For young product companies struggling to find their place in the market, there’s no slack. No margin for error, no wiggle room, and no second chances from customers or investors. This means that everyone and their competitors are striving for perfection, and lean teams are trying to run like those twice their size. It’s hard, but it’s the cost of innovating and succeeding.
But there’s more to the pursuit of perfection than the end goal. These same companies must also be aware of the weak spots that trip them up along the way. And for many of them, their weakest spot - their proverbial Achilles' heel - is quality. In their rush to release and deliver newer and more advanced features, they let quality assurance fall by the wayside.
The result? Buggy releases, clumsy hot-fixes, and poor user experience. And thus, disappointed customers, angry CTOs, and skeptical investors.
By shifting quality assurance higher up on their list of priorities, product companies can:
- Deliver a higher quality product that delights customers, cuts time spent on bug fixes, and puts companies ahead of competitors.
- Reduce risk of security problems and data leaks, thereby protecting their customers and the reputation of the company as a whole.
- Keep team members where they belong and allow them to focus on projects where they will be most impactful (i.e. devs stick to coding, instead of trying to QA at the same time).
- Save money by working with an outsourced QA partner instead of slowly building out an in-house team.
Once companies decide to invest in QA testing, they usually take one of two paths. Either they decide to add a QA engineer or two to their onsite team, or they outsource it to third-party vendor.
Though building an onsite QA team does have its advantages - such as easy collaboration with dev and familiarity with the product - it’s hard to overstate the benefit of contracting with an outsourced QA provider.
Here are some of the top benefits you can expect from offshore QA:
Team extension
Going offshore means putting distance between your dev and testing teams, but it doesn’t have to feel that way. Good QA partners invest time and effort in becoming a true extension of your onsite team, rather than just a temporary vendor. They work to understand your market, customer, and business goals, so that they’re totally aligned with your onsite team from the very start. Review the hybrid staffing model used to by top QA providers.
Domain expertise
Looking for a niche skill set to add to your team? Good luck finding it close to home. For one, highly specialized QA engineers are hard to come by in today’s market. The best ones are usually already employed (and happy where they are). And those that aren’t may only view QA as a stepping stone to a career as a full-time developer. In places like India, QA is viewed as a gratifying, fulfilling career path.
Outsourced QA providers employ engineers with deep skills in particular areas, as well as those with broader areas of focus. And because they’re continuously trained, you know that you’re getting the best and the brightest. (Click to tweet)
Easy scalability
Chances are, you won’t need a QA team year-round - you may not even need one for your next release cycle. Because resourcing and priorities shift quickly in growing companies, having the ability to scale your QA team up and back is invaluable. By adding headcount only when you really need it, you’re able to run lean without sacrificing quality.
Streamlined, secure communication
The leading QA providers have been in the business long enough to have mastered the ins and outs of communication. To bridge the physical distance between onsite and offshore teams, the best QA partners invest in leading video conferencing solutions, encrypted chat clients, and the best email security measures around. These measures ensure that everyone’s always in the loop, and that your company’s security is never in danger.
With this sort of communication infrastructure in place, teams can easily gather for daily standups, backlog groomings, sprint plannings, and retrospective meetings, just like any onsite QA team.
