Download the White paper from http://alm.parasoft.com/test-environment-access A survey conducted by Parasoft asking developers and testers about their access to test environments revealed that development and testing teams lack the resources required to complete application testing. The results suggest that many organizations are taking risks with the quality of their application, using faulty software solutions that can have significant bottom-line implications. Read more to understand how to optimize testing accuracy with Parasoft's Service Virtualization solution. Service Virtualization solutions benefit the organizations by bringing higher quality software to the market at a lower cost. With these benefits you can conduct application tests earlier, faster, thoroughly, and more accurately.

1. Accelerate Software Testing
with Service Virtualization
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EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW
Parasoft recently conducted a survey asking software developers, testers, and performance test
engineers a series of questions about their access to test environments. Key fi ndings include:
These results indicate that development and testing teams lack the resources required to complete
the expected level of testing.
• Testing today’s composite, distributed applications requires interacting with a number of dependent
(connected) applications, which are diffi cult to access.
Respondents reported needing access to an average of 30 dependent applications, but having
consistent access to only 6.
An overwhelming majority of respondents (76%) reported having restricted access to the test
environments required for completing their development and testing tasks.
• The time available to access test environments is extremely limited (4 hour slots) and 30% of that
limited time was consumed by confi guration/setup tasks.
• Ultimately, testers had time to execute only 50% of the available test plan.
The risk of application failures persists as testers are unable to
complete testing cycles
The results suggest that many organizations are taking their chances with application quality. This is
a perilous approach in today’s business environment. With software increasingly acting as a primary
interface to the business, the risks associated with software failure rise dramatically. Switching costs
are at an all-time low and choices are at an all-time high. The tolerance for faulty software is low and
most likely will become more and more of a litigious issue in years to come. Failure to advance from
a state where software is only half-tested prior to its release will inevitably have signifi cant bottom-line
implications over time.
Staged environment and test labs are not feasible solutions
Why are so many organizations taking their chances with quality rather than providing unconstrained
access to the environments required for effective testing? One key factor could be the exorbitant costs
and complexity traditionally associated with today’s test environment.
Attempting to resolve test environment access constraints by building out a staged test environment or
virtual test lab can be extraordinarily expensive. In many situations, building such an environment with
staged application instances and virtual test labs can be technically impossible—for example, when

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the dependent application is a third-party application, a complex system (like a mainframe) hosted by
another division, or an application beyond the “geo-political” boundaries of the group executing the
tests. And even when building a “complete” test environment is feasible, confi guring and maintaining
all the dependent applications involves a high ongoing operational cost.
Service virtualization reduces the risk of failure—while cutting costs
Service virtualization poses a more effi cient and cost-effective approach to resolving test access
constraints in situations where a dependent application is diffi cult to access and/or confi gure for dev/
test purposes. Service virtualization provides 24/7 access to the dependent application behavior that
is required for development and testing. In addition to eliminating the access constraints that impede
testing, it also signifi cantly reduces the CapEx and OpEx associated with establishing, confi guring,
and maintaining test environments. Organizations leveraging service virtualization are able to conduct
testing earlier, faster, more thoroughly, and more accurately—signifi cantly reducing the risk of
application failure.
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