Speculations and erroneous judgments arise around any relatively new phenomenon due to a lack of understanding of the principles of work. Outsourcing was no exception. Let’s consider how much truth is contained in the most popular myths about it.
Myth 1: outsourcing is expensive.
This myth has some grounds. Involving outsourcing is really rarely much cheaper than hiring employees of a similar level. Usually, the total cost of performing the task (and therefore the final cost of a specialist) is still reduced: there is no need to spend money on office rent, accounting services, or purchase of equipment. That’s why in some cases (but not always!) outsourcing becomes more profitable than recruiting staff to the office. At the same time, you need to realize that the services of an external contractor may be more expensive; we will consider such situations in more detail in the section on advantages and disadvantages.
Myth 2: Outsourcing is done by unqualified specialists.
In some industries, there is a risk of running into a team consisting of yesterday’s inexperienced students. Remote call centers spoil the reputation of outsourcing the most – among them enterprises offering very weak employees are more common. Fortunately, this does not apply to the field of outsourcing testing services: on the contrary, most experts and just good QA specialists work as outsourcers. They regularly face a variety of projects and therefore have experience in any conditions. In addition, nothing prevents the customer from personally communicating with the team that will be engaged in testing and making sure that its employees are qualified. A reliable contractor will never prevent this.
Advantages of outsourcing testing
1. Optimal load distribution.
In IT companies, there is very often a cycle of processes and a “floating need” for personnel. For example, sometimes the QA department sits without work, waiting for an assembly that could be tested, but after a while it is littered with tasks and does not have time to conduct all the necessary tests. With outsourcing you can softly manage the amount of labor for workers.
2. Reducing the cost of attracting new people.
Usually, the costs of an employee are usually attributed only to his salary, but there are still a number of less obvious expenses:
- rental of premises;
- arrangement of workplaces;
- purchase of necessary equipment;
- creation of a test laboratory;
- recruiting;
- accounting of employees.
3. No need for continuous training of employees (improving their skills).
Very often, the urgency of work simply does not allow you to spend time training employees. In this case, the most profitable and acceptable option will also be to attract an outsourced specialist who fully meets all the necessary parameters and criteria.
4. Time optimization.
Often the company spends a lot of time on management. By transferring secondary tasks under the management of the outsourcing team, it will be possible to optimize time more effectively, which will help the company focus on more critical and important points.
5. Increasing work efficiency through motivation.
By motivation, we mean not only the financial side, but also the general mood in the team, which affects the interest of employees and the quality performance of the entire team. Outsourced testers, thanks to their competence and professionalism, are quite able to help in the development of the optimal testing process.
6. The presence of an “outside view” of the product.
Yes, do not be surprised, even an experienced and advanced team, as immersed in the project as possible, sometimes needs an independent assessment to identify the shortcomings of the product being developed.
Cons of outsourcing testing. What can cause doubt?
1. Many customers note some high cost of the services provided.
It is still worth noting that this factor is very relative and subjective, as it all depends on the expected amount of work, the size of the company and the quality/qualification ratio: of course, you can not hire a good specialist of qa testing as a service and at the same time pay him the minimum salary.
2. The issue of security.
It can be very important for some companies, as not everyone is ready to admit a person from outside to the internal resources of the product. This issue is solved by partial access only to certain functionality, filtering incoming tasks at the security level or by means of NDA (Non-disclosure agreement).
3. Dependence on external contractors.
Contacting outsourcers implies that you do not have your own testing experts on your staff. If for any reason cooperation with the contractor has to be stopped, all you have left of their work is a bunch of vague instructions and lines of code of incomprehensible purpose. It will not be easy even for specialized specialists to deal with all this.
