Use QA As Your First Step To Outsourcing

Quality Assurance, or QA, is often given short shrift in a software development organization, especially when budgets are tight. When debating the software development budget at one of my software companies, the CEO finally asked, "Well, do you really want to hire a QA guy, or a programmer to add features to the software?"

It was a tough choice. I decided to hire the programmer because we had a huge list of features to implement. And we could not afford to implement a QA process without hiring a significant staff of QA engineers and someone to manage them.

In another example, an Accelerance client had developed their software and was getting ready for a Beta release to their first customers. They too had neglected QA. Although the work of their individual programmers was good, the entire system needed testing after the programming work was integrated together.

This client realized that going to market without a comprehensive test of the system would be a major disaster. An obvious indicator of the impending doom was the missing data on screens of the application whenever the VP of Engineering tried to use the software. Their target market was ordinary consumers who would not tolerate any missing data, confusing behavior or unexpected error messages.

How could such good engineers create such lousy software!?

It is because QA is the ugly step sister of software development. Even if the engineers are unit testing their code, they do not want to be bothered with testing the entire application. It is not considered a creative or "fun" part of the process. Consequently, QA is often neglected, leading to mediocre software and unhappy users.

Outsourcing is an excellent solution to the problem of nonexistent or incomplete QA. Yet some people are surprised to learn QA can even be outsourced. Outsourcing your QA is a terrific first step to taking advantage of low-cost offshore engineering resources.

One reason QA is such a good place to start with outsourcing is you do not necessarily need to divulge your source code. You can deliver a binary version of your software for installation and testing by your outsourced QA team. Look for a team with experience performing the type of QA that you need. You can divide QA into 5 different types of testing:

1. Requirements Testing - making sure your software does what you designed it to do

2. Usability Testing - specialized testing that may require focus groups of target users

3. Load or Stress Testing - to ensure your software has the required performance

4. Environment Testing - testing your software on different operating systems, browsers, etc.

5. Regression Testing - an automated process to repeat tests quickly on each new release of your software

Regression testing is often used with unit testing. Unit testing is performed during programming and requires access to the source code. Other separate regression tests can exercise the user and programmatic interfaces defined for your software without viewing the source code.

Avoid outsourcing too much at once. Pick the type of testing that will give you the biggest benefit. For example, Regression Testing may be valuable because you can reuse the tests yourself after they are developed by the outsourced QA team. On the other hand, Environment Testing requires a large number of test cases, and low cost outsourcing is the only way to affordably complete them.

In summary, it is important to recognize the value of QA in the software development process. You may start out with a small development team and be satisfied with the quality of their code. As the complexity of the software grows, you can add QA resources either by outsourcing or hiring your own internal team.

When you undertake the creation of a large and complex software project, it is critical to plan for professional QA as part of the effort. If you don't, you run the risk of making a bad first impression and losing critical early sales, funding for future projects, or worse. Even though outsourcing is criticized for eliminating jobs, outsourced QA may be just the tool you need to help keep yours.

Steve Mezak is a successful Silicon Valley technical entrepreneur and international outsourcing expert. Get your copy of his free report on "Outsourced Development - A Secret Weapon for Quickly Creating Software Products" now at http://www.Accelerance.com

Ball State University Selects Campus Management's Talisma CRM and Fundraising ... MarketWatch (press release) 6, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Campus Management Corp., a leading provider of enterprise software products and services for educational institutions, today announced that Ball State University will implement its TalismaŽ CRM and Fundraising ... and more »

GraphOn hires VP, product management and marketing Bizjournals.com GraphOn Corp. said Monday it has hired Christoph Berlin as its vice president of product management and marketing. The Santa Cruz-based company (OTCBB:GOJO), develops cloud application delivery and Web-enabling technologies. GraphOn Appoints Christoph Berlin as Vice President of Product Management and ...MarketWatch (press release) all 9 news articles »

Bloomberg

Losses of Japanese Electronic Firms Worsen Bloomberg Enlarge image Panasonic Reports Highest Loss Ever Panasonic Reports Highest Loss Ever Daniel Acker/Bloomberg Attendees look over Panasonic Corp. products at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, US Play Video Play ... Sony, Panasonic Forecast Worsening Losses as Samsung DominatesBusinessWeek Panasonic yearly net loss to top $9 billionPakistan Daily Times Panasonic headed for record $10B lossToronto Sun all 108 news articles »

Mr. Carlos A. Contreras Appointed President, International Operations ... MarketWatch (press release) MIAMI, FLORIDA, Feb 06, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- BioNitrogen Corp. (BION) (pinksheets:BION), developer of a revolutionary patent-pending technology for converting renewable and abundant biomass waste into high-nitrogen urea and urea fertilizer, ... and more »

Taiwan smartphone maker HTC sees Q1 revenue lagging Reuters By Clare Jim | TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan smartphone maker HTC Corp expects to post much lower-than-expected revenue in the first quarter, underscoring analyst views that it will face another weak quarter and an uphill struggle to prove to investors it ... and more »

Bloomberg

Most Takeovers Since 2007 Spurred by Data Torrent Bloomberg Enlarge image Most Takeovers Since 2007 Seen Spurred by Data Torrent Most Takeovers Since 2007 Seen Spurred by Data Torrent Tony Avelar/Bloomberg Hewlett-Packard Co., Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. led a 36 percent gain in technology deals last year. Big Year for Tech MergersBusinessWeek all 6 news articles »

DIARY-S&P 500 EARNINGS MONTH AHEAD Reuters ... 0.72 07 Feb AMC Q4 Life Technologies Corp 1.04 22 0.90 07 Feb AMC Q4 Lincoln National Corp 1.00 19 0.92 07 Feb AMC Q4 Western Union Co 0.40 27 0.38 08 Feb BMO Q4 Apartment Investment and Management Co -0.30 5 -0.33 08 Feb AMC Q4 Akamai Technologies ... and more »

HedgeCo.net

Former Sailfish Partner Naro Launches New Firm FINalternatives Sal Naro, former co-managing partner Sailfish Capital, is launching a new asset management firm, Coherence Capital Partners. The launch follows a management buyout of the core insurance business at Jefferson National Financial Corp., where Naro was a ... Hedge Fund Manager Sal Naro Launches Coherence Capital Partners LLCHedgeCo.net Former UBS fixed income head establishes New York boutiqueInvestment Europe all 6 news articles »

Tranzbyte Corporation Acquires ProximaRF MarketWatch (press release) Altitude Organic Corporation has launched its new management company strategy in Arizona. The company can manage, staff, consult, and provide uniquely branded products and concepts to medical marijuana dispensaries using a limited liability agreement. and more »

Corporate Bonds: Buyers Flock To Corporate Debt On US Jobs Data Wall Street Journal "People are really putting risk back on the table," said Mark Cernicky, managing director of fixed income at Principal Global Investors, which has $72.4 billion in fixed-income assets under management. Markit's CDX North-America Investment-Grade Index, ... and more »