10 Advantages of Outsourcing Software Testing

Time and again there are discussions on when to test a product, how to test it, how to fit testing in the already squeezed delivery timelines, do we have the right infrastructure and so many more.

While the shrinking product delivery timelines mean that many companies want to go to the market bypassing testing, one must also remember that there are a plethora of products being launched regularly and if yours is not a quality product, you will never survive in the market. Hence quality is something we can never compromise with and still succeed.

The Advantages of Outsourcing QA Software Testing

Once we decide to ensure quality, we are faced with another serious question. While we may genuinely want to conduct thorough testing, where can we find the time and bandwidth? What is the way out?

Outsourcing.

Yes, it is the best solution to many problems related to quality, time, infrastructure, and many more.

Outsourcing software testing activities have become commonplace in today’s IT world. Most companies prefer to delegate their testing activities to third-party vendors and use the saved time and energy in product development and delivery. Here we look at some of the advantages of this paradigm shift.

• Better Quality

Testing is often considered as less important compared to development from a delivery point of view. In effect, the testing activities are often rushed to completion taking a toll on quality. But when you outsource it to a vendor, he ensures that the complete end-to-end testing is performed with utmost quality. The result would be a better tested and high-quality product that is ready to roll out for production.

• Cost-Effective

Specialized testing involves cost. This can be related to tools, resources, servers, databases, etc.  By using a vendor, we can cut down the costs related to tool licenses, on-boarding of skilled resources, etc. In the long run, this will still turn out to be more effective even after reducing the outsourcing cost incurred to the vendor.

• Autonomous Results

Testing is best performed when it is done as an isolated activity. Testing done by a vendor would always be unbiased and impartial. They cannot be influenced by the management or the development team. Thus ensuring the testing, bug reporting, and tracking all are conducted impartially, improving the quality standard of the product.

• A professional and structured approach

Outsourcing the testing activity to a competent vendor would mean the testing activities are carried out in a professional and very structured manner. This will also ensure more test coverage, better testing, and in the end a better-tested product. A structured approach would take a back seat when testing is forcefully winded up within a short span during sprints and short project cycles. 

• Best Practices

An independent testing agency would have extensive experience in different kinds of testing with several clients. This means they would have had learning experiences from previous projects and would also be expected to follow the best practices. Implementation of these tried and tested techniques in quality assurance gives you a better product too.

• Greater Efficiency

Outsourcing the testing efforts to a vendor means that the in-house team can focus on the development and bug fixing of critical functionalities. They can also take up business-specific or security testing which may not be feasible for outsourcing. This again leads to the end product being tested thoroughly and also in building a more robust product.

• Greater Speed

Testing outsourced to a vendor with committed timelines means the product teams get more bandwidth for development and integration. This also implies that in most cases, the time-to-market is also brought down considerably. Well, another bonus here is that with this reduced time to production, the management may just ignore the vendor cost in automation.

• Reduced Infrastructure Cost

Testing needs infrastructure in terms of testing setup, stubs, and several tools for testing, defect tracking, test management, CI/CD, and more. When the testing is outsourced to a vendor, all the above would be taken care of by the vendor. You need not be worried about any of these. You can even give directions to the vendor on which tool you want, how many iterations you want, the kind of report expected, etc.

• Reduced Management Effort

With the testing efforts outsourced to a vendor, your management tasks are reduced. There is no longer a need to track the testing activities, follow up for the execution status and arrange for defect triage meetings, etc. All these can be taken care of by the vendor itself. This effort and man-hours can be utilized more productively in other project activities which are more critical and help in delivering a better product.

• Greater Expertise in domain and tools

Software testing vendor companies would have specialists for tools and even people with expertise in several domains on their payroll. Fresh testing is always bound to find new defects and ensure better quality than the teams doing repeated testing. Also, by outsourcing the testing activities, we can leverage the skills and expertise of the vendor resources for the testing period alone without having to onboard them.

While outsourcing your testing activities is a very good option, one should also remember to choose the vendor or partner judiciously. A good testing partner would ensure your product adheres to all quality standards and give you a fair and unbiased view of your application or product.

But at the same time, a phoney partner would not only be a no-good for improving your product quality but will also give you wrong impressions about your product quality. This could backfire very badly if it goes to production and is rejected by the clients or end-users.

So, be very careful and choose your software testing partner effectively. Do a background check of the vendor, try to get information from some previous clients, etc. Make sure to double-check the credibility of your vendor, before dolling out the dollars to them. But you can rest assured once you find the right vendor. You will not have to worry about your testing activities again.

Make sure you do your research and ask questions. If you’re considering outsourcing, Speak with one of our QA experts.