Economic slowdown or no economic slowdown, organisations are now keen on building greater quality into business critical software, quite simply because, a missed defect may bring their business to its knees. Often times, testing teams that are integral part of the development function fall short of extending the requisite objectivity while testing the product. Necessarily, the imprint of an independent testing provider makes the product much more infallible. Further, the routine product enhancements and the consequent release cycles, regulatory compliance, integration of diverse technologies are prompting companies to seek independent testing.

There has been a need to evolve new testing processes and frameworks to address emerging trends such as SOA, Cloud Computing, Web services, SaaS, along with agile software development methodologies. Testers are increasingly concentrating on adding value to businesses through a combination of their structured process driven approach, tools, metrics, and many times, a deeper understanding of the customer’s business. The 'testing only' providers have extensively verticalized their services by building domain-specific testing tools and test environments as well as by hiring testing staff who are domain experts.

Makarand Teje is the President and CEO of AppLabs, the world’s largest software testing and quality management company.

Makarand has 20+ years of experience in the global IT industry covering P&L management, business development, operations, program management and strategic marketing.

Prior to joining AppLabs, Makarand worked at Wipro for 15+ years, during which he worked on multiple assignments for its’ Indian as well as international businesses. During his last assignment at Wipro, he led the global Insurance industry business.

Prior to Wipro, Makarand worked at Interface Electronics as the Regional Manager for Western India region and completed his management traineeship with Skefko India Bearing Co. in Mumbai.  Makarand is an Electrical Engineer and has an MBA in Marketing from the Bombay University, India.