Software Testing Outsourcing - ‘How to Guide’

“For everything we don’t like to do, there’s someone who is outside of the company, who’s really good in the activity that you don’t want to do, but he can, wants to do it, and will enjoy it”. This is outsourcing, which is not a new concept. The idea of outsourcing was started back in the 1700s when manufacturers decided to do the manufacturing of goods to other countries at cheaper rates during the industrial revolution.

Takeaways

• A java programmer makes $60,000 a year in the U.S but $5,000 a year in India.
• In a survey, 90% of firms cited outsourcing as essential to their growth strategies.
• Outsourcing can increase productivity and competitiveness 10 to 100 fold.
• Outsourcing is no longer just about time & cost saving; it is a strategic tool that may power the twenty-first-century global economy.
•  The average company only spends nearly 2% of the value of its outsourcing contracts to manage its relationship with the outsource provider.

Software Testing Outsourcing - Why is It Important?

Software testing outsourcing consists of various sets of activities performed by groups of freelancers or independent software testing outsourcing companies or third party or testing firms where they are not involved in the entire software development process except for testing.

For outsourcing QA testing or software QA outsourcing, most startup companies and entrepreneurs today hand over their testing projects to experienced and competent vendors because having a high level of work from employees is beyond their capacities.

Previously, the applications were designed with limited programming languages. Nowadays, DevOps, regression testing, automation testing, performance testing, accessibility testing, UAT testing, and integration testing have become the latest trends in software testing 2021-2022. Similarly, we have numerous new technologies like robotic process automation, edge computing, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, quantum computing, augmented reality and virtual reality, the internet of things (IoT), and blockchain.

If you are a software testing company that has approximately 10 or 12 years of experience, you don’t need to take outsource app testing services from the outside because your in-house testing teams may be able to test an app that is designed & developed with the latest technologies or perform a wide variety of testing services.

If you set up a new testing company in your region and you test any client’s application from your team with the least knowledge and experience, then it will cost not only you but also users who are trusting the application and give their sensitive information in it because hackers find weak spots or weaknesses in the app to commit the cybercrime. According to Business Insider, India, the increasing cybercrime incidents cost the world economy over $1 trillion, or more than 1% of global GDP, which is up more than 50% from a 2018 study that put global losses at nearly $600 billion, revealed by leading cyber security firm McAfee.

Thus, testing is not only limited to one-dimensional. It now becomes multidimensional and requires robust infrastructure, best practices, and expertise to resolve security issues in the application and meet varied & unique business requirements.

Pros and Cons of Outsourcing Software Testing Services

Time Saving Management

The cost of outsourced software testing is reasonable, and it saves a lot of management time for making strategic planning. Similarly, the project managers can reorganize their internal teams to focus on the core development and other business areas.

Faster Time to Market

When you use the combination of offshore and onshore teams, sometimes the testing time cuts down to half. With offshore QA testing or outsourcing, you can get the work from teams in any time zone, maximize the effectiveness and effort without spending hefty money.

Elimination of High-End Investments

Software testing and quality assurance outsourcing allow companies to reduce high-end investments in both the resources and hardware. When you outsource your testing projects from somewhere else, you don’t need to worry about learning new technologies, taking training, or purchasing some resources to perform development functions in terms of testing.

Focus on Core Business

After getting outsourced software testing services, you are allowed to focus on core business areas or collaborate with other business customers for work.

Higher Return on Investment

QA outsourcing services may be expensive in the US. Still, in India, there are various independent software testing companies with so much experience, qualifications, and skills who can help you deliver a robust app and get higher ROI benefits.

Efficiency

The advantage of outsourcing app testing is that large software testing companies have a range of manual and automation testing professionals who know each testing type and have the experience to work for your project.

They can help you design effective test scenarios and test cases to give you better optimized, quicker, and quality results in an efficient manner. Testing organizations of specialists use a systematic approach to perform testing based on global best practices, testing methodologies & strategies, and tools to ensure you that they will meet both implicit and explicit requirements of your stakeholders and help you achieve digital transformation objectives.

Read More: Advantages To Outsource QA Software Testing

Cons

Choosing a Trustworthy Outsourced Partner

There are hundreds of thousands of software outsourcing companies. Do you know who is suitable for you? One of the major difficulties is you need a partner who can take your project’s responsibility and secure your information. It is essential to choose a legal and independent software testing company because they are familiar with various testing problems faced by global clients. They can handle complex software testing issues, and they perform tests from one or more software testers.

Confidentiality & Security

There are higher security risks when you share your extremely sensitive and confidential information such as source codes, customer databases, workflows, and reference models with the service providers. If you’re the organization that wants privacy from the third-party while outsourcing your testing needs, then you need to sign some documents from them.

Loss of Control

Due to heavy pressure and stringent project deadlines, managing effective communication with the third-party outsourcing testing companies is challenging, especially when you need to give the project delivery on-time. With in-house testing teams, you can better control the project and ask your teams to work extra until the project is completed.

Quality

Here are some reasons that you need to know regarding why quality assurance is essential.

• Quality assurance protects corporate emergencies.
• It saves you both effort and money.
• Quality assurance maximizes the client’s confidence.
• Quality assurance gives more profit.
• Quality assurance enhances the user experience.
• It improves customer satisfaction.
• It promotes efficiency and productivity.

Spending money on software QA outsourcing is valuable if the organization guarantees that it will invest appropriate time and capital to develop a QA culture and avoid future failures.

Fulfilling Business Needs Internationally

Many times you have to fulfill your business needs from international companies. However, you may face challenges like communicating with a professional who can’t speak your mother language. Similarly, you have to cooperate with their time zones when you outsource testing projects from foreign countries. With in-house software testing teams, you can get daily feedback, make changes in the app & perform testing anytime, and even take your project's status.

Wind-up

Software testing outsourcing is beneficial for many cases as it helps you reduce costs and perform tasks from the employees of other companies when you already have too much workload and when you are not entirely proficient in various types of testing such as functional testing, mobile app testing, performance testing, automation testing, compatibility testing, security testing, usability testing, cross-browser testing, exploratory testing, localization testing, game testing, full-cycle testing, SEO testing, user interface testing, and compatibility testing.

The success of QA outsourcing depends upon the right vendor, appropriate engagement or business model, and quality assurance by outsourcing testers. Make your outsourced decision wisely.