10 minutes to read
QA as a service explained: A comprehensive guide to integration
Chief Executive Officer
While most decision-makers are well aware of the significant role that quality assurance plays in software development, some businesses still keep falling into the same trap—cutting corners on software testing. Result? Disappointed users, damaged reputation, and financial loss. According to the CISQ report, in the US only, the cost of poor software quality surpassed $2 trillion in 2022.
With the growing demand for agility and increasing software complexity, managing software quality efficiently becomes more challenging, but there is a solution. Many companies all over the world view QA as a service (QAaaS) as an efficient way to ensure the decent quality of their apps. Indeed, why not entrust software testing to external experts and refocus internal resources on development and innovation instead? In our guide, we’ll explore how QAaaS works, its key benefits, and how it can be smoothly integrated into your SDLC.
What is QA as a service?
QA as a service is the outsourcing of quality assurance tasks to an external vendor who specializes in software testing. Using this model, businesses can bring in expert QA resources and cutting-edge QA tools without the need to build and maintain an internal QA department.
QAaaS is also referred to as managed QA services, testing as a service, and on-demand testing. However you name it, its mission is the same: ensuring software compliance with global quality standards while enabling businesses to stay agile and concentrated on their core operations.
Quality assurance as a service covers a whole spectrum of QA services, including but not limited to security, functional, performance, compatibility, compliance, usability, accessibility, localization, manual, and automation testing.
Similar to traditional software testing, QAaaS is suitable for projects of all kinds and sizes and can be introduced at any stage of the software development lifecycle. Yet, as we all know, the earlier the QA effort is introduced, the better the outcomes.
Additionally, there are three key features of QAaaS that we cannot help but mention:
As you see, QAaaS is a powerful strategy that has numerous advantages, about which we will talk in detail in the next section.
The key advantages of QA as a service
What has made software testing as a service so well-liked is its numerous advantages. Let’s have a look at the key ones:
Considerable cost savings
One of the most appealing advantages of QAaaS is its ability to cut expenses. The maintenance of an in-house QA team suggests making significant investments in recruiting, hiring, infrastructure, workspace, training, perks, etc. With outsourced QA, all these expenses fall on a vendor. This reduces your operational costs, giving you the opportunity to allocate the budget more effectively to other high-prioritized initiatives like research, marketing, development, etc.
Tailored approach
A one-size-fits-all approach is not about QAaaS. Professional vendors offer custom services tailored to the unique requirements of each project. Whether it’s compliance, performance, or security testing, customized solutions ensure superior quality and alignment with your business goals.
Scalability
Testing as a service offers incredible flexibility by allowing businesses to ramp testing efforts up or down as needed. You may not worry anymore about the hassle of hiring or laying off staff. An outsourced QA team promptly and effortlessly adapts to new project requirements. This flexibility is a game-changer for companies operating in fast-paced markets and projects experiencing fluctuating workloads.
Access to top-tier QA expertise
Using quality assurance as a service, companies gain immediate access to a rich pool of QA talent with profound knowledge and rich experience acquired from working on various projects. Apart from skilled specialists, QA outsourcing companies have advanced testing tools in place that enable them to optimize processes and guarantee superior quality.
Speed up releases
Time is a valuable asset, especially today. Backed with extensive expertise, efficient techniques, and modern technologies, outsourced QA teams immensely reduce testing time as well as speed up the whole software development lifecycle. Faster releases make your business more competitive and responsive to market needs.
Focus on core activities
Last, but not least: by entrusting software testing to a reliable QAaaS provider, you can free up your internal resources. While external experts work to ensure excellent quality, your internal team can dedicate their efforts to development and innovation.
The importance of QA as a service in today’s market
These days, numerous startups and established companies across different industries resort to QA as a service. How has it happened that QAaaS has gained such enormous popularity?
First of all, modern software products are getting more complex. They integrate with diverse technologies and third-party services and need to operate flawlessly across a lot of platforms and devices. As a result, more effort is required to ensure high quality. QAaaS providers are well-equipped to manage these complexities efficiently. Using their rich expertise and advanced tools, they execute comprehensive testing across platforms, ensuring compatibility and robustness, regardless of system complexity.
Then there’s the hunger for agility. Time is a competitive advantage across different domains. Any delays in the development process may lead to missed opportunities. Being aware of this, QAaaS addresses the need for continuous testing in Agile and DevOps environments, empowering companies to execute testing more quickly while maintaining excellent quality.
Additionally, businesses today struggle with throat-cutting competition. Therefore, excellent quality of software apps is essential for protecting the market share and meeting picky users’ expectations. While in-house QA teams are usually limited in resources, QAaaS providers have everything needed to test software thoroughly, from regulatory compliance to usability.
Finally, in industries where a single failure can result in significant financial losses, damaged reputations, or regulatory penalties—let’s say fintech, healthcare, or manufacturing—the stakes are very high. With domain-specific expertise and advanced testing tools, QAaaS is invaluable for businesses operating in these high-stakes domains. By offering rigorous, industry-specific QA solutions, software testing as a service detects issues before release and ensures full compliance with applicable regulations and standards, mitigating risks and protecting both reputation and bottom line.
How to integrate QAaaS into your business
If you have concluded that software testing as a service is just what you need and want to know how to introduce it efficiently into your workflow, we have two key tips to help you get started:
Tip 1: Define your needs
It might seem too obvious, but the first thing you need to do is review your QA processes and identify areas for improvement. Do you find it difficult to run certain tests? Is it challenging for you to ensure comprehensive testing at peak periods? Or maybe your team lacks the skills to validate advanced features? Without rushing, analyze your QA process to identify critical gaps and needs and understand in which way QAaaS can help you.
Tip 2: Choose the right QAaaS provider
The next stage is finding a reliable QAaaS provider. In fact, this may not be as easy as it seems at first because all of them claim to be professional and diligent. To filter out untrustworthy options early on, consider the following aspects when evaluating potential partners:
Technical expertise: Make sure a provider has deep technical expertise, offers a comprehensive scope of QA services, and leverages industry-leading tools and frameworks.
Domain expertise: Opt for a TaaS provider that has profound knowledge of your domain. This is a great advantage that will help them utterly understand your needs and provide really efficient solutions.
Flexibility: Discuss in advance whether a service provider is flexible in terms of their strategy and resources. They should be able to scale up test efforts whenever needed, as well as apply a customized approach tailored to your unique needs.
Reputation: To understand whether you can entrust your project to a QAaaS provider, review what their previous clients think of their services. Check reviews and client testimonials on the company’s corporate website and on independent platforms.
Security: It goes without saying that security is of utter importance today. Make sure a potential partner has robust security measures in place to protect your sensitive data.
Communication: Efficient communication is half the battle. Choose a QAaaS provider that is responsive and establishes transparent communication. In these terms, also pay attention to English excellence and time difference.
Cultural fit: Cultural fit is often underestimated, but those who have already experienced the consequences know how crucial it is to be on the same wave with a service provider. Avoid their mistakes by partnering with a provider whose culture aligns with yours.
Our company’s approach to QA as a service
First of all, let us tell you a few words about our company. DeviQA is a leading software testing company with extensive experience and numerous successful projects in a portfolio. It serves businesses from all over the world and across different domains. Adtech, healthcare, real estate, fintech, retail, e-commerce, and travel are just a few to name.
As a QAaaS provider, DeviQA offers a wide scope of services, from designing a test plan and creating a test strategy to writing and maintaining test scripts. There are leading QA testing tools and frameworks in our arsenal. Also, we are scrupulous about our hiring process, and our team is made up of highly skilled QA leads, professional manual testers, and seasoned automation QA engineers who are good at executing tests of all types, including functional, performance, security, compatibility, accessibility, usability, and many other tests.
Whether you develop a web app, a mobile app, a desktop app, or an API, we are at your service. We can jump in at any stage of software development to optimize an existing QA process or set up a new one from scratch. We adjust our approach and tech stack to the specific requirements of each particular project and assign specialists whose skill sets align best with clients’ needs.
Quality assurance as a service provided by DeviQA has already helped numerous companies optimize QA processes, increase test coverage by up to 97%, speed up development cycles, improve team productivity, and ensure higher client satisfaction and loyalty.
Want to know more about our capabilities and achievements? Have a look at our case studies.
Honestly, we can talk a lot about our team, services, methodologies, tools, and projects, but the voices of our clients are louder:
‘DeviQA’s work has increased the bandwidth of the QA and development teams, producing high-quality code and test cases. The team has been proactive and responsive, delivered work early, and shown a constant improvement mindset. Overall, their professionalism and communication stand out.’
CTO of a supply chain platform on Clutch
To sum up, we are ready to go the extra mile to bring maximum value to each project. Our key goal is to ensure your clients are happy and that you take pride in your software products.
Takeaways
QA as a service has proven to be a smart strategy, enabling businesses across different industries to ensure the outstanding quality of their software solutions without the need to establish an internal QA department. By outsourcing software testing to professional service providers, businesses can engage top-tier QA experts without breaking the bank, scale QA efforts in the snap of a finger, ensure quick development cycles, and release their apps confidently.
Consider QAaaS, but not sure whether it’s suitable for your business? Have additional questions? Or need expert advice? Do not hesitate to reach out to the DeviQA team – we are always glad to provide consultation and guide you on this journey.