A new phenomenon in IT are clouds. It is the new hype. I asked myself the question “Can clouds help me in testing?” Part of that we already answered with crowdtesting. Because the crowd is a cloud by itself. But there is another cloud. A cloud of testing objects.

Test objects

So how does this cloud of test objects work? Well at first these objects can be from all over the world. And with that they should be made available to the crowd cloud. A service, like a company website, could service these test objects. They could have an online database full of possible objects. These objects should therefore be small for one person in the crowd to want to test it.

These test objects should be small, but they also should have information attached with it. This information can be:

• * Operating system;
• * Part of bigger application;
• * Code language;
• * Language;
• * Project;
• * Prospected time to test;
• * When test should be finished;
• * Reward for crowd;
• * Etc.

This information should therefore be also made available. With this information a tester can make his or her choice to test the piece of software.

IT-products and IT-product descriptions

There are two different kinds of test objects possible in test clouds, an IT-product and an IT-product description. All test objects can be categorized in these two. When you divide them further up you get this list (and more).

IT-products:

1. Internet applications
2. Client-Server-applications (also SOA)
3. Desktop applications
4. SAP-applications
5. Cloud Computing applications
6. Software on devices

IT -product descriptions:

1. User handbook
2. Administrator handbook
3. Installation handbook

With the software and information in place the crowdtesting service provider should make it available to the crowd. And then there is a use of 2 separate clouds which are connected by a service provider.

Opportunities

The opportunities with test clouds are:

• * High amount of potential testers;
• * Multiple variations of hardware-, operating system- and browser-constellations (possible cost savings in the area of test environment);
• * Added value for software producers by representative User-Feedback (increased informative value regarding user acceptance);
• * Employees of clients can be involved.

Every test object worldwide can be tested by every Internet user worldwide…