Outsourcing
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The quality of the software developed is not solely dependent on the developers. A significant part of the success is determined by the professionalism of the QA team. Maintaining an in-house team of QA engineers can be costly and unnecessary for startups or companies with short-term projects. With the increasing demand for external expertise, businesses are turning to QA outsourcing, which can bring significant benefits.
The outsourced software testing market becomes increasingly competitive, full of skilled candidates and diverse services. Today, we'll discover how QA outsourcing benefits businesses and how to choose the right service provider. Let's go!
QA outsourcing involves entrusting quality assurance and testing responsibilities to external experts through a third-party provider. This strategy is especially beneficial for companies without in-house QA teams or specialized expertise, as it grants access to top-tier talent at competitive rates.
By outsourcing, businesses can streamline operations by cutting recruitment costs, bypassing lengthy hiring processes, and flexibly scaling their QA efforts. This ensures high-quality software testing without the long-term commitment or overhead of growing internal teams.
The IT outsourcing market continues expanding and will show a CAGR of 8.48% in the next 5 years. So does QA outsourcing as an integral part of the bigger picture, with a projected value of $144.65 billion in 2031. Today, we will thoroughly examine every aspect of testing outsourcing, find out why it is popular, and learn how to choose the most suitable service provider.
In the beginning, we'll swiftly glance through some questions that help us to better understand the domain and its trends.
What factors drive the demand for outsourcing software testing?
Is there some classification of QA outsourcing services?
All QA outsourcing services are generally divided into two main categories: general QA services and special QA services. General services refer to the typical testing tasks done regularly, like smoke tests, regression tests, integration testing, and more. Special QA services require more specific knowledge of the particular domain, system, or technology from the specialist, like AI or IoT testing.
Who benefits from software testing outsourcing?
QA outsourcing services vary in scope, time, and resources you need to achieve your business goals. Careful estimation of the project's size, risks, budget for testing, and the ability to cover additional costs. Outsourcing engagement models define working relationships between the client and QA outsourcing agency, depending on the deliverables, scope of work, timeframe, and cost.
Engagement models are also different in scope, flexibility (in both cost and resources), and level of control. There are 5 widespread QA outsourcing models:
The fixed-price model rigidly defines the scope of work, deliverables, and budget from the beginning of the project. Once set, these variables remain untouched or hard to change.
Key characteristics: suitable for small and medium projects with a well-defined scope of work, projects with minimal risk, and ones with small budgets.
Dedicated team model means hiring the whole QA team that works solely on your project. It fits companies that want specific domain expertise but do not want to assemble an in-house team.
Key characteristics: great for projects needing deep domain expertise, in case the client wants to have full control over the testing process, and for long-term projects.
This model means hiring a testing team and management. They handle the testing project completely, starting with testing strategy and planning, execution, delivery, and post-launch assessment.
Key characteristics: suits large projects, meets complex testing needs, minimal involvement from the client's side, team's full responsibility over the testing deliverables.
The model means the client pays for the time and resources used for the project.
Key characteristics: flexible scope of work, good for complex projects with floating scope of work, and without well-defined timelines, transparent payments.
This model focuses only on the KPIs and deliverables. It is a result-driven model where the outsourcing agency is paid only for delivering fixed results, no matter the time or resources spent.
Key characteristics: transparency, risk sharing, suitable for projects with clear and measurable goals.
Without the desirable outcomes and indisputable advantages of outsourcing, the QA outsourcing market wouldn't bloom. Let's see why companies hire third-party teams and how this translates into time and budget savings.
The key advantage of software QA outsourcing lies in the significantly lower hourly rates for highly skilled engineers in other regions. This eliminates costs related to extensive staff training, employee benefits, insurance, human resources, and overhead. Additionally, companies can avoid extra expenses for licensing specialized tools and other parts of the testing infrastructure.
Software testing outsourcing brings superior testing methodologies, the ability to execute complex testing scenarios, and quality testing to your project. The outsourced team allows your developers to focus on core development processes, removing the need to create and run themselves. It helps meet project deadlines, increases development team efficiency, and allows issues to be fixed quickly.
Your in-house team may have advanced knowledge of certain testing methodologies but no expertise in others. Outsourced software testing gives access to domain expertise and seasoned experts and enables the application of industry best practices. No matter the functional or nonfunctional type — smoke, performance, localization, security, compatibility, or accessibility testing — the carefully picked seasoned professionals can handle it all.
With QA outsourcing, you can scale the team up or down based on your business needs. You can adjust the scope and duration of the project as it progresses, ensuring efficient resource use. The collaboration can be paused and resumed as required. This adaptability prevents testing from becoming a bottleneck, providing seamless integration into the overall development process and allowing you to optimize costs and timelines.
External QA team has experience with broad types of projects, domains, and more capacity to fulfill different types of projects. QA outsourcing allows you to hire engineers worldwide, the ones with vast expertise in your domain the domain your project is at, with different testing methods, and full with a better view of compliance and security practices.
An outsourced QA team can integrate testing from the start of development, preventing bottlenecks and streamlining the QA process. Early involvement helps catch and fix bugs faster, providing real-time updates to your in-house team. Companies can reduce project timelines and costs with QA teams available on demand. Parallel development and testing ensure quicker quality issue resolution and more efficient workflows, leading to faster deployment and a smoother path to market.
When you take employees from third-party providers, common concerns arise regarding reliability, security, and quality of services.
Several security concerns can arise when outsourcing QA, particularly because the process involves sharing sensitive project data, intellectual property, and system access with an external vendor. The set of security best practices will help you to keep your data safe and secure while working with quality assurance outsourcing agencies.
Solutions:
Nowadays, reputation seems to play a greater part, and most companies strive to provide the best possible level of services to meet clients' needs. Variable quality seems to be an archaic concept, yet sometimes, you can still face it. A careful selection of software QA outsourcing companies will free you from worries, and we will show you how below.
Hidden costs in outsourcing, including QA outsourcing, can arise in several ways because of poor communication and misunderstanding, excessive testing and re-testing, etc. To avoid such situations, you should:
Outsourced software QA engineers' remote work may raise concerns about the laws and QA standards in their countries of residence, time zone differences, language barriers, and cultural differences. No worries.
First, your outsourcing agency can discuss cultural fit and English proficiency beforehand. Additionally, a good point is to hire professionals from regions that are culturally close to the Western world, like Eastern Europe. The professionals there share the same values and have good knowledge of English to communicate seamlessly with the clients and fellow employees.
Second, time zone differences can be effectively compensated by scheduling regular meetings during overlapping working hours. It will bring clarity and transparency in communication, bypassing time zone differences.
Third, different standards. You can overcome this obstacle by listing in the requirements the proper tech stack, certifications, and competencies your future QA specialist must have. Globalization enables developers and QA engineers from different regions and countries to work on diverse projects with various rules and regulations. Therefore, outsourced software testing professionals generally have diverse experience regardless of location.
Overall, you can avoid all concerns and pitfalls by carefully choosing the outsourcing provider, clearly outlining your requirements, and communicating with the potential partners.
Now, we'll examine common situations in which QA outsourcing is the best way to avoid high expenses and organize work effectively.
Such projects require comprehensive testing and large teams. Staffing an in-house QA team might be costly and inflexible, so QA outsourcing meets your needs here. An outsourced team lets you save on project costs, scale up/down the team as needed during the project, deliver results on time, and release quality products.
When project deadlines are tight, hiring, training, and onboarding new QAs into your team is not an option. It takes a lot of time and effort, yet meeting the deadlines is the highest priority. Software QA outsourcing allows you to hire professionals with related experience quickly and complete product development on time.
Tip: although there is always a temptation to leave the testing and QA part to developers, do not take the bait. The development team may lack time and expertise for writing and running tests. A fresh look at the code is what QA testing outsourcing can provide.
If you don't have QA specialists of narrow expertise for your projects in your internal team, outsourcing software QA can bring them to you in a short time. No matter the difficulty, your outsourcing partner will find the best fit for your project. Whether you have particular technologies to test, like AI-based apps and IoT software, or need security and compliance QA, a worldwide pool of specialists is available to hire.
A quality assurance outsourcing company selects specific tools and technologies that meet your requirements, ensuring that the QA team will perfectly suit your tech stack. Additionally, you'll get access to advanced expertise and modern testing methodologies and tools.
If you have a short project, having an in-house QA team may be excessive. As the project timeline goes, such a team may face a lack of workload while its maintenance costs remain on your shoulders. When you have a small software product or want to concentrate on a particular testing type, like integration testing or API testing, referring to QA outsourcing services is better. It gives you team flexibility and the ability to change the team size without tangible extra expenses.
Despite many benefits, QA outsourcing is not a magic wand. Far from a universal solution, it doesn't suit some projects or relieve security or intellectual property concerns. Sometimes, internal expertise is quite sufficient and even advantageous.
You probably don't need an outsourced software QA team when:
And that's it! In all other cases, you can enjoy the benefits of QA outsourcing. With over 5,000 software testing companies available on Clutch, you'll surely find the right one in terms of cost, expertise, communication, and cultural fit.
The trend for QA outsourcing seems to last, as do outsourcing and outstaffing practices, as they prove to be reliable, cost-efficient, and flexible. Although hiring an external team might be concerning, proper agency selection and transparent communication lower risks to zero.
Need an external QA team for your project? Book a call, and we'll consult you on our QA outsourcing services and give you free estimates.
US-based and operating globally, NEKLO spearheads digital transformation initiatives for businesses worldwide. We deliver software solutions complying with your market and legislation.
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