“If you refuse resorting to QA outsourcing while your competitors will not, you are just throwing yourself out of business.”
Lee Kuan Yew
These days, a lot of businesses tend to outsource software testing. No matter how you slice it, and from whatever perspective, it is both beneficial and logical to use offshore testing services. However, special consideration is to be given to expectation-setting and homework execution.
Peculiarities of QA outsorsing
First of all, you must have a well-defined methodology and choose a delivery model. If you have insufficient experience and lack some of the processes for delivery of your testing activities, you are most likely to fail the very first day.
If you dream about independent verification and validation services you must have at least some of the following artifacts: test deliverables, requirement/functional documents, highly qualified personnel. These will be necessary for you to outsource though some of test department’s’ activities.
Secondly, you must have the patience for such painstaking work, namely be able to take the outcomes for granted. Being a beginner you should not expect too much from the process because otherwise you will inevitably experience disappointment. All outsourcing models need some time so that to deliver good results. You will not have a lot of benefits until you reach the break-even point.
Imagine that you are a swimmer who dives deep into the water and hits the ground. The above situation is similar to this one. Before rising higher you have to feel the bottom – there is no other choice. However, you will manage to hit the ground only once learning, adaptation, transition and handover are overcome by you. As you advance you will be experiencing the joy of flexibility, reliability, operational expertise, cost savings and speed to market.
Thirdly, you should concentrate on operational matters. Outsourcing testing services onsite you need to consider collaboration, co-location and motivation and encouragement of the whole team (and also in-house personnel). You need to be very careful about building your teams; your outsource workers are to be treated fairly and their problems must be taken into consideration as much as those of in-house workers.
Also, if any of the group’s members ever realizes that there is a distinction between regular employees and outsource personnel, then problems will certainly arise. Never forget that this issue is sensitive.
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