What benefits do Quality Engineering Services bring to businesses?

With Information Technology disrupting the entire global landscape, individuals, enterprises, and entities are embracing digital transformation in a big way. And in this pursuit of transformation, enterprises are updating their legacy systems and migrating some (or all) of their products, services, or databases to platforms like the cloud. Amidst such disruptions, software (system or application) has emerged as the key for enterprises to remain relevant and competitive. However, the software can often end up with bugs or glitches, thus adversely impacting its performance. Also, a glitch-prone software can dilute the user experience and render the brand ineffectual.

Digital technologies, in addition to disrupting the business ecosystem, is impacting the IT environment considerably. Interestingly, the entire thrust of digital transformation is towards obtaining better customer experiences. The latter can, however, get impacted when the software or system does not function to its optimum thanks to the presence of glitches or bugs.

So, how does one ensure the software leaving the development and testing pipeline to be quality compliant? The answer lies in following a robust quality assurance service. However, in the shift-left testing approach, since the focus is on identifying and mitigating errors early on in the build stage, there could be chances of errors slipping through. With DevOps being embraced by enterprises to achieve faster release of glitch-free software, the focus has come to quality engineering. According to this, enterprises should work towards preempting the presence of glitches instead of finding (and mitigating) them later.

How QA has evolved due to the new digital challenges

As enterprises across industry verticals are embracing digital transformation to increase efficiency, there are opportunities and challenges galore. With the advent of quality engineering services, enterprises can look at the below-mentioned outcomes.

·         DevOps and Agile driven shift in priorities and strategies

·         Getting access to devices, new technologies, and form factors

·         Integrate new technologies with the legacy systems and overhaul them

·         Better integration between development and testing teams

·         Incorporate user feedback mechanism into the build and test pipeline

·         Increase the use of automation in testing

·         Training resources in alignment with the requirements

·         Maximizing the scope of testing within budget constraints

How a quality engineering strategy can help matters?

As opposed to traditional QA processes, quality engineering services involve analyzing the design of a product and working with the development and operations teams. These aim at managing the development, operation, and maintenance of IT systems, architecture, and frameworks to obtain a superior quality standard. In enterprise quality engineering, every stakeholder is made part of the planning, development, and delivery pipeline.

Shift-left and strengthen right: With the change in business priorities and technologies such as IoT, AI, and SMAC, among others, the world of QA is facing transformation. So, in shifting left and strengthening right, the software quality engineering services cover a few aspects. These include test and analytics-driven development, virtualization, security testing, API testing, continuous automation, and performance engineering to manage quality.

Agility: Automation has emerged as the key requirement to meet the goals of Agile and DevOps. By implementing test automation in the shift-left driven development and testing pipeline, glitches can be identified and mitigated early. It also enhances the quality coverage of software products across multiple channels. Moreover, test automation can offer advanced analytics and reporting mechanism to predict bugs or defects in the test environment. Thus, the impact on user experience can be reduced drastically and the business made more agile and responsive.

Business value: Leveraging digital quality engineering can help enterprises in offering glitch-free products tailored to customer requirements. This can add to their business value due to reduced defects, faster processes, and minimum user acceptance testing efforts.

Improved security: Vulnerabilities in IT systems and networks have become a cause for concern. The rising graph of cybercrime and the potential threat it poses for businesses and their end-customers need to be tackled head-on. Leveraging a quality engineering strategy in the form of DevSecOps can focus on enhancing security and making the software hack-proof.

Conclusion

Enterprises should leverage the latest tools, technologies, and methodologies to develop quality products or services. As the presence of defects or bugs can hit the user experience and thereby the brand value, implementation of quality engineering should be prioritized. The ultimate aim should be to achieve rapid delivery of quality products or services and reduce the cost of operations. A robust quality engineering strategy can deliver SLA-driven and outcome-based quality-compliant products or services in real quick time.

Why is DevOps so important for this decade?

In a world driven by technology, quality has become paramount. This is because glitch-prone software can render the performance of systems ineffective causing adverse consequences - both for the users and enterprises. To mitigate glitches, enhance user experiences, and bring about a holistic improvement in processes, DevOps methodology needs to become mainstream. It can address issues such as missed release deadlines, risky releases, and long release cycles. As a third-generation development methodology, DevOps is an extension of Agile and aims at overcoming challenges of culture, collaboration, and automation. Further, if you seek to deliver applications continuously, reduce waste, and establish a quick feedback mechanism, then DevOps is the way to follow.

In DevOps testing, the collaboration between development and operations teams is aimed at achieving an integrated build environment with quality at the core. DevOps quality assurance helps to reduce the release cycle time, the number of defects during the build, delivery, and maintenance phases, cost of ownership and operations, and accelerate the time to market.

What is DevOps?

This methodology is designed to improve collaboration between the development and operations teams through the automation of processes. The outcomes aimed at are build, test, and deliver software quickly and consistently. In DevOps transformation, a large project is broken into smaller independent building blocks. This means if any glitches are found they can be remedied locally without impacting the entire value chain.

DevOps transformation is about extending Agile in the build cycle to achieve continuous delivery at minimal risk. However, achieving transformation would depend on a host of factors. These include business and IT requirements, type of technology used, work culture, and the structure and processes of the organization.

Benefits DevOps testing services can accrue for enterprises

In a technology-driven IT landscape where user experiences shape the growth trajectory of enterprises, DevOps testing can act as an insurance of sorts. The insurance can be against releasing glitch-prone software, causing software breaches and bad user experiences, or loss in brand value. Also, in the IoT-driven digital environment consisting of a host of embedded software, glitches can play havoc with the lives of people and organizations. For example, if the navigation software in an aircraft contains a glitch, the pilots can misread the instructions causing the aircraft to crash. Again, if the software within a diagnostic tool has some erroneous codes, the readings can lead to wrong diagnosis and treatment.

·   Faster time-to-market: DevOps test automation takes forward the application of Agile principles leading to faster development and frequent delivery of software. In this decade where customers would be spoilt for choices and new technologies making inroads into the applications, DevOps can deliver greater user experiences.

·   Better collaboration: In a growing competitive environment, teams operating in silos are a misfit. DevOps implementation would entail the breaking down of such silos and improving transparency. There should be more focus on collaboration, communication, and integration of teams whether operating locally or globally. This can lead to better agility and an environment where everyone in the SDLC would be responsible to meet the quality and delivery timelines.

·   Early detection and correction of glitches: Since DevOps testing is an extension of Agile, it involves automation-driven shift-left testing. Since every code is tested during the build stage itself, glitches, if any, are identified quickly and corrected. This is in sharp contrast to the waterfall method where glitches are identified later in the process. And they entail a lot of effort, time, and cost for correction.

·   Security: Arguably the most important element in software development, testing, and delivery pipeline as it carries serious implications. With cybersecurity scare on the rise and hackers seemingly pitting themselves one step ahead, security has become everyone’s business. So, be it logging into the systems or ensuring proper user authentication, established security protocols should be followed by everyone in the development and delivery pipeline. This is where DevSecOps methodology can mandate the use of security testing in every stage of the SDLC. This is of prime importance as any lingering vulnerability in the build can be exploited by cybercriminals at any phase of the project.

Conclusion

As the decade is likely to witness a significant use of IoT devices and an increased focus on automation, DevOps testing as a process becomes critical. It ensures software glitches are identified and eliminated quickly and a robust feedback mechanism is established. Thus, enterprises will have no choice but to implement DevOps transformation and stay competitive.

How to make your software failure-free using Software Reliability Testing

When the entire global digital landscape is underpinned on the reliability or performance of software, the role of software reliability testing becomes critical. In the metrics of gauging performance, reliability is often pegged above efficiency owing to the following reasons:

·         The lack of product reliability can be telling on the brand value of a company. This may lead the end-users to shy away from buying the software, thus impacting sales.

·         For critical systems like navigation control in an aircraft or an embedded software in a medical device, any system failure can have serious consequences.

·         An inefficient system can be improved by working on small sections of the program suite. However, an unreliable system can be difficult to improve as the glitches leading to such unreliability are not localized but distributed throughout the suite.

·         Inefficient systems can lead to delays and have their own sets of issues. However, the consequences of unreliable systems can be more telling on their immediate surroundings or the people handling them.

·         Inefficient programs can take a long time to execute. This may help programmers or users to find out the issues and remedy them. However, unreliable systems may not sound any alarm until it is too late. For example, a design flaw in an aircraft may not be visible during testing but can manifest itself in the form of a crash.

·         Executing each function fully at least once.

·         Reducing the interaction between functions.

·         Checking the new functionality for its quality and accuracy.

·         Identifying bugs that could get into the system after the new addition or modification.

Since reliability is a critical factor when it comes to the execution of software, software reliability testing needs to be pursued in right earnest. However, let us first understand what software quality testing in terms of validating reliability is all about.

What is software reliability testing?

Reliability testing as a part of software quality assurance services ensures consistent performance and functioning of the software. This means the software should render fault-free performance in a given environment and time period. Importantly, the end-users tend to believe in the outcome of any software. They mostly have blind faith in the performance of software, which may lead to unforeseen consequences. For example, a glitch-prone banking software can be hacked into by cybercriminals with disastrous results. However, users do not brook such a possibility while using the software. Thus, software quality testing becomes the key to ensuring their trust.

How to make your software failure-free courtesy software testing services?

The reliability of the software can be assured by executing a number of tests as detailed below:

·         Feature testing: This type of software testing services check the features and functionality of the software. It tests if the application runs according to the expected outcomes. Also, it checks the interoperability of the software with other components and environments. The test comprises the following activities -

·         Regression testing: This type of testing is done when a new version of the software is added to the build. This validates the new version to be free of any glitches. The activities associated with this type of testing are as follows.

·         Load testing: This type of testing checks whether a particular functionality works to its optimum when subjected to the highest workload. The test ensures the software responds within a minimum time, say 5 seconds, to the user commands. If this test is not conducted, then the system can crash abruptly or suffer from latency. This can lead to frustrating user experiences and creating a negative impression of the brand.

·         Security testing: Given that a large number of software is dealing with sensitive personal and business information, security testing has become integral to reliability testing. It relates to identifying the vulnerabilities and preventing any unauthorized access. Also, the testing checks if the software complies with the industry-accepted rules, standards, etc. This is more apparent with software that deals with banking and financial transactions.

Conclusion

The reliability of software is arguably the most important facet of any software application. Also, it is relatively costly than other forms of testing thus necessitating proper test management. As the complexity of software increases with each passing day, software quality engineering can play a key role in driving reliability. Reliability testing can go a long way in ensuring better user experiences and maintain the competitive edge of businesses.

This article is already published on medium.com

The use of Automated Testing in a CI/CD Pipeline?

The rigors of the market and changing user preferences have focused on the need for developing quality applications. Since quality can be a relative term changing across processes and based on numerous in-situ parameters, methodologies like Continuous Improvement or Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) become important. In other words, any software needs to be upgraded continually based on user feedback and market trends. Enterprises are increasingly embracing Agile and DevOps to build new products and services within short turnarounds. However, such speedy development cycles can lead to the release of bug-infested software. This is due to the fact that both developers and testers get less time to validate all the quality parameters. Moreover, it is often observed that developers and testers focus on activities/elements like code repository management, integration, and CI servers. Surprisingly, automated testing services are often not on the list of developers notwithstanding the demand for quick release cycles and increasing complexity of software.

What is automated testing?

It involves the testing of software codes using scripts, frameworks, and tools. Here, preconfigured tests are executed to validate the features and functionalities of software against a given set of parameters. At the end of testing, the automated testing framework prepares a detailed report of the test including the glitches found.

Let us understand what benefits automated application testing brings to the table vis-a-vis the CI/CD pipeline.

Why the CI/CD pipeline needs automated testing services?

A software needs periodic upgrades to remain aligned with the market needs and technology changes. A robust continuous integration and testing mechanism can ensure quick feedback on the changes. It helps to identify glitches quickly before the product hits the market. To enable the same, automated testing solutions should be harnessed. These can provide stakeholders with accurate information on the inherent risks thereby helping them to take informed decisions. By implementing a robust test automation strategy wherein various tests are run continually, the resultant product turns out to be glitch-free and delivering superior user experience.

Benefits of using an automated testing strategy in CI/CD pipeline

With the complexity of software applications increasing and delivery schedules reducing, it has become imperative to validate their functionalities across devices, operating platforms, browsers, and networks. This is where an automated testing strategy can help in the following ways -

• Quicker tests: Since CI/CD pipeline requires speed and a minimum turnaround time, automation testing can validate various aspects of the software quickly than say, manual testing. Also, automated tests can be run for any number of times and not let glitches go undetected.
• Faster regression tests: The CI/CD process involves receiving speedy feedback from the users. The impact of changes made in the software can be validated better by using automated testing. Also, such testing can run in parallel, thereby shortening the execution time.
• Consistency: No software should have anomalies, especially during the execution of continuous integration. Automated testing can identify the glitches or anomalies present in the software and ensure a consistent performance. Also, it ensures expectations are met until the product is finally released. 
• Efficient release of software updates: Frequent software updates can face challenges in removing bugs in a continuous delivery pipeline. Thus, the risk of bug infested build can increase thereby impacting the end-user experience. Automated testing can take care of such occurrences and streamline the delivery process.
• Agility: In a continuous integration and delivery pipeline, the technology, frameworks, and configurations should be amenable to changes based on the business requirements. In the absence of an automated testing framework, it would be virtually impossible to implement and validate such builds in the expected time frame. Also, it would amount to being inefficient if the QA team must wait to rewrite or reconfigure the test suites. Since test automation can reconfigure the test suites automatically, crucial build time can be saved.
• Better product visibility: Tests such as interface or unit testing can deliver greater visibility about the product at any given point in time. Test automation can provide instant feedback for developers in the CI/CD pipeline so that the latter can administer a quick-fix to the build later.

Conclusion

Software developers and testers can start small when it comes to implementing the CI/CD pipeline. As you gain experience in writing test suites and automation, the challenges that come with the job can be used as a learning phase. The benefits will soon become apparent as they go about following the best technical approach and using the right framework. In a fast-growing digital landscape, automated testing services shall be your best bet in ensuring faster release of glitch-free products.

This article is already been published on dev.to

How To Approach The Testing of ERP Application

ERP applications have become critical for the smooth running of enterprises. Since these comprise myriad modules, functions, and processes, the need to validate them becomes critical.

Enterprises are realizing the need to leverage the SMAC (Social, Mobile, Analytics, and Cloud) model to accelerate growth. However, overhauling core processes administered by legacy ERP applications is equally critical. ERP applications help enterprises manage various functions, departments, and processes, including the data generated therein.

These applications help enterprises to run as one single unit and, in the process, generate outcomes such as improved productivity, better efficiency, reduced waste, enhanced customer experience, and increased ROI. In view of the criticality of ERP applications for organizations, they should be tested and validated. Testing ERP applications can ensure the smooth functioning of multiple tasks within organizations. These may include tracking inventory and customer transactions, managing finances and human resources, among many others.

What is ERP?

Enterprise Resource Planning aka ERP is a comprehensive software that integrates the various functions of an organization into a single system. The software has a shared database containing all information pertaining to the various functions or units of an organization. The ERP system helps to streamline the processes and access to information across the organization 24×7.

Why is ERP software testing needed?

ERP software is cost-intensive and requires a lot of investment in time and effort. Every ERP software comes with multiple versions and requires customization to suit specific business requisites. Moreover, since every element in the application is connected to some other module, upgrading them can be a challenging task. For example, creating a sales order would need access to the inventory management module. If any of the modules does not function to its optimum, the entire ERP application may be impacted. This can have a cascading effect on the performance of the company as well as create bad customer experiences. Hence, testing ERP applications shall ensure the correct implementation of the software and prevent crashes.

ERP software testing, besides checking the software’s functionalities, should ensure the generation of reports and forms accurately. By identifying and removing bugs during the testing phase, testers can avoid facing post-implementation blues. Moreover, it can lead to an early adoption of software and ensure its smooth running. ERP application testing services validate business processes, functions, and the rules governing them. They help reduce operational risks within the constraints of available resources and time.

The importance of automated ERP testing

Since the ERP system contains huge volumes of data, testing the manual procedures can be time and cost intensive. Automated testing can help to validate all the features and functionalities in minimum time and cost. Also, since multiple business units of an organization can have different processes or procedures, automated testing can check the accuracy of their output against specific parameters. Further, the ERP system needs to be updated periodically with the advent of new technologies like Cloud, Big Data, and Mobility, among others. Such updates help the organization to validate transactions in real-time, which is not possible manually.

Best available ERP testing tools

Since the ERP systems are available in multiple versions targeting multiple domains, units, and customers, the best testing tools available are:

·         Microsoft Dynamics NAV – For SMEs

·         SAP Insurance – For insurance companies

·         Microsoft Dynamics AX – For large scale enterprises

·         SAP Banking – For the banking sector

Approaching the testing of ERP applications

It is imperative for enterprises to set up a robust testing strategy. The strategy should prioritize the testing of processes depending on the short and long-term goals.

Setting up KPIs:

At the outset, testers should setup the KPIs or performance metrics and evaluate how they will impact the overall organizational goal as well as departmental objectives. Thus, establishing the KPIs will help derive the right ROI for the organization.

All-encompassing:

ERP implementation for a large organization with many departments and processes can be a complex and challenging job. However, it is important that all stakeholders are taken into confidence and involved in the process. The process also includes making the necessary investment in training. When everyone is involved in ERP implementation, there is more cohesiveness in the administration of the software.

Data migration:

An organization can plan its strategic moves if it can make use of its data emanating from various processes over a period. To ensure real data is not lost or distorted in any way during ERP validation and testing, its proper migration process should be planned beforehand.

Selecting the right automation tools:

As ERP software can have myriad variables interfacing with various processes, they need to be validated. This requires choosing the right test automation tools – open-source or premium ones. Automated ERP testing can validate many variables for various processes against expected outcomes. The right automation tool will help testers to write and execute test cases.

Identifying test cases:

Since it is not possible to test every sinew of an ERP application, proper test cases should be written to ensure the maximum test coverage. Thus, testers should identify the test cases for each test and document them as well. Also, since ERP processes are linked to each other, and even to third-party applications or modules, they should undergo automated ERP testing.

Conducting performance, regression, and security tests:

As an ERP system helps to run the operations of an enterprise as a single unit, it should run some critical tests. These include regression, performance, integration, security, and usability tests. This way the enterprise can ensure continuous monitoring of the system, save time and cost, and prevent any sudden downtime or latency.

Proper documentation:

Post testing of components in the ERP system, the documented glitches ought to be analyzed to preempt any failure in a real environment. Moreover, the reports can be used for future reference.

Conclusion

To sustain in the competitive business environment of today, businesses need to take digital initiatives such as implementing an ERP solution. However, to ensure the successful running of such a solution and derive benefits out of it, enterprises should carry out ERP testing. The approach for such a testing should involve automation and carrying out various types of testing.

This article is already published on softwaretestingmaterial.com

How to address the Performance Testing challenges of IoT

The digital age aka industry 4.0 has been redefined by intelligent solutions that are merging the digital and physical worlds across verticals. These intelligent solutions are leveraged by organizations to enhance scalability, enable customization, realize efficiencies, improve customer experience, and achieve ROI. The Internet of Things or IoT technology is driving synergies between smart machines, industrial processes, and software applications. This requires organizations to build end-to-end systems with enhanced capabilities, driving outcomes such as product enhancement, innovation through collaboration, greater operational visibility, better equipment performance, and quicker decision making - all based on contextual data obtained in real-time.

The Internet of Things (IoT) connects smart devices to the internet using sensors. It also connects such devices to digital technologies constituting big data, artificial intelligence, and wireless networks. The main objective of establishing such a network is to collate and share intelligence among devices without any human intervention. The data obtained from IoT helps organizations to analyze their digital ecosystem and pre-empt equipment malfunction, downtime, and other glitches. It gives them insights into the performance of products and how they are utilized by the users. The insights can be leveraged to enhance the differentiating features of products, create value chains, and build new business models to drive growth.

IoT helps organizations to

• Track and monitor assets in real-time with respect to their performance and availability
• Analyze data from sensors for predictive maintenance
• Take critical business decisions
• Generate greater efficiency, enhance safety and customer experience and create new business models and revenue streams

However, IoT can present a host of challenges, especially concerning performance testing.

Challenges in application performance testing of IoT devices

• Increased complexity: Since data communication takes place between smart devices such as televisions, air conditioners, washing machines, refrigerators, or smartphones, they need to be considered for performance testing. However, the plethora of devices can increase the level of complexity while drawing a specific performance testing strategy. Also, recording data from mobile devices, and web browsers, among others by using a load tester is relatively easy compared to testing the above-mentioned devices without changing their settings.
• Tackling the impact of factors: In IoT, factors such as network bandwidth, load, latency, or packet loss, among others can be critical when it comes to executing application performance testing. For example, if the above-mentioned factors are not tested for a web or mobile application, the same may crash.
• Stateless operation: Typical software applications are connected through a sequence of steps aka context or state. However, since IoT sensors do not follow any well-defined context, the IoT applications ought to manage such context or state elements.
•  Diverse device interfaces: With changes in IoT devices and the addition of new ones with different connection protocols and data formats, the performance testing methodology needs to change as well. This is because every new addition would require the execution of performance testing. 
• Absence of subjective feedback: In most testing procedures, data can be inserted to test the effectiveness of UI or response time. However, the same cannot be provided by the IoT networks.

The performance testing approach to tackle the challenges?

To begin with, testers should prioritize test cases, especially the key areas that can take the longest testing time. Testers must understand to choose such areas as the consequences of performance issues can be devastating for some businesses compared to the rest. Also, given the fact that a great deal of standardization has taken place in the technology field, the testers should ensure their compliance while providing performance testing services. Any updates being pushed for these devices would present challenges of security and usability. The core functionality of IoT devices should include monitoring their current status as they are connected to a network 24x7.

Implementing IoT can include devices that do not have IoT in them. These may include communication networks, instrumentation, and storage, among others. The complexity of such devices and the lack of an IoT label would require testers to first understand how the pieces would fit in the jigsaw. Thereafter, testers should streamline the complexity and communicate the importance of each device and make it work.

Conclusion

The efficient way of driving the performance of an IoT based application is to implement a robust testingplan. It should be followed by determining the peak load factor faced by the device at any point in time. The testers should use appropriate testing tools to validate performance efficiently. By implementing performance testing, businesses can integrate IoT in their processes and achieve success.

This article is already published on medium.com.

How to Secure your Web Applications - Complete Guide

Digitization has led to the development of web applications, websites, and other tools. Besides changing the way that we share information, interact, or do business, these digital elements have transformed our lives for the better. Enterprises, in order to stay flexible, profitable, and competitive, are moving their operations online. This way, they allow their employees, clients, customers, and other stakeholders to stay connected 24x7. Also, employees working in remote offices across countries can interact and collaborate in real-time by using such technologies.

The introduction of Web 2.0 has brought convenience, speed, choices, and quality on a platter for the customers. The growing customers’ appetite for top-notch web applications has led businesses or entities to share sensitive data all across the value chain. The examples of e-commerce stores and online banking exemplify this trend. If such advancements have brought enormous benefits for individuals, businesses, and organizations, they have attracted hackers and scammers as well.

The news about malware, ransomware, trojans, and viruses playing havoc has become common now. In fact, cybercrime has become a $1.5 trillion industry as we move into the year 2020. It has the potential to push individuals, businesses, and organizations into a downward spiral. The cumulative effect of cybercrime has given rise to the industry of web application security.

Let us take you through the ways to secure your web applications in the form of a guide. Here, the focus would be on conducting a comprehensive web application security audit encompassing web application security testing.

Assessing the Target Web Application: The process can involve the use of an automated web vulnerability scanner provided the pre-scan activities are already done. However, the procedure is not foolproof and can give rise to several false positives as well. This happens as the web vulnerability scanners are meant to scan a number of complex web applications. The users, thus, need to align these scanners to the specific business needs.

The web application security testing can begin by conducting a manual assessment of the target web application. Thus, you can get familiarized with the architecture and topology of the web application. Find out about the directory, file structure, number of pages, and files present in the application. Also, know about the application’s root directory, source code, online forms, and URL structure. Since there are a number of vulnerabilities specific to web technologies, it is better you know the one used to develop the application - PHP and .NET, among others. Find out if the web application had crawled from the black-box scanner before launching the scan. Remember, if the web application is not crawled and leaves out some parts or parameters, then securing the application will not happen.

Denial of Service (DOS) Checklist: Web applications cannot distinguish between valid traffic and a malicious attack. Among the reasons, the uselessness of IP addresses as identification credentials comes at the top. For example, during a distributed attack the web application cannot identify a real attack from multiple users reloading at the same time. In this type of software application security testing, the number of sessions per user should be checked and regulated, if need be.

Penetration Testing: Make sure all the web penetration tools are available in a centralized repository supporting the import and export of data. The application security testing services should use penetration testing - manually as well as using tools to check for logical vulnerabilities and to audit the application.

Web Application Firewall (WAF): It can analyze web traffic emanating from IP addresses containing both HTTP and HTTPS. This way WAF can identify malicious traffic that works at the application layer. It can block connections to known vulnerabilities in a web application thereby preempting any malicious attack. However, it comes with a few shortcomings as well:

• Ability to detect only known security vulnerabilities
• Depends on the expertise of the user
• No fixing of security holes in web applications

The software application security testing should be conducted throughout the SDLC and not when the application goes live. It comprises of several methods such as:

• Using a black-box scanner
• Conducting a manual source code audit
• Identifying coding issues using an automated white-box scanner
• Penetration testing
• Conducting a manual security audit

Conclusion

Web applications can be the ideal conduit for the ingress of malicious codes into an IT system. However, the quality of such applications can be enhanced, and security strengthened by using the right vulnerability scanner. By employing a focused application security testing methodology, both logical and technical vulnerabilities can be identified and fixed. The other avenues include limiting remote access, switching off unnecessary functionalities, using accounts with limited privileges, segregating live environments from development and testing, installing security patches, and staying informed.