Impact of test effort in software development life cycle for effective defect management

The divine bond binding customers and software industries originates from the development and production of high quality software. Testing is one of the promising activities that ensures the aforementioned objective. Current testing practices demand nearly 40% to 50% of the project development time, which is an impediment in the development process. This paper presents a case study of a leading CMMI 5 certified product‐based software industry. A horizontal analysis representing process stability and vertical analysis representing process maturity in terms of test efficiency of the company is brought out. The analysis indicates the dire need of resolving uneven distribution of test effort through analytical mode to attain effective defect capturing ability. This knowledge yields an increased productivity, quality and a path to higher maturity levels of the industry. It saves billions of dollars to the companies and is an approach towards the justification of the customer's investment.