TABLE OF CONTENTS


Why is software testing important?
Steps in the software testing process
What are your options for software testing
The STRONG reasons for outsourcing your software

testing

Why is software testing important?
Software testing is an essential and vital phase of any software development project. Developers and testers must ensure that newly developed products meet practical and performance requirements and that those products are reliable to operate consistently under every circumstance. The risks of launching a product that is not yet fully prepared are greater now than ever before because of the change in expectations and demands of the end users.
A continuous approach to quality, initiated early in the software lifecycle, can lower the cost of
completing and maintaining the software significantly. This greatly reduces the risk associated with deploying poor quality software.
Briefly, the main improvements that come with deploying software testing and highlight the
generally quoted reasons for testing are:


Save time and money by identifying defects early
Avoid or reduce development downtime
Provide better customer service by building a better application
Know that users’ requirements are satisfied
Build a list of desired modifications and enhancements for later versions
Identify and catalog reusable modules and components
Identify areas where programmers and developers need training

Steps in the software testing process
Software testing providers focus primarily on evaluating product quality, which is realized through the following core practices:


Find and document defects in software quality.
Advise on the perceived software quality.
Validate and prove the assumptions made in design and requirement specifications
through concrete demonstration.
Validate that the software product works as designed.
Validate that the requirements are implemented appropriately.

A good test effort is driven by questions such as: How could this software break? In what possible situations could this software fail to work predictably? Software testing challenges the assumptions, risks, and uncertainty inherent in the work of other disciplines, and addresses those concerns using concrete demonstration and impartial evaluation.

What are your options for software testing
Independent testing denotes the test design and implementation most appropriately performed by someone who is autonomous from the team of developers. This means that the results will be impartial and reflect an objective view of product’s capabilities.
But though company literature boasts the tremendous time and money saving features of
outsourcing software testing – while stressing high quality work you can count on – one
should decide clearly whether it is really beneficial to outsource software testing.
How can you decide if it makes sense to outsource software testing? You’ve got to begin by carefully analyzing your needs as they relate to this critical phase of software development. Software testing means many things to many people. The main objective of software testing is to ensure the software functions as specified before going into production. But it also means making sure the software is intuitive and easy to use.
Before you make the decision to outsource software testing, it’s important to clarify what you want from the outsourcing company. As their popularity grows, so do the services these companies provide. Many also provide software design services. Or, they will plan, but not implement a software testing process for your organization. And they will even send individuals to your site to take care of integrating the software testing tools you purchase with your hardware. In general, regardless of your exact software testing needs, if you’ve got the money to pay for it, you’ll find an outsourcing company willing to do it.

The STRONG Reasons for Outsourcing your Software Testing
ACCESS TO A SKILLED TEAM OF TESTERS
Probably the most important reason why companies decide to outsource software testing is to
eliminate the learning curve.
Employees of specialized software testing companies are not only aware of different software
testing tools, but they already know how to use them very well. If you work in software
development, you know how tight production schedules are. Anything that saves time helps keep projects on schedule. Software delays are costly so when weighing the costs vs. benefits of outsourcing software testing, determine how project delays affect your bottom line.
REDUCE EXPENSES WITH RESOURCES
Following the previously mentioned reason, it’s also important to say that software testing providers are not only specialists in testing tools but, obviously, they already own it. And these tools are
pretty expensive. So the fact that you won’t have to buy them any more is already a significant cost saver.
Moreover, oftentimes software development houses cannot afford to hire and maintain a full-time development team and an in-house software testing team. For these companies, the decision to outsource software testing is an easy one.
BETTER SOFTWARE QUALITY
Another key benefit of outsourcing testing practice is better software quality supported by:


Organization independence, which ensures focus on quality, correctness and conformance to requirements without schedule or budget overruns
Technical and process independence which is achieved through mature processes, specialized resources and tools for testing the application
Central repository of testing best practices such as mechanisms to identify defects in early release cycles and approaches for reducing test case development effort

FASTER TIME TO MARKET
Organizations with an independent testing process ensure improved time to market by enabling
faster turnaround of releases. This is achieved through:


Skills in test automation strategies, enabling faster testing cycles
Optimizing staffing lead time and improving the ability to handle fluctuations in demand
Higher degree of predictability in testing effort, enabling adherence to schedule

SAVE OVERALL COSTS
It’s an overhyped subject that IT outsourcing in general determines significant costs reduction. But in software testing particularly, research studies show clear figures regarding companies that chose outsourcing instead of in-house deployment.


In a study conducted by AMR Research, surveys proved a cost of finding and fixind deffects that accounts for nearly 50% of the cost for all software development projects.
The same research reveals that offshore software testing saves companies up to 75% over

in-house costs, improves quality and si a less risky method to develop mature offshore
outsourcing skills