Why Software Testing Outsourcing Is Your Best Bet In 2023?

What is software testing? 

Software Testing (or Quality Assurance Testing) is one of the software development stages aimed at checking whether the product matches expected product requirements. It ensures software is usable, bug- and defect-free.

Types of software testing

There are different types of software testing, corresponding to separate needs that a development team must validate. Most often, software testing is classified into three categories:

• Functional testing - validates software against functional requirements
• Non-functional testing - performance, usability, reliability, load
• Maintenance - testing of a deployed software

Software testing, a fundamental process

Software testing is a crucial part of the entire software development lifecycle. Through the testing stage, bugs and errors can be identified early and fixed before the final delivery of the product. The development process isn’t a straight line, but rather a circle. Therefore, after testing, the software is often sent back to the development stage for further refinement or reworking of some of its parts. 

Software testing ensures product quality and customer satisfaction. Making sure everything runs smoothly beforehand will cut lots of customer service complaints in the future.

Quality assurance testing also enables cost-effectiveness and security. It aims for the long-term sustainability of a product. There will be no need to roll back and file losses due to some crucial data leak error or frustrating broken UI feature.

There are a few ways to go about software testing. Some companies prefer to find local specialists, others, after thorough research, decide that hiring offshore developers that would take care of Quality Assurance testing is a better idea. In this article, we will focus on the latter.

Tip: If you prefer your information in dense statistics and charts, we recommend reading The State of Central & East Europe IT Outsourcing and Offshoring 2023 Report.

In this article, we’ll take a look at the testing industry as a whole, discuss key benefits and reasons to choose software testing outsourcing in 2023.

In this text, you’ll discover:

• Reasons for why software testing outsourcing is so common now
• Why is it a good idea to outsource QA testing
• Differences between in-house and outsourced QA testing
• Tips and tricks for outsourced QA testing

Outsourcing is a new normal

Outsourcing is big now, and the global pandemic has played a defining role in it. With many businesses forced to shut physical workplaces, cancel innovative projects, or rethink their long-term strategy, remote and outsourced work has come as a viable, real, and resourceful option to rely on.

In the pre-pandemic US, there were about 16.8 million remote workers. Upwork Economist Report: Future Workforce reports that in 2020, 56.8% of Americans worked at least partially remotely. We also see lots of hybrid teams with both remote and on-site workers.

Despite the early predictions, this year IT is booming. According to Gartner, IT spending worldwide has been $4.2 trillion in 2021 and is only projected to rise in 2023. 

So what has changed?

• Remote work itself has gained acceptance on an international scale. 

• It created a surge in demand for online tools, as a result, creating more IT startups and project ideas globally, but also a need for new talent, which now could be situated virtually anywhere.

• Fuelled by rapid need, a swift digital transformation took place.

• It both enabled digital work more than ever before and got accepted and encouraged on government levels.

Tip: Learn more on Why Hiring Remote Software Devs Is The Best Post-Covid Strategy?

Why is it a good idea to outsource software testing

In search of talented developers and other specialists from abroad, it becomes common for businesses to rely on software testing outsourcing companies around the globe. Indeed, predictable costs, efficient tools, and expert outsourced QA testers are alluring to many. 

Outsourcing to a software development company is a high-quality on-demand service. No need to build and train a team from scratch. Industry- and technology-matched remote IT professionals can seamlessly integrate your project within existing frameworks or even consult, offering fresh solutions. 

Not bound geographically, the pool of potential employees and opportunities get bigger, too. Central and Eastern Europe has been especially prominent in IT outsourcing. Poland, as the leading software outsourcing market in the region, provides the largest pool of IT workers (430,000), followed by Ukraine (200,000) and Romania (100,000). 

Tip: If you’re planning on outsourcing to European IT tech talent, check out Building a Distributed Software Engineering Team in Europe webinar.

Cost optimization is another benefit of outsourced Quality Assurance testing. By minimizing overhead costs, businesses can gain long-term advantages and invest more into their further expansion and development.

A roadmap to testing outsourcing

Differences between in-house & outsourced testing

In-house

In-house QA provides a list of benefits for employers. It takes off many smaller risks often associated with outsourcing, such as communication, time zones, and confidentiality. 

Having your own employees perform QA may feel like having a higher control over the testing process. Urgent matters can be resolved faster, and sharing information easier. Some just like seeing people they work with in person, all of which are valid points.

Cons of this approach are the costs of maintaining, training and managing an in-house team. Moreover, in-house testers often manage multiple projects at once and lose focus, not grasping all the possible testing scenarios. At times, local specialized experts aren’t available. Setting for a specialist without knowledge in your particular niche may be impractical for the project long-term.

Outsourcing 

Outsourcing means delegating certain functions to external organizations while focusing on the main expertise or overseeing the process in-house.

Businesses that outsource get access to advanced skills and specialist QA knowledge not available in-house. Outsourcing is also the best bet for IT QA when facing tight deadlines. Then, you can have an offshore team work parallel to your in-house processes. Or, for instance, use outsourced QA testers as a temporary extent to your team when in need to finish a task fast. Additionally, outsourcing is known to be quite more cost-effective for both startups and established businesses.

Tip: While considering IT outsourcing, we should also take into account geographical parameters such as the location of the outsourced team. Learn more about the pros and cons of nearshoring, offshoring and onshoring in one of our previous articles.

Testing outsourcing: the best practices

So, have you made up your mind? Does outsourcing sound like a great idea? Now, it’s time to explore the process of testing outsourcing. How does it work, and what can you do to land the best possible partner in the software development process?

Here, we’ll share the tips and tricks we learned from working with clients from all over the globe, which can help avoid the major pitfalls and teach you how to face some of the top outsourcing challenges.

Security

The first question on everybody’s mind when faced with the outsourcing option, is security. However, with today's digital tools and lawmakers’ stress on data protection, it’s becoming less and less of an issue in some countries. EU countries are among the best in this regard. According to IT Outsourcing and Offshoring 2023 Report, 70.73% of EU countries are at low and very low exposure to security risks. 6th place in Europe, and 22nd globally, Poland, as an example, is the highest among the Central and Eastern European countries in security ratings.

Hire the right developers.

When hiring your QA testers, you need to be specific in your wants and needs. This will help an outsourced company to find the best possible match. Define what it means to you to hire a senior QA engineer, what skills do you require, what kinds of people you are the most comfortable working with.

Next, how do you know that software testers are appraised? Don’t be hesitant to conduct prescreening, such as interviews, read online profiles, and access the developer’s soft skills and language skills. 

However, remember that only code will tell. 

There’s a slight difference in the hiring process depending on whether you want to outsource IT, developers, as a startup CEO, or as a Product Owner.

Hiring for CEOs with a product idea

• Easier to assemble the whole team at the same time
• Spend extra time examining the skillset and onboarding
• Make sure that the team understands the idea
• Define tech and business recommendations, stacks
• Pay attention to support and clear communication

Hiring for Product Owners

• No need to hire the whole team, just a QA specialist
• The onboarding process is very important, and the teammates can help with it
• Existing projects have a high entry barrier. Allow outsourced QA testers sometime before they get proficient with the project
• Make sure they understand company dynamics, culture, language, tools, business goals
• Remember that a great match needs a tailor-made process for finding, so it might take longer

Overseeing the process

Some stress the lack of control over the process of employing offshore testers or teams. How can you make sure the job will get done? Well, there are two crucial points to examine here. Trust and management.

Trust

• Organize a trial period. A short-term trial, like a 2-week sprint, can help you understand how a QA tester or a team works.
• Replacement and guarantees. An outsourced company or agency should guarantee employee replacement if things don’t work out.
• Culture. Make sure that outsourced company culture is similar or compatible with your own

Management

• Reporting. Delivered code and images done should be compared to hours spent on a project. It’s quite common to do weekly meetups with the team to discuss what was accomplished in the past few days.
• Communication. Use project board, chats, and document repository. Organize online video meetings, be it monthly, weekly, or daily, in order to be up-to-date with your team.

Timezones

A natural question of time zones can occur when working with talents overseas. The best way to determine the time you can interact with your external QA team is to look at many hours overlap between the city you’re in and your employees. Use online overlapping calculators or Excel to make it faster. However, Most outsourced companies have systems that allow flexibility in client-team communication. Fast direct chats are your friends here.

Costs

Rates can differ significantly. To keep it short and simple, we have decided to put it into numbers. Below is a handy table offering the comparative rates and average wages per developer in different world regions.

Choosing the right company

The outsourcing market is very fragmented. Due to the high demand, there are many small and big players to choose from, each suitable for different company sizes, product niches, and client needs. Many are also very similar in terms of rates and processes. Choosing can be tough. Try messaging or even working with a few companies for a short period of time. Pick those that seem the most fitting to your QA needs, and work your way to the best possible match.

• Trial periods. It’s standard practice to trial companies for 2-3 weeks in order to check both developers and partners.
• Ask for references. Other partners and clients have some insider knowledge about the company, which will help you with your choice. Try checking Clutch and similar alternatives.
• Challenge technology. Ask why an outsourced company offers certain stacks and how they can be beneficial to your product. This helps access QA expertise and understand ways in which the outsourced team can bring value to your product. 

Conclusion

In recent years, the Central & East European IT outsourcing talent base is growing in skillset and number. Central & East European countries offer high-quality digital infrastructure with ultra-fast broadband and competitive coverage rates. Moreover, they have top positions in global rankings and indexes for the best outsourcing destinations and the highest-quality programming skills.

Why not outsource QA experts today?