16 minutes to read
QA outsourcing checklists: What to include for effective management
Anastasiia Sokolinska
Chief Operating Officer
Effective quality assurance (QA) management can significantly impact your company's bottom line. The American Society for Quality investigated the matter in 2012 and reviewed it in 2021. The organization is sure that companies that prioritize quality management can achieve up to a 20% increase in customer satisfaction and a 15% reduction in operational costs.
We now see that fine-tuned quality assurance outsourcing is changing the parity. Phone behemoth AT&T confirmed that, in July 2024, cybercriminals stole the sensitive data of “almost all” users. On the contrary, the ongoing war conflict in Ukraine highlights that insufficient security measures could play a more pivotal role than “just user data”.
Specialized QA providers allow businesses expert testers and advanced tools they usually lack. This helps achieve better product quality and lets your team focus on strategic homework.
But life happens; sometimes, it's difficult to hit the ground running with a provider without understanding the process inside out. This is where QA outsourcing checklists come into play. They set clear goals, map out the process, establish expectations, and align the outsourced team's efforts with your objectives.
As Bill Gates once said, "How you gather, manage, and use information will determine whether you win or lose." These outsourced QA management tips will help you get your ducks in a row and achieve your quality assurance goals.
Below, we will explore the key components of an effective QA outsourcing checklist and provide practical actionable advice. The article is moduled, so you can skip to the point according to your company's maturity level.
Why checklists are essential for QA outsourcing [QA maturity level: Early-stage]
In the early stages of QA maturity, businesses often struggle with consistent processes and effective communication. What they have is chaos and undefined duties. The checklist is not a silver bullet. Yet, it can lay a foundation. Here are other ways it can help.
Consistency and standardization
Any documents are a reliable reference point. Particularly checklists make sure nothing slips through the cracks. For companies at any maturity level, this means that testing processes remain uniform, regardless of who is performing them. Whether a junior tester or a seasoned expert is at the wheel, clear-cut QA outsourcing checklist components make the task easier. This is not to mention consistency.
Clear communication
Without effective communication, your workflow will give the Great Flood vibes. Ineffective meetings, in particular, cost US companies over USD 280 billion annually.
Facilitation:
Common reference point: It's a common situation when every involved specialist has different expectations from the process and the outcome. Here, the checklist outlines these expectations, deliverables, and timelines on the shore.
Structured communication: The document covers typical procedures:
Enhanced collaboration: This clarity helps prevent misunderstandings and misalignments, as well as build trust between teams.
Risk mitigation
The trick is to identify and manage potential risks before they impact the project. Systematically list possible issues and their mitigation strategies — this way, you can proactively address challenges.
What about an example? The failure of the healthcare.gov website launch in 2013 is good enough. Due to inadequate testing and poor coordination among multiple contractors, the site crashed upon release. Apart from millions of frustrated users, there was over USD 600 million loss.
This is a fiasco, indeed. And a well-structured checklist could have helped identify critical testing areas and coordination needs. No guarantee that it would prevent the misstep; however, it could have helped in this “mission”.
Key components of a QA outsourcing checklist [QA maturity level: Level 1]
This is the time to list the key components that facilitate smooth flow and ensure quality outcomes. They may differ depending on the niche and your current QA maturity level. However, we provide the must-have ones.
1. Pre-outsourcing preparation
Define objectives
What is the ideal outcome for you? Assess your company's current stage of business development and define appropriate goals. Chances are you'll include some of these five common objectives:
Enhance software quality: Improved product reliability will help you conquer your customers' hearts and strengthen word of mouth.
Accelerate time-to-market: Obviously, with reduced testing cycles, you'll release features and updates faster.
Optimize costs: Lower operational expenses compared to maintaining a larger in-house QA team.
Attract top talent: In-house teams often lack adaptability and flexibility in terms of new skills. Rapid expertise gain, especially in automation, performance, or security testing fields.
Scale resources flexibly: Adjusted QA capacity based on project demands without long-term commitments.
Select the right partner
List the top criteria related to your business. But make sure to assess the following as well:
Expertise and experience: A track record in your industry and familiarity with relevant technologies are key pointers whether they are a perfect match for you.
Technical capabilities: Ensure they are proficient in the testing types needed for your project (automation, mobile, API, etc.).
Cultural fit: Cross-cultural teams often encounter misunderstandings. It doesn't have to be a conflict. Tech language misalignment and term interpretation are quite enough. Look for alignment in work ethics and communication styles.
Scalability: Flexible providers are better than inflexible. Don't thank us.
References and testimonials: Contact previous clients to sound them out. Their feedback will help to validate the performance.
Communication protocols are on-the-go aiders
Not only the channels make a difference. Defined comms protocols do as well. The top five tips on that:
Choose a tool wisely: You may not need Slack and Microsoft Teams. Of course, they offer a vast range of features. But consider soberly if you really need all of them. Maybe all that you need is a comms product startup with their cheap and cheerful tool.
Set adequate frequency: At the very beginning of the cooperation, daily stand-ups may best fit your goals. But as you get used to your outsourcing partner, weekly reviews may be better to avoid overcommunication. Remember the stats on wasted USD 283 billion on exceedingly frequent meetings.
Key responsible persons: Save responsible contact for both teams, including project managers and technical leads.
Manage your time before it will manage you: World Time Buddy, for instance, can schedule meetings that accommodate all parties considering time zones. But honestly, you can just set the working hours in your Google Workspace (if you use it).
Document communication plans: Create a communication plan outlining channels, contacts, and escalation paths.
Nice to have:
Language proficiency test: usually it’s English. Anyway, it’s nice to check if both teams have enough skills to cooperate in a common language.
Cultural awareness: Before choosing a particular partner, make sure you've familiarized yourself with their cultural peculiarities.
Legal and contractual considerations
All legal agreements must also be in place:
Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA): Protect sensitive information and intellectual property.
Master Service Agreement (MSA): Outline the terms and conditions of the partnership.
Statement of Work (SOW): Define the scope, deliverables, timelines, and payment terms.
Intellectual Property (IP) rights: Clearly state ownership of work products and developed IP.
Compliance requirements: Ensure adherence to regulations like GDPR or HIPAA if applicable.
2. Onboarding and integration
Kickoff meeting
Rough agenda (adapt to your workload):
Discuss project objectives and success criteria.
Define the scope of work and deliverables.
Roles, responsibilities, and the mentioned communication protocols.
Timelines, milestones, and KPIs.
Best practices (take into account):
Share meeting materials in advance.
Encourage open dialogue to address questions.
Document decisions and action items for future reference.
Knowledge transfer
Share documentation: Beforehand access to requirements, design documents, user stories, and existing test cases is the best helpful hand you can offer your partner.
Ensure timely access: Grant permissions to project management tools, code repositories, and test environments. Obvious advice, yet still important.
Tools for knowledge sharing:
Confluence: A collaborative workspace for documentation and team knowledge bases.
Loom: Records video walkthroughs and demonstrations for asynchronous learning.
Tool and environment setup
Ensure the QA team has all the necessary resources:
Test environments: Staging or development servers mirroring production settings.
Testing tools: Supply licenses or access to required tools ( Selenium, Appium, Jira, etc.).
Access credentials: Share securely using tools like LastPass, 1Password, internally developed tool, etc.
Best practices:
Verify all access before actual testing.
Procedures must be consistent and documented.
3. Daily management and monitoring
Progress tracking
Stand-ups: It's important to understand here that if you have to worm the results out of the partner, things are not good enough. Anyway, try to focus on blockers and don't forget the achievements.
Status reports: keep the teams posted on the project's updates, progress milestones, any issues, and next steps.
Dashboards: Clear-cut tools that visualize task status and timelines: Jira Dashboards, Azure DevOps, and similar.
Quality metrics
General quality metrics:
Defect density: Number of defects per unit size of software (e.g., per 1,000 lines of code).
Test coverage: Percentage of code or features tested.
Test execution rate: Number of test cases executed over a period.
If you are a product startup, here are your must-track metrics:
Defect discovery rate: Speed at which defects are found after code changes.
Severity levels of defects: Classification of defects based on impact to prioritize fixes.
Cycle time: Time from code commit to deployment, indicating process efficiency.
Best practices:
Set benchmarks based on industry standards.
Use automated tools to collect and report metrics.
Issue resolution
Bug tracking system: Implement bug logging tools like Jira or Bugzilla.
Priority definitions: Clearly define severity levels (free form; the main parameter is clarity for the team. E.g., critical, high, medium, low).
Response times: Set expectations for acknowledging and resolving issues based on priority.
Escalation path: Outline steps for escalating unresolved or critical issues.
Performance evaluation and feedback [QA maturity level: Level 2]
Mature QA teams use performance reviews to reflect on progress and identify challenges. Outsourcing QA best practice here is to turn back to your previous testing plan and its objectives and revise key performance indicators you set at the project's outset.
Assess whether the outsourced QA team is meeting targets, whether it was comfortable to work with them and whether you see tangible reasons to go on with them. You can hire another external independent consultant to examine test cases, defect reports, and overall testing effectiveness. This move will provide you with a 360-degree view of the testing process's efficiency.
Then, bring up obstacles or bottlenecks encountered during the testing cycle and encourage open dialogue to gather insights from all stakeholders. As a bottom line, you should have an action plan that addresses the mentioned problems. The plan should include responsibilities and set realistic deadlines.
By the way, there is a practice to go with two deadlines: desirable and realistic. The first is more a motivational trick and the second is a more soothing and organizational trick.
Feedback mechanisms
Effective feedback is your bread and butter. Literally. Provided it's been given sincerely and softly, it fosters continuous improvement and ensures that critical insights are not lost. Two common and proven frameworks:
360-degree feedback
Collects feedback from all directions: supervisors, peers, subordinates, and sometimes even clients. This opens a real 360-degree picture with diverse perspectives.
Implementation:
Anonymous surveys: Common tools are SurveyMonkey and Google Forms. Make sure that the in-built feature “Gather email addresses” in Google Form settings is disabled.
Structured questionnaires: When designing surveys, break down them into several independent parts covering specific areas (e.g., communication skills, technical proficiency, and teamwork).
Regular intervals: Conduct these reviews quarterly or after major project milestones to maintain up-to-date insights.
Benefits:
It uncovers blind spots that might not be apparent through self-assessment alone.
Promotes accountability.
Facilitates personal and professional growth.
Start-stop-continue method
A straightforward framework where team members identify activities to start doing, stop doing, and continue doing. This method focuses on actionable behaviors and this way, makes the vision clear.
Implementation:
Facilitated sessions: Hold meetings where team members can share their lists openly or submit them anonymously.
Categorization: Group feedback into common themes to identify key areas for action.
Action items: Prioritize the most critical points and develop specific plans to address them.
Benefits:
Easy to implement without extensive preparation.
Encourages constructive and focused feedback.
Adjustments and improvements
Make necessary adjustments based on performance evaluations and feedback to enhance the QA process. The trick up to any business owner's sleeve is to motivate both internal and outsourced teams. Here are four top tips on how to act.
1. Recognize achievements
The most important point. When you publicly recognize someone's achievements (even if they are insignificant) — it is encouraging and gives a burst of energy to try harder. And this approach is just human. Namely:
Public acknowledgment: Highlight successes during meetings, in company newsletters, or through the intranet.
Rewards and incentives: Offer tangible rewards such as bonuses, certificates, or tokens of appreciation for exczeptional performance.
2. Let them grow
Professional development options show a commitment to teams' long-term success and your dedication to excellence.
Training and development: Buy courses, workshops, or pay for certifications relevant to their roles and career aspirations.
Career advancement paths: Everyone likes that feeling of a good job. But after that, there is another one — the desire to be recognized. This may be a role expansion, transition to leadership positions, or narrow specialization (with compensation raise).
3. Foster open communication
Effective teamwork is built on transparency and trust.
Check-ins: Schedule one-on-one meetings to discuss progress, list possible concerns, and offer support.
Keep your door open: Team members shouldn’t be afraid of sharing ideas, feedback, or issues with you. Some companies have monthly or quarterly brainstorms to sound everyone out.
4. Align team goals
With everyone understanding how their work contributes to the larger objectives, engagement and accountability increase.
Shared objectives: Clearly communicate project goals and how each team member's role supports these aims.
Collaborative planning: Involve both internal and outsourced teams in setting targets and defining success criteria.
Post-project closure [QA maturity level: Level 2]
The final evaluation of the external engagement helps to capture tech lessons and adjust for future collaborations. Effective QA management is based on the following approach:
Organize an end-to-end retrospective: Important: Key stakeholders must be present. From both the in-house and outsourced QA teams. If you intend to play in the long run, this will ensure you understand the weaknesses and strengths of the system you built.
Structured methodologies at fingertips: Apply frameworks like the "Start, Stop, Continue" method (described above) to make discussions. Reflect is actually among the most important meta-skills of our century, and despite it sounds weird, it works perfectly in the business environment, too.
Encourage open and honest feedback: Transparency and honesty are the pillars of future success. Promote such a culture: no fear, no blame. An anonymous feedback is the first stage in your journey to a totally open-minded culture.
Document “lessons”: Capture all insights in a centralized knowledge base accessible to relevant team members. Confluence or Notion are effective for organizing this information.
Develop an improvement plan: Transform lessons into concrete action items with assigned owners and deadlines. Regularly review progress on these items to ensure continuous growth.
Documentation and reporting
Usually, a QA outsourcing partner handles all the documentation, and we include this checkbox in our QA outsourcing checklists. Below are the top five nuances and suggestions for creating appropriate reports and establishing an effective reporting process.
No generic reports, only targeted ones
What it means: Different stakeholders require different levels of detail, and the partner must take the understanding level into account.
Suggestion: Create customized reports for each audience segment. For executives, provide high-level summaries focusing on strategic insights. For technical teams, include detailed metrics, analysis, and technical findings. Yes, this requires the volume of work, yet it will pay off.
Insights should be actionable
What it means: Just data means nothing. Especially for unprepared specialists.
Suggestion: Include data interpretations and actionable steps on what the recipient should do. Include an analysis that explains what these numbers mean for the project and how they can inform future actions.
Make data visually attractive
What it means: We perceive 90% of information visually. Visualization enhances the understanding and retention of complex information.
Suggestion: To illustrate trends and patterns effectively, use charts, graphs, and dashboards created with Tableau or Microsoft Power BI.
Standardize the reporting format
What it means: Consistency in report structure aids in comprehension and comparison over time.
Suggestion: Develop templates for reports to ensure uniformity in layout, terminology, and presentation. This makes it easier for stakeholders to navigate and understand the information provided.
Future planning
Integrate lessons learned into processes: Based on the final evaluation, update your QA outsourcing checklist components and internal procedures. This prevents repeating past mistakes.
Strengthen partnerships: Long-term collaboration almost always is more beneficial for both you and the outsourced QA team. Strong relationships lead to better mutual understanding and efficiency.
Set clear objectives for upcoming projects: Define goals that align with your needs. Consider areas where the outsourced QA team can contribute more significantly (e.g., new testing technologies).
Invest in team development: Identify skill gaps revealed during the project and provide training opportunities for both in-house and outsourced team members. This enhances overall capabilities and prepares the team for future challenges.
Set up a continuous improvement loop: This may create some tension, but without this, you just can’t grow. Periodic reviews even outside of active projects facilitate ongoing collaboration effectiveness and help to stay aligned on expectations and capabilities.
To sum up
The software testing market increased faster than the overall technology sector in 2023. The challenges like security concerns and high upfront investments partially hinger rapid development. However, we are seeing (and chances are we'll see) further development of Quality Assurance outsourcing.
And this is where the checklist for managing QA outsourcing comes into play. Structured checklists enhance management effectiveness by ensuring that all critical tasks are consistently addressed, communication is clear, and potential risks are mitigated. This streamlines the QA process and fosters better collaboration between in-house teams and outsourcing partners.
Outsourcing QA best practices are the foundation for successful project outcomes. Look at Toyota. Their production system includes detailed checklists outlining quality assurance processes. And now guess their rating among safety cars.
Yeah, this is a manufacturing example. Yet, the principles apply to software development and QA outsourcing as well. Comprehensive QA outsourcing checklists ensure consistency, enhance communication, and help you achieve your goals.
Looking for a provider with tailored guidance and support? Contact the DeviQA team to find out how we can help.