Tips on Selecting a Proper Contractor for Software Testing

Are you currently seeking a proper software testing company? Great, today there are numerous outsourcing QA companies and corporations for every taste and pocket.

But nobody wants to hire a random tester. And a company’s budget may be limited.

Therefore, before selecting a final contractor, every client spends from one week to one month to properly estimate available offerings of QA companies.

In this case, it’s important to know several proven tips, that simplify this searching and make the process as good as possible.

Select a proper method

Criterion 1: What type of cooperation are you searching for?

Do you need one tester to work on a project or has a director of your software testing company asked you to find a team of experienced QA engineers for a long-term project? Or do you need to engage one tester in an existing team or select an outsourced tester?

The duration of potential cooperation depends exactly on the variant you’ll choose. Some companies offer short-term outsourced software testing services and other companies are more selective in choosing a type of cooperation, trying to work long-term.

What role should a selected contractor have? Are you, as a client, interested in discussing the methods of testing, or do you need an additional group of assistants that will help you to achieve your goals?

After this, you need to define the following selection criteria:

1. Long-term cooperation;
2.  A type of cooperation (engaging a QA engineer or engaging an existing group of testers);
3. A type of services (consulting, auditing, software testing services)

Criterion 2 – additional selection criteria

Let’s imagine that you’ve chosen the most proper type of cooperation. Then you should analyze a profile of a testing contractor that is the best fit for your tasks.

Numerous companies always compare the contractors by these three aspects:

• Budget;
• Speed;
• Quality of work.

For example, by comparing the companies by value of work, you may get a low-cost software that will be hardly used.

If your software is checked by students who have recently taken software testing courses, it has low chances to be either qualitative or be delivered on time.

You should always keep in mind that you can select only two parameters from three.You don’t live in the perfect world.

Therefore, what interim conclusions can be made?

Quality + Cheap + Fast = Utopia

Are you a realist? Then you should prioritize properly:

Qualitative + Cheap = Long

Quick + Cheap = Hacking

Qualitative + Fast = Expensive

But if you manage to find a contractor who matches all three criteria, you should not forget to check him/her by not so obvious but still, necessary criteria. The results received may sometimes force a client to review his/her final decisions.

Additional criteria for evaluation

Size of a brand

Companies that are specialized in software testing can have 10 or even 1000 employees working in them. And a company’s name can be well-known or be recognized only inside the IT community.

What collaboration do you prefer – working with an independent group of specialized testers or with a huge outsourcing company that can offer not only software testing services but some other options?

Speed of selection and ability to start working on a project

You should remember that there is no perfect planning.

Sometimes software must have been tested tomorrow and you have no appropriate resources to do this. If you select testers yourself, it will take a lot of time and energy.

And it’s not only because it’s not so easy to find good QA specialists. If a client does not have long-term experience in integrating QA engineers into the projects, this process may take a lot of time and be inefficient.

If you need an instant result, you should rely on QA contractors and staff employees engaged by them. Yes, staff members since a client can search for freelancers himself/herself.

Location and a type of cooperation

Should testers come and work in your office, reside in the same country as you, or work remotely?

Testing environment, available devices, and skills

It’s one thing when we talk about testing a mobile version of a website on mobile devices, and another -when your product should be used on very old versions of popular operating systems.

And what a client should do if he/she wishes to enter the Asian market where Apple is not popular? Does he/she need to purchase numerous latest devices like Huawei, Vivo, and Xiaomi? Or does he/she simply need to find a contractor who has numerous mobile devices at his/her business needs?

A level of communication

Will testers from another company completely understand a client? Will two sides be able to cooperate instantly when there is such need? What is the maximum (time) delay in communication that will be good for both sides?

Additional qualities of potential software testing contractors

We’ve mentioned numerous aspects that should be taken into account while searching for a proper contractor.

If you want to be more meticulous in a selection process, you can look at some other qualities that a company or a group of testers should have:

• A certain amount of investments into a process of analyzing and developing testing tools;
• Presence of a manager and a group of leading specialists that can add new skills to a working group;
• Presence of certified documents that meet testing area requirements;
• Adaptability and real possibility to visit real meetings, educational conferences, and seminars.

This is obviously an incomplete list of questions that must be taken into account but everything mentioned above can help a client choose a proper and robust contractor to perform software testing.