Quality Assurance Outsourcing

Quality Assurance is quite frequently underestimated in the process of software development, in particular with tight budgets. The demonstrative example is when the priorities are traded: either to engage a QA specialist or another developer to implement some new features in the product. And its really a hard choice. As a rule the scales are weight on behalf of developers as the list of features is huge and time is tight. Moreover, implementation of a QA process requires the engagement of some staff as well as quality assurance manager to control the former.

And there are thousands of such examples: e.g., a company developed its software and was preparing for a Beta release to their first customers. They also omitted QA. Though each module was perfectly implemented by individual developers, the whole system still required testing after integration. After release to the first testing target group of users, company decision makers realized that commercial release without omni-faceted testing of the system would be a disaster. Here suggests a question: how could this be – so highly qualified developers created such lousy software!?

This is conditioned by the fact that QA is often omitted in software development process. Even if all separate program modules have been tested, the entire application should also be tested. However, this practice is frequently neglected and as a result the mediocre software and unhappy users.

QA outsourcing is the best way out of the issue of absence or incomplete QA departments or processes. Outsourcing your QA can also be your first experience of using the benefits of low-cost offshore development resources. Why QA to be the first? The answer is simple: for security reasons – in most cases you don’t have to disclose your source code, you can restrict yourself with delivering a binary version of your software product for installation and testing by your outsourced QA team. Another advantage is that you can select specialists dedicated to a particular type of testing. QA can be divided into 5 different types:

1. Requirements Testing – to make sure that product functionalities correspond to your initial set of requirements
2. Usability Testing – specific testing intended to find out the level of convenience while using the software
3. Load and Stress Testing – to make sure that the product endures the extreme workloads
4. Environment Testing – to test the product compatibility with different operating systems, browsers, etc.
5. Regression Testing – testing performed to make there are no new bugs in updated versions or new releases of the software

In regression testing QA engineers often use unit testing. Unit testing is carried out in the course of programming and requires access to the source code. The rest of regression tests can be performed without viewing the source code.

On initial stage try not to overuse the outsourcing. Select the specific type of testing most needed for you and the one that can bring you the largest revenue. Regression Testing is valuable due to the opportunity to reuse the tests internally upon their development by the outsourced QA team. At the same time Environment Testing requires plenty of test cases to be developed and executed, and only outsourcing provides admissible way to complete them.

To summarize, it is essential to realize the value of QA in the software development process. You can begin with a small development team to try them and see what they are capable of. Along with growing complexity of the software you can supplement your development team with QA engineers either internal or overseas.

Especially when dealing with a large volume and elaborated software project, it is crucial and essential to plan for professional QA as part of the effort. If neglected, this can cause irreparable losses: from negative feedback on your product to losing critical early sales. So, outsourced QA in your case may be the leverage to increase your time to market and competitiveness.