How to Build Your Dream Team With QA Outsourcing

Many product companies think that QA outsourcing is a compromise -- no quick hallway status updates, lack of direct communication between QA and dev, etc. But outsourcing has plenty of attractive perks besides the obvious cost savings. Let’s have a look at one of the true advantages of outsourcing: the exceptional talent you’ll be adding to your team.

Software companies that choose to outsource their QA testing are usually looking at cost savings as the #1 benefit. But when you choose the right QA partner , many other advantages are bundled with the reduced price tag. Depending on where you decide to outsource -- India, China, Mexico and the UK are all popular regions -- you’ll have access to an efficient round-the-clock testing cycle, dedicated teams with rare skill sets and streamlined communication.

Aside from budgetary concerns, your main priority should be the quality of the engineers that will make up your outsourced team. Working with a QA provider that employs expert engineers and invests in their continual training is a sure way to build your dream team: talented in-house developers who are on site to focus on innovation and new features who are complemented by a skilled group of test engineers that strive to improve the quality of your product.

Let’s take a detailed look at the various skill sets your provider’s team of engineers should have, as well as a few QA principles they should integrate into their work.

Domain Expertise

Many QA Managers and CTOs choose QA outsourcing because the in-house team lacks the required domain expertise. As customers demand greater functionality and feature sets grow more and more complex, a tester must come to the table with both technical skill and rich knowledge of the product domain.

How exactly can domain knowledge help your QA team succeed?

Engineers with rich experience in a given domain have a competitive edge over other engineers who can only offer technical skill. Here are several key advantages:

• They already know the lingo. Products that serve the financial, legal, CRM and healthcare space use terminology that may be unfamiliar to an offshore QA tester without previous experience in that industry. On the other hand, an engineer with domain experience will be able to identify and communicate issues using the correct technical terminology, effectively staying "in the loop".
• They dig deeper. When an engineer has worked with products similar to yours, they know the ins and out of the software’s architecture. This allows them to go further than merely pointing out issues -- they can fix the errors themselves or suggest the most practical fixes.
• They’re more productive. Experienced teams are able to view the product from the user’s shoes, allowing them to catch and fix bugs in the initial testing phase rather than later, freeing up time and reducing costs. They can also prioritize bugs more effectively, knocking out the big, critical issues first while moving lesser issues down the list.

Tool & Technology Skills

There are an overwhelming number of QA testing tools on the market today. How do you choose the best one when so many seem like they’ll get the job done? That’s where QA outsourcing and the tool and technology expertise of the team you hire come into play.

When it comes to finding the right tool for your specific product and testing requirements, you’re paying for the expertise of the QA vendor’s advanced technology team. These engineers are tasked with monitoring the very latest releases and updates to the industry’s top tools. In addition to keeping a close eye on the market, the engineers perform thorough testing of each tool to identify its strengths and weaknesses. This exhaustive tool research makes them experts on finding the right tool for the job -- every time.

Engineers are also on the cutting edge of new QA methodologies and framework solutions. They do specialized research on how to build and maintain cost-effective testing frameworks, define QA processes and testing standards and implement the latest methodologies to ensure that your testing solution grows along with your product and organization.

Team Extension & Smooth Communication

QA outsourcing can only be truly effective if engineers can take pride in and ownership of their work. Though many people think that outsourcing comes with a major compromise -- that the distant testing team never really gets to know the product -- there are providers that prove this assumption false. By partnering with a provider that emphasizes thorough onboarding, knowledge transfer and consistent communication, your offshore engineers can become a true extension of your onsite team

"Quality That Creates Value" is what drives us, always seeking to increase the success of our clients and our employees. QASource is a QA partner you can count on.