The tasks of planning and controlling software testing may move into a field of tension: time constraints, limited budgets, and a growing desire for a final version of software ASAP.
IT development department and the external testing team try to assert their largely different interests and prioritize them accordingly.
Therefore, simply recruiting outsourcing testing team to successfully manage testing is not enough. Respectively, it makes no sense for developers to test their code.
Which things to consider before outsource testing then?
What Should You Know Before Outsourcing Software Testing?
Generally speaking, there are two main factors to consider before outsourcing testing: financial matter, human resources, and organizational aspects.
Financial Side
Most of the time, both sides stop on a traditional payment model: an hourly rate or rate per test day.
It`s good if you find a credible team that performs all the required tests in a short time, while other companies could be more scarce and perform fewer tests at the same time.
In this case, with an equal rate for each of them, you would spend more money on the worst-performing team.
To avoid this, you should be clear about all the working processes of your outsourcing team, which would basically mean more control, communication, and as a result more resources for it. Although it requires more hustle and project management, it pays off on a long-distance.
If you expect effective cooperation, you have to control the quality of the product and pay for it, not for the time spent.
One way to do this is to follow a rate based on a price per carried out test, although this could also result in poor quality of the tests, so the problem is still up in the air.
A business-oriented relationship and the definition of measurable goals are important to the success of an outsourcing strategy. That`s why you can work based on quality gates, where you decide if you should move on with that team only when they meet a certain milestone. Payments are also based on achieved goals, not on efforts.
Organization and Management Side
There are plentiful companies out there offering outsourcing testing. Unfortunately, not all of them are trustworthy.
Special attention should be paid to the size of the outsourcing company.
Going to a small firm will minimize the bureaucratization of your relationships. If you need to quickly solve a couple of tasks within a small-scale project, the choice in favor of a small outsourcer is justified.
If you are developing a large and complex system, the bureaucratization of relations with an outsourcer is a go-to choice. In such a case it is better to give preference to a large contractor.
Knowing which test to perform is also important. That could reduce costs, time, and result in better productivity of your app or website.
Companies that focus on the customer experience increase their revenue by an average of 4-8%. This rule works in retail, finance, and other industries.
For example, owners of online stores with a limited budget should focus on targeted products and digital solutions that will work well with a sharp increase in the number of users. For this task testers use performance testing.
Ideally, the hired company should provide reports to analyze testing metrics, allowing managers and their teams to track all information related to the quality of software testing processes.
This makes it possible to assess which issues have been resolved and which are still present.
If we take look at the reporting quality of in-house vs outsourcing software development company the latter usually has higher quality.
Credible outsourcing companies have to pay great attention to the quality and transparency of reporting because it is the key metric for evaluating their work.
The reporting itself can be divided into final and regular stages: daily, weekly, monthly, versioned (for each product version), etc.
Outsourcing Software Testing: Pros and Cons
Pros
As most things in outsource, the apparent benefit is cost savings, professionalism, and wise resource allocation. As for the cost and professionalism, everything is quite clear here: It’s more profitable to pay professionals once, rather than building a team, recruiting, training, and managing processes.
Disengagement from the external development team plays an important role in testing: a cold, balanced, and objective approach to any software task is always handy.
However, there`s should transparency about the testing processes of your outsourcing team. A central document for test coordination should contain all project specifications: which tests are carried out at a specific stage of testing, which tools are used, who tests what, deadlines, etc.
Cons
Being aware of the issues that you can face can give you a better picture of what to expect and how to act accordingly.
Learning curve: the outsourced team needs more time to adapt to your business-oriented goals.
Communication: Outsourcing can often lead to flaws in communication making it difficult to get things done in time.
Information sharing: some companies have restrictions on sharing information, especially if it is confidential. However, there`s nothing that can’t be solved with a good NDA in place.
Wrapping Up
To sum up there are four main factors to consider before choosing an outsourcing company:
- A strong reputation in the marketplace. Pay attention to the portfolio, positive and negative feedback from customers. If it’s easy to find all the information you need about the company’s history and accomplishments.
2. High competence. An idea of the company’s professionalism is formed by its experience in the market, as well as QA expertise, which can be assessed by a portfolio of successful customer stories.
3. A transparent communication process. How is your communication with the vendor structured? Do you always get a prompt response to a request, and do you have a complete picture of how the project is progressing?
4. Flexibility of business processes. Quickly adapting to global conditions allows you to maintain continuity of production processes in challenging times.
The expertise of architecture experts, business analysts, project managers, and testing experts is essential to the success of a project.
If you decide to outsource, you should be on the same page with your outsourcing testing team and be transparent about all the processes. This can lead to a fruitful synergy as long as both parties do what is required.
Author’s BIO: Louis Sawyer is a professional writer, editor and a web design expert. She loves writing about technology trends, web development, mobile games and business issues. Also, Louis works as a proofreader at Computools. Follow Louis on Twitter.