When considering whether or not to buy cheap software testing services, it’s essential to look at the value of the services you’re getting. Entrusting your software to bottom-of-the-barrel software testing companies means your service quality will be bottom-of-the-barrel as well. Consider everything that comes with cheap software testing carefully lest you experience buyer’s remorse.
Cheap Software Testing Causes Time Delays
Many inexpensive software testing companies outsource their software testing services to companies in India or Southeast Asia. But these locations are likely not in the same time zones as your company leaving you with a built-in time delay right from the get-go. Different timezones also add extra time between feedback and results.
Communication is Lost in Translation
Along with a time difference, cheap software testing that outsources across the world may create translation (and, thus, communication) problems. For example, there could be communication problems between you and your software testing company, between the software testing company and the outsourced testers, and between the software testing company and you. Just imagine playing a game of Telephone in which no one speaks the same language. Things will get lost in translation which affects software testing quality.
Outsourced Companies Cannot Guarantee Expertise
Another problem with cheaper, outsourced software testing is that the people running tests on your software are not software testers by trade. There is no guarantee of expertise on the part of the people testing your software.
Even companies that crowdsource instead of outsourcing can’t guarantee that every tester will know what they’re doing. The people crowd testing your software could be testing experts, software developers, or even just someone looking for typos. However, regardless of what you pay for software testing, you deserve to know the qualifications of those doing the actual work.
Low Pay = High Turnover Rate
Like most industries with high turnover, there isn’t much accumulation of knowledge over time. Experience is an inconsistent resource, as is knowledge of your software and company. As testers leave, new testers without the same experience take their place. Continuous tester training is paramount because of how frequently experienced testers are replaced.
While this might not seem like a huge problem (and if you’re not planning to use the same cheap software testing company more than once, maybe it’s not), if you’re hoping to develop a business relationship with your software testing company, it most certainly can be. Instead of fielding the same questions for each new round of testers, a better option is to work with an on-site testing team.
Extra Work for You
There is a real difference between software testers that test for potential software problems and those that test only for what you tell them to. Many of the cheaper software testing companies only take orders; they don’t offer consultation. Furthermore, they don’t take steps to ensure your software won’t break if a user interacts with it unexpectedly. With many budget software testing companies, you must define the parameters of the tests, tell them what tests to perform (and what bugs to look for), and then interpret the data yourself once complete.
In software testing — and in life — you get what you pay for. To learn more tips for choosing a software testing company, contact iBeta for more information.