Software Testing

Ok, so the first issue I wanted to address in this blog is that of the cost of getting software tested.

There seems to be an ‘urban myth’ floating around that this test costs thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars.

If I asked 10 Partners how much they think it would cost to get their software tested I would bet good money that at least 7 Partners would respond with a figure in the thousands of dollars region.

I’m not sure how this came about - one possibility is that when you look at a Veritest price list (shown here) we are naturally drawn to and seem to remember the most expensive test – which is $30,000!

The other possibility is that a cost was mentioned at a seminar and this somehow was propagated around the Partner community. This figure must have been large enough to decide that testing was too expensive and would provide no business benefits.

The Good News however is that the entry level Microsoft Platform Test costs a much more reasonable $800 (actually it needs to pass 2 components each costing $400).

As you do not need to train and pass MCP's to join the ISV competency, this can sometimes be a more cost effective way of achieving Certified status.

More to follow on software testing soon!

Posted by Rob Morley

Comments

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  I did assume it would cost a fortune. That's why I haven't been to eager to have anything submitted for testing. Good to know it is only a few quid.