Benefits of Working With an Outsourced QA Company - Maximizing Efficiency

And with so much work on their plate, many software companies are looking to hire a QA service provider to help them out. Therefore, QA outsourcing is the only logical move and using software testing outsourcing services comes naturally in their business plan.

In that light, let’s see everything about QA outsourcing and why it holds such a big advantage when it comes to software testing.

What is QA Outsourcing?

QA outsourcing simplifies the process of quality assurance testing by involving a QA outsourcing company to manage some or all QA activities. These activities range from initial testing efforts during requirements gathering to final regression testing before product release.

In other words, it means contracting with external experts (software testing companies) to handle various QA tasks. This is done either on a project-by-project basis or as ongoing support for in-house teams at the software testing company.

What is Quality Assurance Testing Process?

Quality assurance (QA) is the process of making sure your software works perfectly and meets all industry and client standards. In simple words, this is a software testing process done by the testing team. QA can be handled by dedicated professionals or through outsourced companies that specialize in this important work.

Many people confuse software testing with QA, but they are different. Software testing is a specific step during development, while QA covers the entire project from planning to maintenance.

QA happens throughout the development process, identifying weaknesses and errors. When bugs are found, they are fixed promptly. QA professionals offer a fresh perspective, helping to catch issues early. This proactive approach saves money and time and protects the company’s reputation.

How Does QA Outsourcing Work?

Outsourcing means getting help from outside experts for certain tasks. In IT, companies often ask external teams to handle parts or all of their software testing. This can be done with teams located nearby or far away.

In the big picture of IT, QA outsourcing is a huge deal, expected to bring in about $460.10 billion by the end of 2024]. A chunk of this money, around $36.4 billion in 2023, goes into QA outsourcing.

When a company uses outsourcing software testing, they’re basically asking another team to handle their software testing. The companies outsource software testing come in and do the testing work for a set amount of time and within specific rules. Sometimes this partnership is for just one project, but it can also be ongoing.

The outside team carefully follows all the rules and requirements set by the company. They use specific methods and testing tools, just like the company would do internally. It’s like they become an extra part of the company’s own testing team, bringing in extra help and skills that the company might not have on its own.

Benefits of Working With an Outsourced Company

Clients who are looking for outsourced software testing services usually seek top-notch companies that are able to deliver swiftly, smoothly, and at a reasonable cost. While achieving a flawless success rate of 100% or a product completely free of bugs and errors may seem unattainable, the path toward perfection begins with the quality assurance process.

This vital process holds huge significance, offering numerous benefits to both the company and the clientele. These benefits include:

1. Saving Time and Money

Starting quality assurance right from the beginning of a project is a smart move. If you wait until the end to check for problems, fixing any bugs or errors can be really expensive and take a long time.

But with quality assurance from the beginning, it’s way easier and cheaper to catch and fix problems early. This keeps the project running smoothly and on budget, saving time and money in the end.

2. Prevention

Quality assurance isn’t just about fixing problems after they pop up. It’s all about stopping those problems before they get out of hand. By being proactive, QA helps catch and solve issues early on, preventing headaches down the road.

This approach ensures that the software runs smoothly and avoids any big problems. It’s like keeping things on track and handling any bumps along the way!

3. Quick Access to The Development Team

Outsourcing helps you assemble a team with the right skills in no time, bridging any gaps in your current setup. Hiring internally can drag on for months, especially for niche experts who are hard to come by and in high demand by everyone.

4. Flexibility and Ability to Scale

Outsourcing offers great flexibility in building and managing your testing team. You decide the team’s size and makeup, the project’s scope and duration, and can start or stop the work as needed. Plus, you can easily scale the project up by adding new team members or downsizing if you need to save costs.

5. Management Gets Easier

For small to medium testing projects, handling an in-house team can eat up time and resources, causing delays and testing gaps. Outsourcing vendors can take care of the management for you, making everything run smoother and more efficiently.

When is The Best Time to Outsource QA?

The best time to use software testing outsourcing is when you need it the most. In some cases, that would be a huge project that requires special outsourcing software testing. On the other hand, you might need to do the software testing in a small time frame, and that calls for outsourcing QA software testing.

But one thing is certain here, you will know when is the best time to go for outsourcing testing. In the mean time, let’s check some of the most common cases when QA and testing are worth outsourcing.

Urgent Deliverables: Tasks with Time Constraints

Sometimes, you need your software tested quickly. Building an in-house team can take over a month, and you might not have that time. With QA outsourcing, you can start the project in as little as ten days.

Your outsourcing partner helps you decide the team size and structure and finds the best candidates for each role, so you can begin testing fast and get better results.

Most importantly, you’ll be able to maximize the time you spend on software testing, especially when it comes to performance testing and security testing.

Skill Gap in Internal Team for Required Tasks

Some quality assurance projects last for years using only basic testing tools and methods. But when a project needs specific skills, like API testing or mobile testing, the team might not have them.

That’s where outsourcing comes in. It helps companies fill the skill gaps fast, so testing can keep going smoothly. Plus, it brings in experts to get the job done right, not just on time.

Long-Term Projects Requiring Significant Resources

For big, ongoing testing projects, saving money is the main reason to outsource QA. Hiring many QA experts full-time can be pricey, especially for small or medium-sized companies. However, outsourcing QA to an outside provider, where rates can be much lower than local hires, makes it more affordable to keep long-term testing projects running smoothly without compromising on quality.

In other words, getting the QA team from the other company to do the job is a total win for both sides when it comes to QA and software testing on a long-term basis.

Small Projects

If you’re testing a small software product or need to concentrate on a specific type of testing, like regression or exploratory testing, hiring permanent staff might not be the best move. You might not have enough work to keep them busy all the time.

That’s where outsourcing comes into play. It gives you the flexibility to adjust as needed. You can start, stop, or expand your collaboration with the company depending on your project’s needs. Best of all, you’ll get better results when it comes to the testing process and QA testing in general.

Composition of Outsourced QA Team - QA Engineers

So, when it comes to putting together a testing team, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. It really depends on things like how big and complex your project is, what specific needs you have, and who’s already on your in-house team.

And hey, the team might even change as the project goes on to tackle different stages or types of testing. But, in most cases, QA teams are full of different software testers, like:

1. QA Engineer: These are the folks in the trenches, checking for bugs and making sure the software works like a charm in different situations. They are ensured for software testing.
2. Test Lead: They craft the overall plan, monitor progress, and adjust the course as needed to keep everything sailing smoothly.
3. Automation QA: These guys are in charge of making sure that everything’s smooth and efficient.
4. Domain Expert: For those super-specialized industries like telemedicine or finance, Domain Experts bring their insider knowledge to make sure nothing important gets missed. Similar to specialized engineers in the software development teams.
5. Test Environment Manager: They are quite important for the overall quality testing, ensuring all the technical aspects run like clockwork for testing.
6. Test Documentation Specialist: Consider them the storytellers, ensuring everyone stays in the loop and all the essential documents stay organized.
7. Test Coordinator: Think of them as the project conductors, orchestrating the team and ensuring everything stays on schedule and on point for big projects.

Software Testing Outsourcing Services - QA Outsourcing Services

When it comes to software testing, there’s a whole world of testing types out there, each with its own unique purpose and focus. These types of testing are grouped based on what they’re testing (AUTs), their purpose, or the approach they take.

Understanding these different types of QA testing can really help you and your team come up with a solid test plan that covers all the bases.

Let’s see some of the most common testing services offered by the outsourced software testing companies:

Manual Testing

Manual testing means real people getting hands-on with software, no fancy tools needed. They use the software like regular users to find any bugs or issues.

Sure, this type of testing takes time and effort, and many testers prefer automation. But there are times when manual testing is key.

Take ad hoc testing, for example. Testers trust their instincts to find bugs on the spot. Then there’s exploratory testing, where they explore the software while testing it.

And don’t forget usability testing. Testers act like users to see if the software is easy to use.

Automated Testing

Automated testing is like having a robot tester do the work for you. Instead of humans clicking around, test automation runs a bunch of tests automatically. It’s all about using special software to make testing faster and more accurate.

Unlike manual testing, where people do everything by hand, automation testing lets the computer do the heavy lifting. This saves time and makes testing more efficient.

Performance Testing

Performance testing is like giving a software application a workout to see how well it performs under different conditions. It’s all about checking how fast and stable the software is and how much it can handle.

There are a few types of this kind of testing:

• Load testing: This is like putting a realistic workload on the software to see how it handles different numbers of users. We check how the response time changes under different loads.
• Stress testing: Here, we push the software to its limits to see when it breaks. It helps us understand how much the software can take before it crashes.

Functional Testing

Functional testing is all about checking if a software application’s features do what they’re supposed to do. We can do this by testing manually or using special tools that follow specific test cases.

Here are some examples of functional test cases:

• Check if you can log in successfully with the right username and password.
• Seeing how the login system handles wrong credentials.
• Testing if the product search works as it should.
• Making sure the data flows correctly in the background.

Integration Testing

Integration testing is like putting puzzle pieces together to see if they fit. We at Tech Tailors, combine different parts of the software and test them as a whole to make sure they work together smoothly.

There are two common ways to do integration testing:

• Big Bang Approach: We throw all the pieces together and test everything at once.
• Incremental Approach: We add and test small groups of pieces at a time.

Regression Testing

Regression testing is like giving your work a second look after tweaking software. It’s all about ensuring that your tweaks haven’t stirred up any new issues. Sometimes, new changes can bump heads with the existing setup, causing hiccups.

To catch these glitches, QA teams keep a checklist of key features and run tests whenever there’s a code update. This way, they ensure everything’s still smooth sailing and save time by testing smartly.

Unit Testing

Unit testing is like checking individual LEGO pieces before building a whole set. It’s all about testing small parts of a software application on their own, like little building blocks.

These small parts, called units, are the nuts and bolts of the whole application. If they don’t work well on their own, they won’t fit together properly.

A unit test usually involves:

• Test Fixture: This gets everything ready for the test, like setting up the environment.
• Test Case: This is the actual test to make sure the unit behaves as expected.
• Test Runner: This manages all the tests and gives a report on how they went.
• Test Data: This is a list of values we use to see how the unit reacts to different inputs.
• Mocking and Stubbing: These are stand-ins for real parts of the software if we need to test one part without the others.

How to Select an Outsourced Software Testing Company

Picking the right company to handle your testing is a big deal when it comes to outsourcing QA. A good choice can bring you all the benefits of outsourcing, but a bad one could mean missed deadlines and lower software quality.

Here’s what to look for when choosing your QA outsourcing partner to ensure high-quality testing.

Range of Software Testing Services

Deciding whether to hand over your entire testing process or just certain parts to an external team? The key is to ensure the vendor you’re eyeing offers the services you need. While basic services like exploratory and thorough testing are widely available, specialized ones like security or hardware testing might be trickier to come by.

In that light, look for companies that work under some industry standards when it comes to testing processes.

QA Expertise

Before handing over your QA tasks, it’s crucial to ensure the external team comprises experienced QA engineers and specialists ready to handle any testing challenge. Evaluate the company’s expertise by examining the industries it serves, the solutions it tests, and the manual and automated tools it employs.

Get into their case studies and past projects to see their best work. Additionally, look out for the vendor’s infrastructure, especially for tasks like mobile testing, onshore testing, quality testing, and even global app testing.

QA Team Skill Set

Whether you’re forming a fresh external testing unit or enlarging your in-house team, it’s important to evaluate the skills and expertise of every member. This entails reviewing their employment background, diverse industry experience, specialized skills, certifications, and beyond.

By compiling this data, you can construct a high-caliber team tailored to your specific requirements. After all, your testing partner should be able to offer high-quality QA testing services, and you should know it!

Reputation

While tech companies often provide insights through their websites and social media, firsthand experiences from past and present clients offer invaluable perspectives. In that light, it’s crucial to seek out testimonials, both on the company’s website and on external platforms.

These reviews not only show the company’s reputation but also highlight its core services and preferred project types. For example, if a company specializes in compatibility testing, and that’s the thing you want, that’s a bingo.

Optimizing Your Outsourced QA Team’s Potential

For medium and large companies managing significant software products or multiple projects concurrently, it’s common practice to maintain an in-house QA department while also going for software testing outsourcing. This collaboration offers the benefits of outsourcing while retaining an internal team for fallback support if needed.

However, integrating an in-house team with a software QA outsourcing team can pose challenges. Here’s how to ensure your internal team is fully prepared for this collaboration:

• Assign clear roles: Define the responsibilities and tasks for both internal and external testers to ensure smooth collaboration throughout the project.
• Appoint a capable leader: Managing an internal team is already demanding, and overseeing the addition of an outsourced team requires a senior-level manager.
• Streamline workflows: Before the outsourced team begins work, ensure they have access to all necessary resources and tools for seamless integration.
• Foster communication: Effective communication is vital for successful long-term projects, especially when teams are dispersed across different locations and time zones. Organize informal introductory sessions to facilitate team bonding before project kickoff.

Conclusion

Outsourcing software QA has become increasingly popular as companies seek to streamline testing costs while maintaining high-quality standards. It’s now a viable option for nearly any software project. Success in outsourcing depends on choosing the right partner, effective management, and realistic planning.

We hope this guide has provided you with useful insights and practical advice to approach outsourced software testing with care. By making thoughtful decisions and executing plans diligently, outsourcing QA can greatly enhance your software development journey.