error-free application.

6) Identify and divide your tests into groups for regression testing which will aid in prompt and efficient manual regression testing.

7) Performance should be tested and given adequate importance especially with regards to real-time applications. Chalk out ideas to put the application for performance testing as it is the most ignored part in custom software development and testing process.

These are some of the important points related to the software testing process which plays a crucial role in different software development methodologies. These rules are widely used by the best of developers across the globe and more than ever, by reputed centers. It is vital for companies who promote custom software development to adhere to these rules to get an edge over its competitors.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) is a well known product in the Microsoft SharePoint family of products. It runs on top of an engine known as Windows SharePoint Services (WSS). MOSS is built on WSS by the addition of core parts and the end user web parts to it. It helps in the organization of company information which is then accumulated and aggregated in one central application. MOSS integrates with most of the applications of Microsoft Office suite. It adds personalization features and features such as indexed search, business data cataloging, hierarchical organization of content areas and the like. It also enables editing of Microsoft Word documents.

These days many companies which provide MOSS development services in India. People have widely made ample use of MOSS services for making business applications, intranet portals, etc. The sites designed have an added advantage over the other sites because here one can customize the home page, its layout and even the structure as required. Many companies are offering added services and added software which help tremendously in analysis of corporate data, efficient document management and decision-making.

Some of the primary advantages of Microsoft Office SharePoint (MOSS) and Development Services are:

• Customized interface along with show case of technology.
• Production ready and highly visible interface.
• Complex solutions proposed due to high-end built in features.
• Comprehensive security of operations.
• Efficient backup of different techniques.
• With the help of MOSS, different sites can be created with pre-existing templates.
• Complete business process can be integrated within the system.
• MOSS can also be integrated with content management systems.
• Dynamic sites can be created along with dashboards, and menu-based applications
• Complete customization services

To top it all, MOSS services in India are not at all expensive. It is very much cost-effective solution for aggregating information to the central repository and provide access to authorized users.

As mentioned earlier, Microsoft Office SharePoint Services can be integrated with many Microsoft Office applications. It can render the documents prepared in MS Office in web pages. Also, with the proper server side infrastructure, it documents can be edited from the server side itself and within the browser as well. Microsoft Office Outlook, one of the most widely used email applications can also be used for accessing SharePoint document libraries. A document library can be connected with Outlook, and then the library will be listed in the navigation pane. Its files will be listed too along with certain metadata. Compatible Microsoft Office documents will be previewed and search bars can be used to search the relevant libraries. Conclusively, MOSS development services in India are ideal and profitable for all enterprises.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server has radically changed the corporate approach to documentation in recent times. Many things have changed ever since its advent. In today’s difficult legal climate, there has been an unprecedented rise in laptops and desktop PCs thus creating greater chances of security breach and level of information risk.

Research reports suggest that there are over 7.5 billion Office documents are created annually, out of which 80% of them are stored on hard drives and different shared drives. Whatever business costs and risks are associated with the hardware are important and crucial for a many organizations.

To solve these problems, publishing and document retention on a consistent basis is pivotal. Microsoft Office SharePoint Services (MOSS) has allayed fears of data explosion up to a great extent in many companies. Unfortunately, people do not adhere to document policy compliance in most firms as it is quite difficult to assess the information which each of the employees must be bringing into the firm; especially in a firm with desktops and laptops.

It has been noticed in large enterprises that even if it is deploying or has deployed a centralized system of record, compliance with policies is quite tricky and problematic. The costs of e-discovery which involves legal risk are very high, especially when associated with irregular information. MOSS services have been largely instrumental in big shot companies to meet regulations and compliance rules such as SOX (Sarbanes Oxley).

Here is what Microsoft Office SharePoint Services or MOSS can help companies to do:
• Centralization of content by hosting a common set of documents, workflows, tasks lists, etc. for a team.
• MOSS helps reduce communication and content that exist in emails and different hard drives.
• MOSS streamlines the process of eDiscovery.
• It also manages records throughout their retention period
• MOSS helps spread of information through the portal interface and enterprise search features.
• It also helps to accelerate shared business processes across different organizations.
• It helps to share business data but not without securing critical information.
• MOSS services also provide a single platform to manage intranet, extranet, and other Internet applications across the enterprise.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is built on an open, scalable architecture, with web service support. It also has interoperability standards including XML and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). It also has rich application programming interfaces (APIs) and event handlers for a number of lists and documents. Most of the features provide integration with existing systems. Microsoft Office SharePoint Services also have an inherent flexibility in it to incorporate new non-Microsoft IT investments.

Challenges faced by organizations
Database archiving solutions have a large task at hand. In the corporate world, unused data is continually eating up resources, and gobbling up the organization’s profits. Megabytes gave way to gigabytes, gigabytes have acceded to terabytes, and in the near future, terabytes is sure to escalate to petabytes. The data is growing relentlessly with organizations waking up to the reality of data explosion. The latest data retention clauses for pharmaceutical companies are at least 20 years while nuclear facilities will have to hoard data for 50 years.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, HIPAA and BASEL II are some of the laws and regulations related to data retention. It has been estimated that there are over 150 federal and state laws which elaborate extensively on retaining data in the US. Today, the retention period is basically determined by the government itself. Data which was to be retained in an organization for a period of about five to seven years is now crossing the barriers of 20 to 70 years.

According to analysts at ByteandSwitch.com, management of backup and data recovery of the database in today's environment is a challenging proposition with a plethora of business requirements and needs to be taken care of. The volume of data is spurting doubly every year, forcing enterprises to shell out part of their financial resources for additional hardware and database software licenses.

Additionally, one of the most recent Gartner reports says that the latest database archiving software can significantly lower primary storage costs by transferring older data to relatively cheaper storage. Performance improvement and cost reduction is tremendous even for databases with size less than 200 GB. Analysts at both Gartner and Forrester also suggest the use of database archiving solutions to lower primary storage costs significantly by transferring rarely accessed data to relatively cheap storage mediums and fast recovery formats like XML format.

Role of database archiving solutions
Database archiving solutions mostly concentrate on removing selected data records from transactional and operational databases especially which are rarely referenced, and storing them in an archive from where the records can be retrieved again, as necessary. Database archiving software is crucial for large enterprises to improve on system performance, meet compliance regulations, and indirectly save on time and money. The principles of database archiving are as under:

• Assess: Determine which applications and versions are most in need of archiving, grouping them into categories based on your business requirements.
• Classify: Document functional business rules and data retention policies to govern active, inactive and compliance-managed data.
• Archive: Segregate historical business objects or transaction records from current activity. Safely move them to a secure archive.
• Store: Store archived historical records securely and cost-effectively, according to the evolving business value.
• Access: Apply service levels that provide decision makers with access to the historical records they need, when and how they need them.
• Tune: Monitor operations to verify that archive operations continue to support desired service levels and access requirements.
• Dispose: Prevent information assets from becoming information liabilities by deleting historical records after they are no longer required for compliance or business purposes.

Data in enterprise databases is growing at the rate of 125% annually. A list of regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley, SEC 17a and HIPAA make it necessary to all the bulk data. Enterprise database archiving solutions can help companies to remove redundant data and archive them in a format which is readily accessible.