Advantages and Disadvantages of Outsourcing Software Quality Assurance Services

With "quality" becoming the benchmark for success for any software application in the market, organizations are looking at ways to ensure it remains top-notch throughout the lifecycle of the product. Also, since software quality assurance has become complex and comprehensive in its scope and implementation, organizations are leveraging software quality assurance services to do the job. However, there is always a dilemma about whether to outsource QA software testing to an external agency or conduct it in-house. Let us understand the benefits and drawbacks of outsourcing software quality assurance services to an external agency.

The pros of outsourcing software QA testing

Software QA testing allows organizations to save money on rework, deliver superior user experiences, prevent corporate emergencies, promote efficiency and productivity, and increase revenue, among others. So, the pros of outsourcing this activity are manifold:

Time-saving & cost-efficient: Instead of hiring an in-house team, setting up a testing infrastructure, and training the resources, it is cost-effective and time-saving to outsource software quality assurance to an experienced external agency. The additional costs incurred by organizations in setting up an in-house infrastructure are:

l Hiring new resources takes time, and time equals money

l New employees may take time to familiarize themselves with the project and the team. This can reduce efficiency.

l A test infrastructure needs test setups, tools, stubs, test management, defect tracking, CI/CD, and many more. Besides, specialized software or hardware needs to be purchased depending on the type and requirements of testing.

Access to a pool of experts: Given the rapid changes taking place in the realm of software testing, any software quality assurance company keeps itself updated with the latest in testing technologies, methodologies, and practices. This makes their resources highly-skilled and capable of handling any type of tool or methodology. Moreover, by using different types of tools, the resources can perform fresh testing and identify defects therein, which the in-house testers using conventional tools and performing repeated testing may not achieve.

Get high-quality results: Since organizations prefer to accelerate the software’s deployment to the end customers, developers may rush to finish the process and give short shrift to software QA testing. This can impact the quality of software and force the organization to mitigate the errors later at additional cost. On the other hand, third-party QA testing providers are expected to perform quality testing diligently by designing optimal test cases and scenarios and ensuring the software is free of errors.

Focus on core business: By outsourcing the job of testing, the in-house resources of the organization can be deployed to handle its core activities. This improves the efficiency and productivity of the organization and saves money on training employees for other work, especially during working hours.

Now that the pros are understood, it’s time to delve into the cons.

The cons of outsourcing software QA testing

Notwithstanding the benefits of outsourcing software quality assurance services, there are some downsides too, as mentioned below:

Security and confidentiality: When an organization outsources its software testing activities, it has to share some highly confidential pieces of information with the third-party. These may include source codes, databases, workflows, and reference models, among others. Even by enforcing tough measures and entering into a watertight agreement with the outsourcing agency, there are chances of the data getting leaked.

Choosing the best agency: It is really a herculean task to identify a suitable outsourcing company that not only keeps your critical information safe but also delivers high-quality test outcomes. This is because of the prevalence of a plethora of such companies that claim to be the best of the lot.

Loss of control: By outsourcing the testing of software applications to another company, you are not likely to monitor their operations daily. This can lead to losing control over resources, data, and other critical elements, which will not be the case in an in-house setup.

Working across geographies: It is possible that organizations will have to outsource their testing operations to companies operating outside their national borders. This can have issues with aligning with time zones or languages and can make it difficult to track the testing status on a daily basis.

Conclusion

After weighing the pros and cons of outsourcing the software testing services to an external quality assurance company, it is important to take a holistic view of the matter based on your business requirements and objectives. Even though there is no one-size-fits-all kind of thing, you need to consider the special requirements of your organization before making a decision.