Successful software is always free of glitches or bugs interrupting user experience. It’s a possibility that you may not have enough resources or expertise in-house to perform QA testing of your software.
Outsourcing software testing is a valid and reasonable option in cases like these. Let’s start our discussion by answering the question: “When should you leverage outsourcing software testing?”
Why And When Should You Outsource QA Testing?
1. Your Internal Team Lacks The Expertise
This is a frequent phenomenon in startups where the team members are relatively less experienced. It’s completely understandable if your team lacks the qualifications to perform detailed software testing.
The best solution here is to outsource testing to a team with the right expertise and the best practices to help them get the most out of all the QA sessions.
Another upside of outsourcing QA is you can find specific vendors with the suitable skill set to test your app the right way.
For example, if you have a banking app, you can find testers who have tested bank-related apps and know the right practices to get the most out of the QA testing.
2. Your Deadlines Are Approaching
There might be situations when the development team is already burnt out from trying to reach a deadline quickly.
While it’s your responsibility to pay attention to the welfare of your team, it’s also a fact that you need to reach the market with your app on time.
But you can’t release the app without proper testing, and that’s where outsourced testers come in. That way, you can publish the app on time with the right testing done without postponing the launch.
3. You Need A Fresh Perspective To Get Out of Development Hell
Working on the same project for a longer time makes you immune to all the faults that may arise in the application because you already know the ins and outs of the application, along with how customers are supposed to interact with it.
That’s where you need a fresh perspective to find mistakes in the application. When you bring in external software testers, they can focus on the gaps in functionality and useability.
The users will not always interact with the app exactly how the founder or the development team wants them to, and the testers also consider that.
Unexpected behavior from users can invoke bugs or glitches in the software that can render the product unusable. Outsourced testers can find all the irregularities that may not seem apparent to the in-house development team and apply fixes accordingly.
4. The Project Is Short Term
QA testing is an expensive process that becomes even more expensive when employing a full team of QA testers in-house.
Big expenses for short-term projects are a big nope, and to save costs as much as possible in smaller projects, it’s better to outsource QA testers.
Outsourcing QA testing to a third party with previous experience in relevant industries can grant you access to the same level of expertise with less expenses, resulting in better testing while saving money.
5. You Need Faster Deliverables
When outsourcing, the client doesn’t have to worry about hiring, onboarding, and training full-time QA testers to work on their product.
Outsourced QA teams can bypass the formalities and get to work on the app much faster, resulting in lower time to market and faster ROI.
Advantages of Outsourcing Software Testing
1. It’s A Cost-Effective Testing Option
Outsourcing is always more cost-efficient than full-time employees; the same applies to outsourcing QA testing.
Software testing is expensive, and onboarding qualified QA testers to work full-time will cost you an arm and a leg.
By leveraging outsourcing, you’re saving on the testing budget, which can help you reallocate the resources to post-development functionalities like marketing or sales.
2. Testing Process Has Increased Efficiency
Automated testing can be easily considered to be the most efficient testing method. But even when the whole process is automated, it doesn’t have the human touch or feedback that can help shape the app to be more appealing to the target audience.
Manual testing is more efficient than automating the whole thing, and bringing in a third-party QA testing team can offer you the right kind of efficiency you need to create, test, and publish a great product.
3. The Testing Process Has More Variety
When outsourcing QA tests, the vendor team will perform various tests on your final product before letting it out the door. These tests include:
- Exploratory Testing: Allows the team to perform any test necessary to make different bugs appear for solving.
- Functional Testing: A wide range of test procedures that ensure testing results are a high-quality user experience and better functionality.
- Localization Testing: A test procedure to ensure the product’s functionality in the global markets.
- Performance Testing: Tests for the endurance of the application by pushing the app to absolute breaking points.
- Security Testing: Testing for security exploits to fix them all to prevent data leaks with intense protection.
4. You Get Access To A Wider Range of Expertise
Outsourcing allows you to hire experts from all around the world, just like regular software development. You can hire well-reputed testing experts from any country worldwide and partner with reputed vendors who can offer additional expertise and perception over your entire testing process.
5. Access To The Best Tech Lowers Time To Market
QA testers who offer outsourcing services are always equipped with the best testing tech with high testing capabilities.
When you partner with outsourcing vendors for QA testing, you get access to their tech stack and expertise.
With improved tools and high-end expertise, the testing procedure gets completed faster, resulting in a lower time to market.
Disadvantages of Outsourcing Software Testing
1. There Will Be Security Concerns
Outsourcing QA testing means allowing testers complete access to your software product. Though you can sign NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) contracts to maintain confidentiality, there are still chances of data leaks from the data server of the vendor.
2. The Quality Might Suffer
There are a lot of highly reputed QA testing agencies with high levels of experience, and they can provide a great product that is free of any issues.
However, not all vendors have equal expertise, so the testing result may not be satisfactory, and the final product will suffer in quality.
3. Working Across Borders May Cause Project Delays
Offshore outsourcing allows you to work with team members from across the globe. While this is a great chance to collaborate with professionals worldwide, the time zone difference can cause delays in communication and feedback implementation.
These delays can lengthen the overall time for the testing phase.
4. The Services Offered By The Vendors May Not Be Enough
QA testers usually offer a wide range of services sufficient for different businesses. Relatively small vendors don’t have enough resources to offer enough services to fit the needs of a high-end organization, which results in the client organization having to look for a different vendor to outsource other specific services.
5. The Vendor Might Lack Industry-Exclusive Expertise
While outsourcing testing vendors have an extensive range of experience in testing different software products, they may not have industry-relevant experience for the one you’re currently in.
For example, let’s say there’s an agency reputed for testing software in multiple industries, but they don’t have any prior experience with healthcare apps.
In that case, letting them test your healthcare app may not get you any feedback good enough to improve the entire app aside from bug fixes.
5 Best Practices For Outsourcing Software Testing To The Perfect Team
1. Check The Credibility of Your Potential Partners
While outsourcing vendors can promise to offer the best testing services, it’s always a good idea to verify the claims of all your potential vendors.
It’s always a great idea to check for and verify all available information on the vendor’s official website.
Once you see enough certifications, testimonials, and client reviews backing up their claim, you can rest assured that the vendor is perfect for testing partnerships.
2. Get A Detailed Idea About Their Resources And Expertise
A good vendor always responds with detailed answers to potential clients’ queries. If you want to know about the relevant experiences and the resources a vendor uses for QA testing, book a meeting with the vendor and present all your questions.
A professional vendor will be happy to answer all your inquiries, and it will help you find how suitable their expertise and resources are for your project.
3. Search For Niche Talents
Software testing requires specialized talents, and industry experts who have honed it down to a niche are preferred.
They know the ins and outs of testing a business product for a specific industry, and your product will benefit more from their outlook and feedback.
4. Ensure The Vendor Is Transparent In Their Dealings
Vendor transparency is vital to know where the testing phase is. When partnering with a testing vendor, check how they communicate throughout the testing process and how frequent the reports are. Complete transparency is a sign of professionalism; a little professionalism goes a long way.
5. Set Up Your KPIs Before The Project Starts
When testing your product for launch, you need to determine the right KPIs while the testing team performs QA tests.
Determining the right KPIs often dictates the path and amount of success, and setting the right KPIs for the team will let them know the right goals to work towards
How Impala Intech Offers High-Quality Software QA Testing Services
The whole process of doing tons of research and choosing the right outsourced testing partner can take ages. Why not cut right to the chase and partner with Impala Intech?
We can provide you with a team with relevant experience on the field, tried and tested remote tools, and strategies that can and will align with your business goal 100%.
We also leverage automated testing processes along with manual overlook, making each QA testing phase as effective as possible.
To Wrap It All Up
The current market is very fast-paced, and outsourcing software testing to operate faster is a logically sound choice.
Testing vendors will always go their way to ensure that your product offers the intended usability, performance, and functionality.
If you’re looking for a well-reputed vendor for outsourcing the testing procedure of your software, the Impala Intech QA team will be happy to assist you on your development journey.
FAQ
Provide comprehensive documentation and involve the outsourcing team in knowledge transfer sessions.
Critical defects should be reported promptly, and you should work with the team to address and resolve them.
Yes, outsourcing can be cost-effective for short-term and long-term testing needs.
Address concerns immediately, discuss the issues with the outsourcing team, and work together on improvements.
Measure ROI by comparing the cost savings, improved quality, and faster time-to-market achieved through outsourcing against the investment made.
