Software Testing and QA Outsourcing

Answer

Relying on our 34 years of experience in software, ScienceSoft singles out three main points to pay attention to when searching for a reliable QA and testing vendor:

1. Expertise. A vendor’s competence can be proved by QA software testing certificates (ISTQB or QAI) of outsourced test team members. A trustworthy company should work by data security regulations and standards (HIPAA, PCI DSS), quality and testing standards (ISO 9001:2015, ISO/IEC/IEEE 29119). In addition, a reliable vendor will always present references and success stories.

2. Sufficient resources and services. An outsourcing partner should have at least 5 times more testers than you need at the moment. Your software testing vendor should be able to perform all testing types (automated or manual; web, mobile or desktop; functional, performance, usability, compatibility, API, security testing, etc.). Even if there is no need in some of them now, when it comes to scaling up, your vendor will easily ramp up and provide a wider testing scope.

3. Self-management. The main idea of QA outsourcing is to assign the time-consuming and scrupulous testing process, QA issue management, and its improvement to a qualified external team and focus on high-level quality management, the code creation, software design and integration. So, a vendor should be self-managed to cover everything coming within an efficient QA process: from the assistance with a requirements specification development to continuous testing during the whole application lifecycle.

Answer

Before looking for a perfect match among QA outsourcing vendors, make sure to be ready for future cooperation.

1. Streamline your workflows. The major touchpoints between you and your future QA outsourcing provider during the testing process are normally software requirements specification, existing and updated code, and found and fixed bugs. Before starting to work with any vendor, you should clear up where the needed information is stored, how often it is updated, what relevant tools your developers use and what bug reporting procedure you find convenient. The more information you provide to a testing outsourcing vendor, the less time the initial partnership formalization will take.

2. Assign a senior-level QA manager. You need in-house management to cooperate with a vendor more effectively by:

• Reviewing their test strategy, test plans, test cases, bugs, and test reports.
• Organizing updates of software requirements.
• Assessing and managing vendor performance and providing relevant feedback.
• Making balanced judgments in conflict situations and, ideally, defusing them at the earliest.
• Considering risks thoroughly and preparing a mitigation plan.

3. Motivate your development team to cooperate with an external test team. The lack of inter-team communication may result in poor understanding of software requirements, late changes of a test plan, unclear bug reports and, consequently, missed iteration goals and deadlines. So, the assigned QA manager needs to persuade the stakeholders that the only way to create a smoothly operating solution implies cooperation and mutual understanding.

Answer

1. Regularly assess the vendor. Assessing a QA outsourcing vendor systematically helps to ensure that your company gets exactly what you’ve aimed at. Evaluating your testing vendor will give you a multidimensional overview of how effective the vendor is. Here is the sample list of assessment criteria:

• The number of missed bugs.
• The quality of defect description.
• The correlation between testing efforts and outcomes.
• The quality of test documentation.
• The capacity and availability of resources.
• The efficiency of testing tools.

2. Manage vendor performance. For your QA outsourcing vendor to continue rendering their services at the same level or step up, your dedicated QA manager has to supervise their performance. This includes:

• Reviewing testing documentation at least once a month.
• Providing the test team with regular feedback.
• Detecting hidden wasteful steps and cost drivers to uncover the root causes of QA process complications.
• Aligning your business practices with the vendor’s work processes.