Mastering Outsourcing in Software Testing

Published: February 28, 2012 2 min. read
Svitla Team
By Svitla Team
DevOps
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The trend of software testing outsourcing is widespread around the world. Outsourcing of software testing entails the employment of another dedicated company to fulfill a task for another. The goal is to increase efficiency, quality, and customer satisfaction. Our offshore software development company specializes in software testing and offers high quality outsourced software testing services.

Software testing is an integral part of product development as product attributes are being validated for functionality and ease of use. Software testing outsourcing brings the following benefits:

  •     It enables you to focus on tasks that are important for meeting business development goals and better system solutions.
  •     It saves time in marketing software products.
  •     It takes software quality one notch higher because we specialize in software testing.
  •     It means lower cost in terms of infrastructure, employment, and testing.
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The decision for outsourced software testing depends on various factors that relate to the product and your company needs. Some of the considerations are as follows:

  •  If the entire software product needs to be tested or just a segment of it.
  •  If outsourcing saves costs for your company in terms of completing the software testing process. In turn, if software testing is outsourced, your company is able to extend its resources indirectly.
  •  If the software needs continued validation with the plan of releasing new versions of it.
  •  If the software audit needs to be done yet your company cannot assume the task because of bigger plans in development.

Written by
Svitla Team
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FAQ

What is outsourcing testing?

Testing Outsourcing is an engagement of a specialized external firm for the performance of software testing aimed at enhancing efficiency, quality, and customer satisfaction with the product. The core business goals of the team are accompanied by reduced infrastructure, hiring, and test operation costs, as well as minimized time-to-market. QA partners raise expertise in delivering better quality through improved testing capabilities, whether there is a need for total or component product testing at some points, validation support due to frequent releases, or even independent auditing. The choice mainly relies on scope, cost savings, extension of resources, and continuous checks on quality.

Why would a company practice outsourcing?

Outsourcing is undertaken by firms to enhance efficiency; internal staff can concentrate on the main objectives of the business while experts perform non-essential functions. It cuts down market delivery time and minimizes infrastructure, recruitment, and operational expenses. A deeper domain understanding that external partners possess elevates the quality and reliability of output. Outsourcing validates continual validation, versioned releases, aimed at components or even standalone audits when there is insufficiency in internal resources.

What are the four factors to consider before outsourcing?

Decide if you want the whole test or just a part. Think about whether sending it out will truly lower costs than doing it inside. Look at your need for steady checking to help with frequent changes or new versions. See if you need an outside check, but don’t have enough inside help because of more important plans.

What is the first step in managing outsourcing effectively?

State scope and objectives work for the whole product or any part. This will settle deliverables, timelines, quality criteria, and responsibilities from both ends. With the scope set, one is able to weigh up the cost against the benefit with resource needs and the cadence of validation for future releases. Clear scoping allows picking the right partner, plus setting up an audit and communication plan that works.

What are the two most frequent causes of outsourcing problems?

The two major causes are scope and expectations, not being clearly articulated and aligned, which leads to gaps in the deliverables, timeline, or quality criteria. The next most common issue is underestimating the cost and resource implications, hence creating budget overruns or bandwidth shortfalls when validation, version releases, or even audits are found to be required. Again, this stems from inadequate upfront planning about what is being outsourced (full product vs. components) and how success will be measured. Explicit requirements and a realistic cost-benefit model go a long way toward mitigating these risks.