One on One with Rajesh Patil, VP BFSI & Life Sciences

An Interview with Rajesh Patil, VP BFSI & Life Sciences AppLabs, for a detailed insight on his new initiative - The Test Lab Management

Test Lab Management (TLM) is an approach for organizations that use centralized labs for testing the applications. The challenge has been the time and cost associated with setting up the infrastructure-servers, database and network for testing purpose. This activity easily accounts for 50% of the time and effort in the testing life cycle.

Q- What is the importance of TLM in a centralized testing organisation?

RP: TLM has gained prominence in an enterprise due to the dependence on the schedule and the quality of the application. It plays a key role as more organizations are looking to centralize the testing and infrastructure. Not having an effective TLM will be a deterrent to the derived efficiencies from a centralized testing and infrastructure approach. The initial and operating costs are much lower for a centralized testing infrastructure. Test data is a key part of TLM and without valid data, the testing is ineffective.

Q- What are the tools and technologies that enable test lab management?

RP: There are numerous tools and technologies that are enablers for a TLM solution. Many a niche vendors have created solutions around just setting up and managing the test environments. The key underlying technology is server virtualization. This has revolutionized the way the test environments are created and used. We are able to setup multiple operating systems on the same hardware to enable the various configurations without investing in as many physical servers.

Q- Is TLM efficient in today's time?

RP: Current solutions are making it very efficient to setup and manage TLM. There are instances where the environment is setup in minutes rather than hours and days it used to be. Having an effective TLM strategy and approach will make it efficient for enterprises in both time and effort.

Q- What is the impact of TLM on the overall delivery of the product?

RP: TLM has a significant impact on the overall delivery of the product as it provides the right environment for the right duration in the right configuration. This will enable the testing window to be effectively used. Using the TLM eliminates the defects from manual effort.