Today's corporate information systems are faced with critical decisions regarding quality throughout the software development life cycle. Markets understand that the cost of software testing increases exponentially without fully integrated cost effective testing governance, supported through high quality testing processes that are replicable and scalable throughout the organization.

Directlink provides one of the most comprehensive approaches to Quality Assurance in the market today. Our approach combines a blend of best practices, a proven methodology, and a tool set providing the right blend of technology and practical experience to meet your business objectives.

Directlink's Quality Assurance Solution includes the following activities:

It all starts and ends with Requirement Management. Early involvement of the Quality Assurance & Testing functions into the planning and requirements definition sets the tone for the alignment, execution and ultimate success of the project. It is our belief that the collaboration between the business, development, technical operations including network operations, and the Quality Assurance function is a theme that is thread throughout the entire life cycle of any project. To this end, Directlink incorporates a proven set of processes to form the foundation to support our experienced delivery teams in the execution of each and every project.

Risk Based Test Management begins with an understanding and the prioritization of those "Transactions" that have the highest degree of impact to the corporation. Not every transaction carries the same risk. Directlink, in conjunction with the customer, will establish the business and technical risks associated with the development effort, test scripts, test scenarios and test cycles that can be measured and designed to test the high risk areas of the project.

Directlink uses best in breed automated testing tools such as Mercury Interactive's, WinRunner and LoadRunner. These tools include testing and debugging software for the developer while providing QA testing teams a fully integrated set of functional, performance and regression testing processes and software. Our QA team members have extensive experience in testing across mainframe, distributed and web based platforms.

To support the overall QA Testing process, Directlink can integrate additional software products into its Test Data Management process. These products provide our customers the ability to protect sensitive production data when used in a test environment, provide the ability to analyze, restructure and comply with regulatory requirements, diagnose production data problems and allow the customer to access data consistently across platforms.

Integrated into Directlink's toolset is a real-time metrics gathering and reporting process. This process is part of our continuous process improvement governance. As a part of this process, Directlink will measure these metrics to manage project costs, schedules and quality levels throughout the QA and testing effort. These metrics include number(s) of defects, project schedules and project budgets. In addition, IT management will use these metrics to further refine/define changes into the life cycle process, and assess the work estimate efforts as well as establishing the quality and further education of the test teams.

Directlink integrates our Quality Assurance solution into our overall delivery methodology, thereby, providing an effective, efficient, and quality deliverable product to our customers. Our methodology acts as a guideline for customization of our QA services to our customer.