Software Quality, Security & Testing Services

To ensure business continuity, it is critical to incorporate quality assurance and security throughout the software development, changes and enhancement process.

The N.C. Department of Information Technology’s Software Quality, Security & Testing Services team ensures the quality and security of your applications. The team combines the right professional consulting resources, custom software integration and testing tools for success. Highly experienced consultants provide a comprehensive software quality assurance and security evaluation advisory service. Our testing platform is highly reliable, scalable, secure and cost-effective at addressing your requirements.

Request Software Quality, Security & Testing Services

Getting Help

Support Get Technical Support
NCDIT Service Desk: 919-754-6000
Support Hours 24/7
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Features

  • Subscription-based software as a service (SaaS), delivered in a managed and shared platform to ensure secure, quality software code
  • Integrated functionality between the tools NCDIT provides (see the Technical Information section on this page for more details)
  • Custom tool integrations between what NCDIT provides, those purchased by customers and those from vendors through out-of-the-box capabilities or open API
  • Use of your staff or NCDIT’s quality assurance and security subject matter expert professionals on a time-and-materials basis; or collaborative work to support your software solution requirements
  • Proof of concept work is available prior to subscribing
  • Optional consulting and end-to-end testing services available on a time-and-materials basis
  • Tools and support for functional and performance testing 
  • Functional test automation that runs repetitive tests and reduces issues associated with manual testing
  • A comprehensive software testing toolset from Micro Focus, including quality management, security testing, visual regression testing, performance testing, performance monitoring and functional test automation

Benefits

  • Provides on-demand access to software quality and security subject matter experts, methods, techniques and best practices to help you achieve your software goals
  • Accesses a best-in-class software quality and security testing solution as a shared service without the upfront costs associated with acquiring and deploying comparable in-house applications 
  • Encourages software quality and security testing throughout the software development life cycle, thanks to NCDIT’s low-cost solution
  • Decreases costs by eliminating the need to create new scripts for new versions of the application; instead, re-uses automation scripts that are successfully executed against other versions
  • Improves overall quality by utilizing automation to increase the scope and depth of testing and uncover bugs earlier
  • Corrects defects in pre-production, making it less costly than in post-production
  • Improves reliability by replacing manual testing with automated testing that consistently performs the same tests on every run
  • Helps avoid costly legal or operational issues due to systems working improperly
  • Reduces the risks associated with manual testing by adopting solutions that provide comprehensive test coverage
  • Minimizes the time to complete testing cycles by automating scripts that outperform manual scripts and can run simultaneously and unattended across multiple platforms, browsers and environments, 24/7

Request Process

To request this service, or for more information, submit a ticket using the NCDIT Service Portal.

Authorization

Approval from a manager or process owner is required, depending upon your agency's requirements.

Requirements & Customer Responsibility

Required NCDIT Services N.C. Identity Management (NCID) (required for some services)
Other Technical Requirements & Prerequisites None
Customer Responsibility
  • The agency will provide a qualified person to participate as needed in the governance and oversight process for the Software Quality, Security & Testing Services team. This person will represent the agency's interests via a governance process for defining and shaping the strategic and tactical evolution of the service.
  • Security and other related access privileges to the Software Quality, Security & Testing Services environment for any given agency's personnel will be requested and authenticated by a named agency employee who will fulfill the role of local security administrator. All changes to access privileges will be requested by this individual.
  • Best practices, methods and related techniques for using the service will be followed.
  • Support requests related to the use of the Software Quality, Security & Testing Services will be initiated via the NCDIT Service Portal.
  • If an increase in utilization or demand for the services beyond the levels outlined in the service level choices above is expected (near term or long term), the agency will make every effort to notify the Software Quality, Security & Testing Services product manager as soon as possible so that adjustments can be made to accommodate the anticipated increase in infrastructure and/or human resource demand.
  • On an annual basis, the agency will provide a forecast for anticipated use of the service before the state budgeting cycle, so human resources and other incremental infrastructure requirements can be budgeted accordingly (if necessary).
  • Each agency is responsible for saving and backing up any data used while accessing any functional workstation. In addition, any data used for testing is the sole responsibility of each agency, particularly for content, security and encryption. Once a test is completed and no longer needed, the agency is responsible for cleanup and removal of any data or applicable test scripts. The agency should follow the Statewide Information Security Manual for disposing of sensitive data and software from equipment or media when transferred for the purpose of testing.

Expected Delivery

Acknowledgment Time The service team should acknowledge a service request within about 2-3 business days.
Turnaround Time Turnaround time varies, depending on the complexity of the project.

Customers

Suggested For Any state or local government agency as well as educational institutions
Required For None
Spotlight Customers
  • N.C. Department of Information Technology
  • N.C. Department of Health and Human Services
  • N.C. Department of Transportation
  • N.C. Department of Public Safety
  • N.C. Division of Employment Security
  • N.C. State Board of Elections
  • N.C. Office of State Human Resources
  • N.C. Department of Water Infrastructure
  • N.C. Department of Environment Quality
  • N.C. Department of the Secretary of State
  • N.C. Office of the Commissioner of Banks
  • N.C. Department of Insurance
  • Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
Customer Testimonials View customer testimonials

Support Process Submit a ticket using the NCDIT Service Portal or contact the NCDIT Service Desk at 919-754-6000.
Service Support Hours Support for the service is available 24/7.
Service Availability The service is available 24/7.
Standard Maintenance Windows Sundays: 4 a.m. to noon
Service Communications The Software Quality, Security & Testing Services team will report communications about this service to customers.
Service Level Agreements Software Quality Assurance Service Level Agreement

  • Approved rates for this service are published in the NCDIT Rate Schedule.
  • Standard fees and any optional materials and hours worked are applied monthly to each subscribing agency, according to their service level tier outlined in their memo of understanding. 
     

View NCDIT Rate Schedule

NCDIT-Provided Tools

Tool Details
Technologies Software application testing
Technical Architecture

NCDIT has Security Assertion Markup Language-based SSO services with multifactor authentication for user access to ensure secured communications, data integrity and security for solutions and applications provided by the Software Quality, Security & Testing Services team.

SAML is an open federation standard that allows an identity provider to authenticate users and then pass an authentication token to another application known as a service provider.
Servers
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2016
  • LINUX
Functionality
  • Test management
  • Functional testing
  • Mobile and network testing
  • Security testing
  • Performance testing and monitoring
Product and Version Numbers
  • Application Life Cycle Management Quality Center 15.50 (test management)
  • Load Runner Enterprise 2021 (performance testing)
  • Dynatrace 1.222.86 (performance monitoring)
  • Fortify 19.1 (security testing)
  • SiteScope 2020.10 (performance monitoring)
  • Unified Functional Test 15.0.2 (functional testing)
  • Sprinter 15.0.2 (manual testing)
  • Mobile Center 3.5 (mobile testing)
  • ALM Octane 12.60 (DevOps management and agile management)
  • LeanFT 15.0.2 (functional testing)
  • ApplitoolsEyes (visual regression testing)
Vendors
  • Micro Focus
  • Orasi
  • Dynatrace
Optional Services
  • Software Quality, Security & Testing offers subject matter expert resources to perform testing tasks on behalf of the customer for any given software application.
  • Customers will be charged on a time and materials basis at the current in-force rates for these types of services.

Training & Help 

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