10 Rules to Check the Outsourced Supplier for Testing

If you want to steer clear of expensive mistakes when outsourcing testing, it’s smart to take advice from others. Even if you think you’ve got everything figured out like what you want to outsource, having a plan, and knowing the tests you need – the partner-picking process can be tricky since a lot of system integrators can seem pretty much the same.

At best, you will have to develop a method for vetting vendors and their claims yourself, which can take up a lot of your time. Fortunately, the following evaluation list has already been created, which you can immediately apply in practice.

This simple 10-point checklist contains the most important things to consider when choosing a strategic QA outsourcing services partner. Each point is based on the public experience of dozens of businesses.

1. Lowest rate doesn’t equal lowest total cost

When it comes to outsourcing vendors, the old adage, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” makes sense.

You may be tempted to select a vendor that is offering you a virtual army of testers for what seems like an attractive price, but an experience says, using a small team of rock-star testers is more effective than relying on a large pool of untrained workers.

2. Industry experience counts a lot

Every industry has its own way of doing things, so hiring testers who are totally new to your field will just drag down your testing process. But if you have a team of QA pros who really get how your business runs, they won’t just make testing go smoother so they can also help you target the most important areas to make sure you’re focusing your quality efforts where they matter most.

3. Add staff, or go with a managed service?

If you need testers for a short-term project, you might consider a fixed-cost model, where you negotiate with a contractor within a budget and get the work done. However, if your organization requires ongoing support and the required skill set is not core to your business, then you might want to consider Testing as a Service or dedicated team, where for a fixed fee you will receive a stable package of services over a long period of time. In a well-organized managed service, the testing partner will have an incentive to do the work more efficiently, driving process improvements driven by your carefully negotiated service level agreements.

4. Does your partner have best practices?

Be sure to ask a prospective vendor what unique intellectual property and best practices it can bring to your project. You want a team that has done it before and distilled its years of experience and success in completing projects into a set of best practices, accelerators, methodologies, and tool kits. Having these assets will help accelerate your quality efforts and reduce time to market.

5. Fit cultural compatibility

A good cultural fit is every bit as important as every other criterion. Your partner should get to know your organization, the people, and other vendors that work on your projects. Can it work at your pace, communicate information the way you need it, and be prepared to deal with the level of chaos that exists in your work environment? If it can’t handle the way you work, it’s probably not a good match, no matter how good it is technically.

6. Does your partner speak agile?

The role of testing in agile practices is well documented and understood, yet many organizations still struggle with integrating testing and quality into their agile delivery methods. Choose a partner that has similar views on how testing fits in with your development methods. If, for instance, you are using agile and your partner can’t begin testing until the requirements for the entire system are finalized and delivered, you have a problem.

7. Is doing business with your partner easy?

Transparency, accurate billing, clear communication, good understanding of priorities, and the ability to respond quickly to changing needs? These qualities are essential for an outsourced partner. Be sure to ask whether a prospective vendor is planning to do the work using its own employees or outsource it to a subcontractor. This happens, and it’s not a bad thing if your partner chooses to subcontract, but it should disclose that, and you need to be comfortable with the arrangement.

8. Onshore and offshore: What’s the right mix?

The cost savings from purely offshoring the workforce may seem exhausted. While offshoring remains an integral part of most providers’ offerings, it has few benefits in and of itself. Instead, stick to a sense in which you place teams in the locations that make the most sense for your project’s success. This may mean some on-site, others working remotely, and even more overseas. As long as there is the right level of communication between teams and they can work well together, it shouldn’t matter where they are.

9. Check those references

Of course you will do the due diligence of checking the references that the vendor brings to you, but go beyond that and look around. What are your competitors using? Which vendors are gaining headway in the industry? Check analyst reports and market analysis? You will get a clearer picture of your prospective vendor’s position and market share.

10. Vision and innovation

Being ahead of the curve is a huge plus for any prospective service provider. When you are outsourcing testing, you want to find a partner that can give you guidance based on what’s going on in the industry, share its experience, and propose new ideas, fresh approaches, and different angles. A vendor that can help you focus your effort on the right areas, technologies, and trends is more likely to become a long-term strategic partner.