Testing is integral to software development and its role is to provide quality assurance for the final product. Without quality assurance, you risk running with a faulty product, which leads to decreased sales, damaged reputation and increased costs with fixing bugs and customer care.
So testing is a necessity for any business that hopes to optimize its operations. However, testing is not a core competency for most companies. It is often performed by a dedicated part of the team, by someone who is specialized in something different but does this out of necessity, or it is outsourced. Which one is better and why?
In-house testing vs. outsourcing
What is the difference between having an in-house tester and outsourcing the service? Regarding operations, you either have people on your team doing the testing, or you give your requirements to a third party that takes over the testing part of the project. This third party will keep in contact with you and your team for updates and progress reports.
We discuss further some of the advantages of outsourcing and explain why this might be a better option for your company than doing software testing in-house.
Quality of testing
There is a difference in skill level and quality of testing when it comes to outsourcing. Often, your team simply lacks the know-how to perform software testing at the highest standards. Your alternatives are either to invest in hiring new people with the required know-how or to spend resources on training your existing staff. Any of these two distracts your team from their main tasks, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, results in extra costs.
Outsourcing also implies a cost, but you work with specialists who have a lot of experience with similar projects and are almost always guaranteed to work better and more efficiently than an in-house team.
Standardized solutions
What happens a lot is that for every project companies develop, they have to come up with testing solutions. These customized solutions take resources to develop, and they quickly become obsolete. What’s more, new team members and managers have to spend precious time learning the ropes of the custom solutions. Outsourcing eliminates this problem by providing standardized solutions, that have been proven to work and that remain updated and constant no matter how the in-house team changes.
Spee-up projects
A result of outsourcing is getting things done quicker. Because of standardization, specialization and years of experience, companies that specialize in testing can do a better job in less time. In this way, your project is ready for the marker with no bugs or errors and with the optimal user experience in record time. No need to stress how important it is for project efficiency and for the coordination between departments not to go over established deadlines.
Decreased operations complexity
With outsourcing, you simply have less day to day hassle in managing your team and the output. Outsourcing spears you of all the trouble of adding people to your team or arranging for special training. It also takes away the need to manage this essential yet complex activity and supervise the quality of testing.
Reduced costs
You might think that having someone in-house to do the testing will surely save you some money, compared to contracting a third party service. While in the short run you might be right, in the medium and long run you risk inducing far greater costs on your department and company.
Remember that the main idea behind outsourcing of any kind is cost reduction. When you outsource, you transfer part of your operations to another company, reducing complexity for your own. Moreover, this third party is a specialist in something that you’re not, so they will be more efficient in their operations, delivering the same or better quality, at a fraction of the cost that it would take for your company to do it.
Not least, better quality testing means better quality products. And while customers will pay more for more quality, they will stop buying and spread the word if they encounter a faulty product.
For all these advantages, we encourage you to give software testing outsourcing a thought. Contact us at Euro-Testing to get more information about the solutions that would fit your company. We can help you figure out whether outsourcing is suited for your needs, as well as provide you with costs estimates and potential benefits, so you make an informed decision.
