Organisations are increasingly moving away from the traditional approach of using in-house teams to test software at the end of a development cycle and are embracing more risk-sensitive approaches that exploit professional testing resources – often offshore.

According to research by Mission Testing Europe, over 75% of senior IT executives expect their testing methodology to change, with organisations using lower-cost, offshore facilities and, in the case of higher-risk projects, outsourcing partners. The survey found that customers’ confidence was the most important factor for investing in third-party testing, followed by improved software quality.

Only 30% of those surveyed said they plan their testing from the outset of an IT project. However, Chris Shaw, director at Mission Testing, says this is improving as companies face up to the need to reduce the business risk associated with software development.

“It is clear that testing requirements need to be defined up front in any project to ensure both cost and risk can be minimised,” he says.

Such mixed signals were a common theme: while 90% of those questioned currently organised their testing according to project, the same number also thought that great benefits could be reaped by centralising the testing using specialist testing resources.