14 minutes to read
The role of QA Outsourcing in accelerating your in-house development cycle
Chief Executive Officer
A third of companies surveyed by Deloitte increased their outsourcing budgets since they saw a positive impact from delivered value. At the same time, 50% of executives stated that talent acquisition and retention are the most significant challenges for them. That’s actually the reason for the budget extension.
QA outsourcing can really be a strategic move as far as you have chosen the right partner. Collaborating with external quality assurance experts could seem like a waste of time. But only if your partner doesn’t have specialized skills, advanced testing methodologies, and tools, and doesn’t bring any value to the table.
However, it’s your responsibility to change the final of your outsourcing story. WhatsApp, in its early growth stages, outsourced its QA testing, accelerating the development cycle. External QA resources scaled their testing (not only them) efforts quickly and updated faster. Now we see WhatsApp with 2+ B active monthly users (over 100M in the US only).
Looking for ways to let in-house development teams focus on core activities, but expect your software to become more complex? Integrating outsourced QA services can become a perfect match in your case.
The challenges of in-house QA
Don’t snap at your QA team. They often face significant challenges losing their bearings between QA and CI/CD pipelines. Accept and understand these challenges to enhance your development cycles and maintain high-quality standards. Let’s list them.
Resource constraints
You understand better than we do that project timelines linger without additional resources, and tight budgets don’t allow teams to invest in the latest testing tools and technologies.
The worst situation is when teams leave incomplete test coverage (yes, this also happens when they lack the necessary tools to perform comprehensive testing across different devices, platforms, and environments).
Your team doesn’t have advanced performance testing tools → chances are they miss important issues that only appear under high user loads → application crashes or performs poorly during peak usage → user experience shrinks and brand reputation is spoiled.
Additionally, keeping up with evolving testing requirements and technologies adds another layer of complexity. The rapid advancement of software development practices – such as the adoption of microservices, cloud computing, and mobile platforms – requires continuous learning and adaptation. Not every in-house team stays current due to limited time and training opportunities. The consequences are known.
Bandwidth issues
When resources are tight (time, financial — any kind), the in-house team has to juggle multiple responsibilities. So, nothing surprising in reducing efficiency and popping up errors. DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA) states teams waste up to 30% of their time on rework due to poor quality practices. Non-development activities slow down the innovation process and extend the development cycle.
Additionally, in-house teams sometimes have to skip certain test phases altogether to meet deadlines. This is unlikely for outsourcing QA services as they are directly interested in the high ROI of QA outsourcing — this is their face, metaphorically speaking.
Quality assurance bottlenecks
Without a specialized team focusing on testing, defects may go unnoticed until later stages or after deployment.
Consortium for Information and Software Quality: poor software quality losses continue to add up. In 2022, the cost of poor software was USD 2.41 trillion.
Cases to consider
2023 has become an outlier year for cybercriminals with over USD 1 billion of “profit”. And 2024 keeps up: a non-profit Internet Archive faced a 31-million-user breach in October, and chipmaker Qualcomm confirmed hackers used zero-day to steal the personal data of an “unknown number of users”.
May 2023: A self-driving Jaguar I-Pace was crossing Toland Street in San Francisco with an autonomous specialist in one of Waymo’s autonomous vehicles. The vehicle encountered a dog on an unconventional path. Although the system detected the dog and tracked its path, it did not activate emergency braking due to an unoperated safety fail system, a poorly framed fail-safe system, and bad software.
Of course, this is not the only-testing issue, but still, extra QA team integration with in-house development saves nine.
Developers conducting their own testing might unintentionally overlook issues due to cognitive biases like the "happy path" tendency, where they test scenarios that confirm their expectations. The short path to underperformance and inefficiency.
How QA outsourcing accelerates the development cycle
1/ Expertise and specialization
High-performing QA teams often hold industry-recognized certifications:
ISTQB Certified Tester: Validates proficiency in software testing principles and practices.
Certified Software Test Automation Specialist (CSTAS): Focuses on expertise in test automation tools and frameworks.
Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH): Ability to identify and address security vulnerabilities.
These certifications guarantee a deep understanding of testing methodologies and ensure certified pros know the industry standards inside out.
2/ Proficiency in various testing types
Automation testing: Selenium, Appium, other testing tools — QA provider develops automated test suites that accelerate regression testing and improve test coverage. For example, if you want to speed up login checks, it’s worth automating the testing of a web application’s login functionality.
Performance testing: Simulating high user loads to identify performance tie-ups with JMeter or, for example, LoadRunner. This is especially helpful for e-commerce projects in peak shopping periods (Christmas, New Year, Easter, etc.)
Security testing: Outsourcing partners use security techniques like penetration testing and employ OWASP ZAP or Burp Suite to identify vulnerabilities that could be exploited by attackers. For example, testing for SQL injection flaws protects sensitive user data in a financial application. Not far example: MoneyGram confirmed that hackers stole users’ data in a week-long outage. Kind reminder: MoneyGram has 50+ million clients in 200 countries.
3/ Scalability and flexibility
The benefits of QA outsourcing include the ability to scale testing efforts. Looming deadline? Unexpected increase in scope? Outsourced QA team can quickly ramp up resources without delays: searching, hiring, and training new in-house staff.
The axiom is that external teams are flexible since it’s their professional interest to fit into the client’s environment, situation, or methodology.
4/ Faster feedback loops
With a dedicated focus on quality assurance, outsourced QA teams accelerate defect identification and resolution. They implement efficient testing processes that integrate with the development cycle, enabling quicker iterations and releases.
By incorporating continuous integration and continuous testing practices, defects are detected immediately after code commits. This allows developers to address issues before they compound. As a satisfying consequence, technical debt decreases, and the overall development timeline shortens.
Case study: Enhancing development speed with DeviQA
DeviQA teamed up with CipherHealth, which faced challenges in delivering its web and mobile applications faster.
Before: CipherHealth had many undetected bugs, and approximately 20% of releases contained major issues due to inadequate automated testing coverage.
During: DeviQA’s team of four full-stack QA Engineers established a robust automation testing process from scratch using modern technologies (Ruby, Selenium, Jenkins, and more). Over 1,400 end-to-end automation scripts, covering essential user flows, improved test coverage (90+%) — almost the entire delivery was automated.
After: CipherHealth got a 35% reduction in bugs in production during the first seven months of our partnership. Additionally, they achieved over 240 successful releases, demonstrating how effective QA outsourcing can transform development cycles while ensuring high-quality software delivery.
Integration of QA outsourcing with in-house development
Collaborative workflow
The one challenge is to find an appropriate QA outsourcing partner, and integrating them is absolutely another challenge. Here are strategies and tools to complete it in the blink of an eye:
1. Unified project management
Strategy: Using a centralized project management platform to align your in-house and outsourced teams. This way, project goals, deadlines, and responsibilities will be stored in a single space so that all the processes will be clear.
Tools and practices:
Beyond basic issue tracking, Advanced Roadmaps in Jira allow for complex planning across multiple teams. With visualized dependencies, it’s easier to manage capacity and forecast timelines.
Set up custom workflows in Jira (or any other project management tool) that reflect your development and testing processes. Assign appropriate permissions to the outsourced QA team to interact with issues relevant to them.
2. Integrated communication channels
Strategy: Don’t seek a communication tool with advanced features if you are a newbie to project management. Trust your outsourcing partner; together you can choose a perfect match.
Tools and practices:
A popular option is Slack with shared channels. Instead of just basic messaging, use Shared Channels to connect your Slack workspace directly with the outsourced team's workspace. If you know the ropes of basic features, try advanced ones like canvas.
Advanced features:
Set up keyword alerts for critical issues so team members are immediately notified.
Integrate Slack with Jenkins or GitLab to receive automated updates on build statuses and test results directly in relevant channels.
Create dedicated channels for specific projects or components, but avoid overwhelming with unnecessary channels. This is a common problem that can be solved by online meetings or relevant wikis, for example. Use Slack’s status and availability features to respect time zone differences and work hours.
3. Collaborative documentation
Strategy: Use collaborative documentation platforms that allow simultaneous editing and real-time updates.
Tools and practices:
Share test plans, requirements, and meeting notes on Confluence or Notion. These tools support versioning, comments, and mentions to facilitate discussions within documents.
Tip: Use templates for recurring documents like test case specifications or sprint retrospectives (Notion offers a wide range of templates for free).
4. Version control and code repositories
Strategy: Providing the QA team with controlled access to code repositories.
Tools and practices:
Tools like GitHub and GitLab allow setting precise permissions. Outsourced QA can access specific branches or repositories necessary for testing.
Use feature branches for development and allow QA to test directly from these branches. Implement pull request reviews where QA can provide input before the code is merged.
5. Advanced test management tools
Strategy: Integrating test management solutions with your development ecosystem.
Tools and practices:
Connect TestRail with Jira to link test cases directly to user stories or defects. V — visibility.
Utilize TestRail's API to automate test result updates and generate custom reports. Share dashboards with both teams to monitor key testing metrics.
Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD)
QA and CI/CD pipelines ensure that every responsible specialist keeps an eye on the quality of their work part. How to achieve that?
1. Automated tests in CI/CD
Modular test architecture: Design test suites that can be easily integrated into the pipeline stages.
Parallel testing: Configure the CI/CD system to run tests in parallel to reduce execution time (GitLab CI/CD supports parallelization natively).
2. Artifact management
Artifactory or Nexus Repository: Store build artifacts, Docker images, and other dependencies. Assign access permissions to the QA team as needed.
Your test results are the guide. Based on the previous tests, you can ensure that only tested and approved builds progress through the pipeline.
3. Automated feedback loops
Set up mechanisms where test results and logs are automatically fed back to the development team.
Notifications: We’ve already mentioned the importance of proper notifications. This is the case, too. Detailed notifications via email or chat apps, when builds fail or tests, detect issues are irreplaceable things.
Reporting: Allure Reports or JUnit reports integrated into the pipeline provide comprehensive information for further planning.
Also, you could do with a policy: code cannot be merged or deployed unless all critical automated tests pass.
Best practices for coordination
1. Communication protocols
Clear guidelines for communication frequency, channels, and escalation paths may seem not so important at the beginning. But when the project scales, you’ll thank yourself for establishing rules beforehand.
Practical tips:
Communication charter: Create a document with contacts of responsible persons for specific issues and preferred communication methods (and expected response times optionally).
Regular meetings: Schedule daily stand-ups, weekly syncs, or sprint retrospectives involving both teams to maintain alignment.
2. Align on testing methodologies and standards
Ensure both teams follow the same testing practices and quality standards.
Practical tips:
Test strategy document (another one): Assemble a comprehensive test strategy that includes testing types, coverage criteria, and quality metrics.
Standardized templates: Use consistent templates for test cases. Strive for unified defect reports and comprehensive test plans.
3. Leverage time zone differences
The conventional wisdom is that the time difference is exceptionally problematic. Yet, it could be an advantage if you hit a new productivity level.
Practical tips:
Follow-the-Sun model: Turn into a round-the-clock factory: in-house development already called it a day, but the outsourced QA team begins testing.
Handover reports: Implement end-of-day reports summarizing completed tasks and pending issues for the next team to address.
4. Implement robust security measures
Another measure you’d thank yourself for implementing. Because intellectual property and sensitive data matter.
Practical tips:
Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Limit access to necessary systems and data based on the QA team's role.
Secure VPN access: Require VPN connections for accessing company resources.
Regular security training: The outsourced team should be aware of and comply with your security policies.
5. Set measurable objectives and KPIs
Define clear goals and metrics to assess the performance of the QA team.
Practical tips:
The ABCs are test coverage percentage, defect detection rate, and test execution time.
Use Power BI or Grafana to visualize KPIs and share them with stakeholders.
Let’s take a more detailed look at the metrics subtopic.
Measuring the impact of QA outsourcing
Key metrics
One of the best ways to evaluate your testing success is to calculate the ROI of QA outsourcing. But there are some other specific metrics beyond the return on investment that reflect improvements.
Development cycle times
Time taken from the start of development to the product's release (strive for decrease).
Faster development cycles enable quicker time-to-market and a competitive edge.
Defect detection rates and post-release defects
Compare the number of defects found during the QA phase to those reported after release.
Higher defect detection rate during QA leads to fewer issues in production.
Overall project timelines and delivery speed
The ability to meet delivery deadlines.
Improved timelines increase client trust and lead to repeat business and positive referrals.
Time to resolve defects
The average time taken to fix identified defects from detection to resolution.
Faster defect resolution minimizes disruptions and keeps the development process on schedule.
ROI calculation
Framework for calculation
1/ Determine the total cost of in-house QA
Include salaries, benefits, training, infrastructure, tools, and overhead expenses.
2/ Calculate the total cost of outsourced QA
Include the fees paid for outsourced QA services and any additional expenses like communication tools or integration costs.
3/ Identify cost savings
Subtract the cost of outsourced QA from the cost of in-house QA to find direct cost savings.
4/ Quantify additional benefits
Reduced time-to-market: Faster releases can lead to increased revenue.
Improved product quality: Fewer defects can reduce customer support costs and increase customer retention.
Scalability: Ability to handle larger projects without significant additional investment.
Calculate ROI
What else to take into account
Long-term benefits: Over multiple years, cumulative savings and efficiency gains can substantially impact the bottom line.
Risk mitigation: Improved product quality reduces the risk of reputational damage.
Strategic focus: Freed-up internal resources can focus on core competencies and innovation.
To sum up
Specialized expertise and scalability of outsourced QA services are key for overcoming resource constraints and enhancing product quality.
The benefits of QA outsourcing like advanced testing techniques, faster feedback loops, and others, allow your development team to focus on core competencies and strategic issues.
Such a collaboration leads to faster, more reliable software releases. And who would refuse to gain some additional “respect” from the customer?
DeviQA has over 15 years of tailored outsourced QA services and a proven track record. Want to reap the full benefits of QA outsourcing? Book a meeting, and together, we’ll pave the path to your testing success.