Ensuring software quality through QA outsourcing brings risks, from communication breakdowns to compromised security. How can these be minimized effectively? This article zeroes in on targeted strategies to minimize risks in QA outsourcing, laying the groundwork for a partnership that aligns with your business goals and secures the quality you demand.
Key Takeaways
- QA outsourcing offers benefits like cost reduction, access to specialized expertise, and time-saving but also presents risks like loss of control, security vulnerabilities, and communication issues that need to be managed.
- Best practices in minimizing QA outsourcing risks include defining clear project requirements, implementing robust security measures, establishing effective communication strategies, and using project management tools.
- Effective QA outsourcing performance monitoring involves setting specific KPIs, conducting regular performance reviews, and leveraging metrics to provide continuous improvement and ensure the projected outcomes align with business goals.
Understanding QA Outsourcing and Its Benefits
Entrusting the quality assurance function to a third-party provider, known as QA outsourcing, offers several advantages, including quality assurance outsourcing benefits such as:
- Time and resource conservation
- Upholding high-quality standards
- Speeding up hiring processes
- Access to top-tier specialists
- Sustaining business continuity
This trend is gaining traction as businesses increasingly recognize the benefits of tapping into external expertise.
The benefits of QA outsourcing, including outsourcing software testing, are multiple. They range from cost reduction to faster project delivery and access to specialized expertise. Outsourcing QA allows companies to focus on their core competencies and let dedicated QA testers handle the complex job of ensuring software quality.
Advantages of QA Outsourcing
In general, outsourced software QA provides the following advantages:
- Smart distribution of QA workload
Frequently, corporate QA implies a floating need, i.e., when a team or department sits on their hands for one week a month but then embarks on a tough 3-week journey searching for bugs and errors in the product and sending them back to the developer for fixing.
Managed QA project, or outsourcing, is ideally suited for distributing the QA workload correctly. At peak times, it makes sense to involve offshore testers and QA consultants to make 100% sure the product is ready for the final release in terms of quality and security. Using fractional QA talent allocation allows you to pay only for the actual time you use your QA resource and avoid paying for 60% of their idle time, which makes your venture more cost-effective.
- Increase in software development budget by reducing in-house QA expenses
When you hire people internally, you must invest in building from scratch or boosting IT infrastructure, setting up workstations, providing tools and equipment, etc. When you outsource QA and testing, all of the indirect costs are included in your invoice by the provider, and you can easily piggyback on the existing capabilities without making any extra investments.
By leveraging offshore QA talent, you can reduce OPEX and either increase your software dev spending internally or outsource more development work to save money and use it for product promotion, for instance.
- Make your test coverage as comprehensive as possible
There are many testing approaches, methodologies, and types today, and you won’t likely cover it all in-house. Professional outsourcing companies or QA-specialized software houses typically have access to dozens of devices and gadgets to test your application. If you’re building an Android app, there are more than 150 different compatible devices you need to check your app. You’ll unlikely have access to this many devices and tools internally. Failure to test an app on all possible devices can lead to reputational and financial losses.
- Look at your project from the outside
No matter how experienced and qualified your developers are, they’re humans and, thus, can have the human factor involved. A fresh look at your project from the outside is always useful, as external auditors are more likely to spot business-critical errors and inconsistencies than your highest-caliber engineer who’s been working on the project long enough to get “blurred eyes”.
- Foster documentation-driven development
When you build your digital solution in-house, things can get messy, especially if you aren’t a tech company. Miscommunication or lack of working relationships between teams and departments, hidden agendas, and turnover of your project management staff are just some examples of what can go wrong on projects. Lack of adequately documented processes can have detrimental consequences such as poor team efficiency, poor quality, overheads at the post-release stage, tech debt accumulation, etc. The price for fixing those consequences can be very high for any business.
How outsourcing affects different QA factors
QA Outsourcing vs. In-House QA
Outsourcing QA presents numerous advantages, but these should be carefully weighed against the benefits of having an internal QA team. Such a team directly oversees the testing process and brings intimate knowledge about the software and domain-specific insights. Keeping a dedicated in-house QA team can become costly due to requirements for hiring skilled professionals, developing infrastructure, and ensuring continuous training.
On the other hand, despite potential issues in communication and cultural alignment that may arise from outsourcing your QA needs, this approach grants access to specialized skills and is economically efficient, especially suited for projects with limited duration. Many organizations find a middle ground by adopting co-sourcing, a synergistic strategy that merges outsourcing’s specialization and cost efficiency with some degree of hands-on control over key elements inherent to an in-house group overseeing aspects related to quality assurance processes during software development cycles.
Identifying Potential Risks in QA Outsourcing
Though QA outsourcing carries many benefits, it also has its share of potential risks. One common risk is the possibility of inexperienced staff in the outsourced QA team, which can pose significant risks to the quality of IT services and lead to misunderstandings and errors in meeting the client’s specific requirements.
Additionally, QA outsourcing may have the following risks:
- Increased security risks due to outdated technologies and strategies
- Performance issues
- Potential termination of partnerships due to poor-quality software and services.
Unexpected costs, biased decisions by outsourced IT companies, and a lack of experience with remote teams are other potential risks that need careful consideration.
Loss of Control
Entrusting a third-party vendor with quality assurance (QA) responsibilities can lead to diminished immediate oversight of the testing process. This decrease in control may introduce difficulties in upholding preferred levels of quality, as it might cause mismanagement and give rise to quality issues that are difficult to oversee from an outside perspective.
Consequently, it’s essential that the duties related to QA are explicitly outlined within contractual agreements with the third-party provider. Clear delineations help avoid complications during the project and preserve standards, effectively reducing the danger associated with relinquishing direct control over testing activities.
Security and Confidentiality Concerns
When engaging in QA outsourcing, it is vital to prioritize security and confidentiality to mitigate the risk of external cyber threats and hackers. Such exposure can lead companies to heightened dangers, including data breaches and threats from within.
In defense against unforeseen disclosure of sensitive information, securing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is essential. Routine cybersecurity assessments should be performed. These evaluations must involve both vulnerability scanning and penetration testing so that enterprises are better shielded against potential intellectual property theft, violations of privacy rights, or any incident related to data breaches arising from subpar security protocols.
Communication Challenges
Effective communication is a critical component in any outsourcing partnership, but it can be hindered by language barriers and cultural discrepancies. Approximately 90% of companies engaged in the outsourcing endeavor recognize these obstacles as substantial challenges.
When clients operate across different time zones from their remote QA team, this discrepancy can lead to scheduling issues and subsequent delays that complicate project management. Crafting strategies for successful communication and employing tools designed for streamlined remote teamwork is essential.
Best Practices for Minimizing Risks in QA Outsourcing
Having identified the potential risks of QA outsourcing, we can now delve into some best practices to mitigate these risks. First and foremost, selecting a reliable and trustworthy QA testing vendor is critical. Analyzing the track record of potential QA service providers is essential to ensure reliability and meet business requirements.
Beyond choosing the right outsourcing vendor, defining the company’s parameters before commencing operations with a QA vendor fosters clarity and aids in resource allocation effectively. Also, aligning the outsourcing partner with business goals and targets is crucial for achieving the set objectives.
Defining Clear Project Requirements and Expectations
Ensuring that project requirements and expectations are well understood is essential for effectively outsourcing quality assurance. Establishing a firm grasp on what needs to be accomplished and the criteria for success from the outset guarantees a shared understanding of the intended outcomes.
A comprehensive specification document acts as a guide, providing detailed information about:
- The objectives
- Project scope
- Approach to be taken
- User narratives
- Visual schematics
- Technical details
- Plans for ensuring quality
- Schedules for project completion
This documentation aligns the client and outsourced QA team around a unified goal, facilitating collaborative efforts toward achieving desired quality standards.
You can enhance your understanding of requirement specifications by delving into this comprehensive guide, “The Guide to Writing Software Requirements Specification”.
Implementing Robust Security Measures
Implementing stringent security protocols is a pivotal best practice within QA outsourcing. It’s essential to conduct consistent cybersecurity evaluations, such as vulnerability scans and penetration tests, to uphold security integrity in environments where QA tasks are outsourced.
Employing cloud-based platforms for secure and effective file exchange facilitates immediate updates and accessibilities. It’s critical to have a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) in place with the QA service provider. This legal contract serves as a deterrent against the illicit sharing of confidential business information and safeguards trade secrets or proprietary knowledge from being compromised.
Establishing Effective Communication and Collaboration
Effective communication and collaboration are critical components for the success of a QA outsourcing project within a development team. Maintaining regular and precise communication channels is vital to effectively convey expectations, share feedback, and address issues as they arise.
The communication process can be greatly improved by establishing designated mediums such as emails for distributing reports and utilizing video calls for conducting meetings. Ensuring that relevant background information, data, or reports are provided beforehand, coupled with underscoring the value of feedback, contributes to more efficient exchanges, allowing for adjustments in a timely manner.
Utilizing Project Management Tools
In the realm of QA outsourcing, project management tools are vital. These tools are instrumental in documenting post-meeting action items and monitoring their progress to ensure tasks are completed as expected.
Furthermore, project management platforms can help with:
- Maintaining an overview of tasks, responsibilities, and deadlines
- Facilitating effective collaboration in QA outsourcing
- Integrating with scheduling software to ensure that meetings are well-aligned with project timelines and corresponding tasks.
Scheduling Regular Meetings and Updates
In QA outsourcing, it’s essential to organize frequent and structured meetings that respect the various time zones in which global team members operate, ensuring these gatherings occur within acceptable local working hours for everyone involved. To optimize meeting efficiency, each session should have a defined objective, maintain reasonable lengths, and include only necessary personnel while emphasizing strict adherence to scheduled start and end times. Actionable follow-ups after each discussion are critical – this includes documenting agreed decisions, allocating responsibilities for action items appropriately, and utilizing communication platforms regularly to keep all participants informed on progress updates.
Monitoring and Evaluating QA Outsourcing Performance
The success of QA outsourcing hinges on monitoring and evaluating its performance. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as:
- Active Defects
- Automated Tests
- Covered Requirements
- Mean Time to Detect (MTTD)
- Mean Time to Repair (MTTR)
- Test reliability
- Defect density
Internal resources are crucial in evaluating the performance and productivity of quality assurance services in the QA outsourcing process.
In regular performance reviews, leveraging metrics like Time to Test offers insight into feature complexity and tester effectiveness, facilitating continuous improvement and prompt identification of issues.
Frequent review and testing of deliverables are essential to validate that the project stays on its intended course and fulfills set requirements and expectations.
Setting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Establishing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) plays a crucial role in assessing the successes and shortcomings of QA outsourcing projects. KPIs for QA outsourcing must be adaptable based on the project’s objectives and current state. Some examples of KPIs that influence product quality and testing efficiency are:
- Defect density
- Test coverage
- Defect rejection rate
- Test automation ROI
- Customer satisfaction
- Escaped defects
Conducting Regular Performance Reviews
Regular performance reviews of QA teams are vital to identify improvement areas and resolve issues. KPIs such as defect management, automated test results, and the relevance and adjustment of KPIs over time are key for measuring and enhancing QA performance.
Collaboration between QA, developers, and stakeholders and implementing continuous improvement cycles (plan-do-check-act) evolve the QA approach and bring hidden challenges to light. In addition to quantitative KPIs, performance reviews should integrate qualitative feedback and monitoring for compliance with standards to provide a full picture of QA effectiveness.
Summary
In conclusion, QA outsourcing offers many benefits, from cost savings and access to specialized expertise to faster project delivery.
Outsourcing has become an integral part of modern business. According to the latest research, about 77% of software development companies outsource their solutions and intend to continue using such practices, and about 44% expect to increase the volume of the tasks to attract outsourcing providers.
Leveraging value-based QA outsourcing helps modern businesses enjoy significant cost-saving and deliver high-quality, error-free solutions that resonate with target audiences and make a difference in the marketplace.
8allocate QA service
We are a strategic partner that assists businesses in mitigating risks and achieving robust results. By leveraging our expertise in software quality assurance, companies can focus on their core competencies while we ensure the superior quality of their software products.
8allocate offers various QA and software testing services, providing various testing options to meet diverse needs. These include:
- Manual Testing: Conducting manual testing to verify software behavior and identify discrepancies.
- Automated Testing: Implementing automated testing to increase efficiency, coverage, and accuracy in software testing.
- Performance Testing: Performing performance tests to evaluate speed, stability, and scalability under varying loads.
- Load Testing: Conducting load tests to validate system performance and stability under expected and peak load conditions.
- Test-Driven Development: Following a test-driven development approach to write tests before writing the minimal amount of code needed for the test to pass.
- Bug Tracking: Employing efficient bug tracking systems to report, track, and resolve bugs found during testing.
With a dedicated team of QA professionals, 8allocate is committed to ensuring your software meets the highest quality, reliability, and user engagement standards.
To contact 8allocate for QA inquiries, drop us a line here!
