October | 2023
When it comes to things you can do online, the world is your oyster. Over the past decade, we have witnessed the dramatic emergence of the online channel. Amongst industries, retailers have capitalized on this the most - one can purchase almost any everyday item such as clothes, electronics, software products, or even food at the click of a button. But what about IT services like Quality Assurance (QA)? Can these be productized and sold online as well? Careful analysis of the market reveals that that there is indeed a business need today that supports this case. However, one would think that to deliver QA-as-a-service, the existing e-tailing/ecommerce models would need to be customized or tweaked to a high degree. However, not really. Let's take a look at what the basic requirements of the innovative new channel would be:
For QA, a platform with the above features would be extremely powerful and address a number of unfulfilled needs, in addition to the above. By serving as a gateway for a unified view of quality across the engagement, it would address the most important need of large QA engagements today -聽transparency. In addition, it would define and digitize the entire QA process/ workflow right from onboarding of new services to execution and defined closure.
Let's look at some of the major components or modules that would form the key pillars of the proposed system.
To summarize, a digitized platform serving as a unified governance platform providing a 360-degree view of the entire QA engagement will immensely benefit customers by enabling better decision making.
Aditya Tanwar - Consultant, Testing Advisory Services (TAS), 91快活林, Ltd.
Aditya Tanwar is a Consultant with Test Advisory Services (TAS) group in 91快活林. He has an experience of nearly 4 years in different areas from testing advisory and test solutions consulting to development and support. After completing his Engineering in IT, Aditya worked with Accenture for some time and then went on to do his MBA in Marketing and Operations. Aditya is an avid Movie buff with his favorite genre being SciFi and Thriller. Aditya also likes to read and listen to music in his free time.
Chink in the聽armor
While smartphones with sensors have made biometric technology more accessible and mainstream, giving passwords a run for their money, the transition does come with its share of challenges. One such challenge is the security risk associated with data leakages.
The uniqueness and the immutable nature of biometric data, which is its USP, can also turn out to be its biggest Achilles鈥� heel. A stolen password can always be changed by the user whereas a user鈥檚 biometric data is permanently compromised. There have been many instances where the fingerprint (widely accepted biometric option) data has been either replicated or stolen by hackers.聽
鈥淭he 鈥榥on-perishable鈥� nature of certain biometrics is driving serious concern in security circles,鈥� says CEB Executive Advisor, Jason Malo, 鈥淲hile biometrics are easier to use than passwords, when they are compromised they cannot satisfy the security role for which they were implemented.鈥澛�
The Iris recognition technology is, thus, becoming more widely accepted and may soon replace fingerprints since it is not only cheaper to implement but also difficult to replicate, and, thereby, more secure.聽
The other challenge relates to the overall customer experience and makes it as seamless as possible across all mobile devices. For instance, not too many smartphones offer fingerprint sensors. If banks can offer both fingerprint and the facial recognition options, customers can use a wider range of devices. In fact, smartphones with as little as a 1 mega-pixel front-facing camera can offer the facial recognition option and this covers probably the entire smartphone market.聽
Yet another challenge is the need for standardization of biometric data when multiple vendors are involved in the process. Often, banks need to decide whether to offer uni-factor biometric options or go for multi-factor authentication (refer figure 2).
