Outsourced Code Development Driving Automated Test Tool Market

by Andre Girard | 10/22/2013

The M2M embedded software team here at VDC Research just published a new report, 2013 Automated Test & Verification Tools (ATVT), volume 3 of our Software & System Lifecycle Management Tools intelligence service. The report looks into the most critical trends and market drivers impacting the rapidly evolving use of dynamic test and static analysis tools in the embedded and enterprise/IT markets.

We expect revenues for several product segments within ATVT to expand at a double digit growth rate over the next several years, fueled by a number of factors.

One of the primary challenges fueling ATVT use is that code bases are expanding in size and complexity as software comes to account for an ever greater percentage of system value. Companies face increasing pressure to deliver more advances through software, and to do so faster. These organizations are looking to several strategies, such as off-shoring to accelerate the pace development while remaining within budget. This outsourcing of embedded systems development enables the use of skilled engineers available at considerably lower labor rates found in the international labor market.

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The challenge of coordinating geographically distributed development teams is one of the factors that we continue to see as a major driver for increased use of formal lifecycle management tools. Our research shows project teams with geographically distributed team members are more likely to use automated test tools than those all sharing the same location. We expect it will become increasingly critical for vendors to ensure their test platforms provide the reliable, scalable performance required to execute and manage tests for large installations across distributed geographic locations. There is opportunity for ATVT suppliers to increase revenue and gain market share by providing solution suites with the functionality these customers demand. Many of these organizations will need broader solution suites that enable creation of software code governance, policy definition, testing against those policies, and enforcement of quality, security and efficiency metrics.

More insight

For further investigation and discussion about these trends and others, please see our recently published report, 2013 Automated Test and Verification Toolsvolume 3 of our 2013 Software & System Lifecycle Management Tools Market Intelligence Service. This report analyzes the emerging trends for commercially available testing tools, including static analysis, dynamic, and model-based tools. It also covers the previously mentioned tool types used for general software quality testing and defect detection as well as those used for application security testing and vulnerability management.