QASource Blog

The world today is highly connected through the internet and social media, we are able to stay connected, even if we are thousands of miles away from each other! Our interconnected way of life is not just for social media, it has reached into other aspects of life. This has opened the door for offshore teams-for companies to have teams located in different countries. As amazing as this is, software companies faced some difficulty. In order to meet these obstacles head-on, the Agile methodology was created.

Many top software companies have adopted the Agile methodology because adopting the Agile methodology into an organization yield many rewards. Some of these include higher satisfaction because of more frequent releases, more development time for iterations, the QA team receives access to the software earlier than usual, critical bugs are caught early in the project and stakeholders receive higher visibility.

QASource sponsors the Agilistry & QA Meetup Group. The goal of the group is to create a community where software engineers and developers can meet to learn new skills, build on current skill sets as well as network with other business professionals.

QASource sponsors the Agilistry & QA Meetup Group. The goal of the group is to create a community where software engineers and developers can meet to learn new skills, build on current skill sets as well as network with other business professionals.

The Agile method is a development methodology that depends on fast iteration and close collaboration among dev and QA teams. Historically, people have viewed outsourced QA as incompatible with Agile, emphasizing the misconception that teams need to be under the same roof in order to effectively communicate and reach alignment on project requirements. This view is drawn straight from the Agile manifesto: “The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is a face-to-face conversation.”

But with advances in technology come great shifts in thinking, and people are realizing that dev and QA need not be housed in the same building — much less the same country or continent.

Building out an effective dev organization requires a strategic, yet flexible approach to budgeting. As your company grows, you may need to quickly ramp up resources, or ramp down certain teams and shift them over to newly prioritized areas of the roadmap.

This volatility can make planning the budget for any team within your organization challenging, but it is especially true for an outsourced team that must rapidly shift and shape to the changing needs of stakeholders, dev and QA managers, and the customer.

QASource sponsors the Agilistry & QA Meetup Group. The goal of the group is to create a community where software engineers and developers can meet to learn new skills, build on current skill sets as well as network with other business professionals.

For today’s fast-moving product company focused on rapid customer acquisition, grabbing market share, and rapid growth, efficiency is key. As CEOs and CTOs press their teams for cost-effective initiatives that support these goals, one answer is sure to be heard loudly and frequently: Automation!

Today, it seems like every app connects and integrates with the next. We can check out via PayPal, login via Facebook, and share content across all of our social media platforms at once. This interconnectedness helps people get more done in less time, leads to rapid growth for relatively young product companies, and creates a supportive ecosystem of well-crafted, well-tested applications. And all of it thanks to the essential bond, the tie that binds: the API (application programming interface).

Today, product companies are striving to lead in four key areas: Innovation, Efficiency, Accuracy, and Speed. Before automation technology was as common as it is today, CTOs, product managers, and engineering leads were slowed down by repetitive manual tasks — becoming truly efficient and innovative was a distant goal, something they could only discuss in abstract terms. Automation has put more power in the hands of developers, QA engineers, and the people who manage them.

Market competition and an emphasis on great user experience drives innovation. And today, companies are innovating at breakneck speed. As product and service companies scale up their development teams to embark on new, attractive features and match the pace of their respective markets, they also scale up their QA teams to match the increased workload.

Or do they?