The testing process these days can seem incredibly complex and convoluted, consisting of some difficult decisions – offshore or onshore? Traditional or crowdsourced? And the choices don’t stop there. Say you know you’d like to outsource software testing for your project; who do you use? How do you select an outsourced software testing company? The decision to outsource software testing can be a tricky one to make, and the choice of who to partner with can make or break the testing process.

Why Outsource?

Outsourcing can boost your software testing efficiency by allowing you access to a larger talent pool than whomever is available within commuting distance of your company. If you’re based in an area with high costs of living, working with testers in a less-expensive area (either domestically or off-shore in another country) means that you’ll reap cost savings as well. Additionally, testers at outsourcing companies tend to be hired because they are good at a wide variety of methodologies; working with companies that can provide a full package of testing services and cover all of your application’s testing needs will result in lower costs and more thoroughly-tested final products.

Finding a testing outsourcing company with enough experience to address all of your software testing concerns but that also understands your products and your clients is essential to the testing process.

For an in-depth assessment of whether your application needs outsourced or in-house testing, please take a look at our blog post on the topic here.

What to Look for in an Outsourced Software Testing Company

When determining who to outsource to, remember that a good outsourcing company will be willing to work with you on determining the needs of your project, and will be able to meet those needs in the most efficient and economical way possible. The three main concerns that you should address when selecting the best company to work with are:

    • Flexibility: A good outsourcing company should be able to address all aspects of your project. Are they a one trick pony, or can they address all of the platforms, methodologies, services, and engagement models?
    • Experience level: how long have they been providing this service? How many industries or methodologies do they have experience with?
    • All shore: do you have the option of choosing where their testers will work from? We provide what we call Right Shore solutions, which allow you to choose where we work from: on-site at your office, on-shore at a test center within a few hours’ distance, or off-shore in a different country.

Extra from the Experts:

In their 2013 Vender guide, Gartner recommends the following activities be utilized when seeking to identify the right application testing service partner:

      • Work with the business unit representatives/executives to understand both business requirements and IT quality criteria and the processes needed to realize them.
      • Ensure there are clear performance requirements, a well-defined scope, measurable success criteria, and good relationships and interactions with all application and user groups that will be integral to the testing process.
      • Understand that testing is required to verify and validate that a business objective is being realized through a project (or a development effort) throughout the life cycle, not only at a user acceptance phase. Therefore, define clear functional and nonfunctional acceptance criteria for each phase of the life cycle.
      • Determine and document the current end-to-end in-house testing capabilities, gaps and desired enhancements needed to meet business objectives. [1]

The dynamic between a development and a testing company must be good in order for an application or system to succeed. Finding a testing outsourcing company with enough experience to address all of your software testing concerns but that also understands your products and your clients is essential to the testing process. Only a well-tested system can provide a worthwhile user experience, and a well-tested system is the result of working with a testing company that knows what they’re doing. If you want to use testing outsourcing to ensure that your product is the best it can possibly be, using the tips above is the only way to really ensure that you’re working with the best in the business.

Sourced

[1] “Vendor Guide to the Right Application Testing Service Partner” 20 November 2013 by Susanne Matson, Gilbert van der Heiden for Gartner