Main features of testing outsourcing.

Quality assurance

Main features of testing outsourcing.

Why do the managers of IT departments use the services of testing outsourcing? There are several good reasons for that. Generally – and these are the realities of our life – the projects on software creation or introduction are scheduled so that they must be fulfilled with limited resources (including time, staff and funding). Moreover, an execution of complex load tests can require special hardware. It can’t be said that such cases are the results of only management error. The complexity of the modern system is so high, and the requirements for them change so often that it is just impossible to take into account all the factors at the planning stage. This result in the fact, trying to meet the existing limitations, the manager will have to make some sacrifices. It is no wonder that this sacrifice often represents the software quality: the achievement of the quality requires significant expense, and, delivering the product to the customer, you can try to reduce the role of existing defects. Leaving aside the moral and ethical aspects of such approach, we can say that it is dead-end in the long run. You are risking at least damaging the reputation of your manager, and at the worst – application of sanctions to him/her.

For the reasons explained above, IT managers resort to the outsourcing of testing. Sometimes it is difficult to decide on, as you should clearly recognize that the project you run has problems and that your staff doesn’t have enough time, knowledge and experience to handle all this in a reasonable timeframe and with the existing budget. Nobody wants to come to such conclusion. And the abilities of outsourcing company are doubtful. To help find the answers to the emerging questions, let’s try to figure out in which cases it is more appropriate to use the outsourcing of beta testing services and what points you should take into account.
The types of independent testing

Now there are five main scenarios of the outsourcing of testing (depending on the identified problems of the software production.

The outsourcing of all works on testing and software quality assurance.
The implementation of the complex, non-core, resource-intensive testing researches.
The rapid expansion of company resources with the external tester
The support of the existing software products by the testing of the new releases.
The performance of independent quality audit.