Dedicated Team Model in QA

by TestFortExpert on 11/14/2017

When you map out a new project, at some point you come to the moment of serious choice: hire a remote team or be content with your in-house resources. Depending on the type of project, companies opt for the best possible option. The choice of a dedicated team model significantly prevails nowadays. Companies like Automattic, Buffer, and many more are already using global resources for their businesses. They have teams spread all over the world, communicating numerous languages within different time zones.

So now the rules have changed: outsourcing becomes the latest business trend and many companies – from startups to enterprises – take advantage of it already. The dedicated team saves time, resources and adds value to the entire business process.

It is easier to benefit from an offshore dedicated team of IT specialists than creating a new one on-site. Yet, making a choice may become quite hard, and it usually requires thinking through all possible pros and cons. You may have a bunch of thoughts by now. “Looking for new staff is a long process. Outstaffing may be a tricky business. What if I outsource to the team which can’t make it to the deadline? How about the budget? Which solution is more effective in terms of the cost? How to pick the right team for a project?” We will try to clarify that for you. Let’s dive right into the evaluation of QA outsourcing.

Signs that you need a QA dedicated team

Before making such a decisive step, you might want to straighten out whether you need to outsource at all. Thereby, it is reasonable and optimal to outsource testing if you:

Are looking for a cost-effective solution;
Expect your project to be scalable;
Ready to speed up from start to launch;
Hunt for a team focused entirely on your tasks;
Need third-party experts to test your local team;
Want to have flexible contract terms.

How to hire dedicated teams?

At this point, you may already consider the possibility to outsource quality assurance, but how it actually works? Once you decided on the objective of your project, it is logical to define the requirements for your future QA team. Then you push a request to the company and receive an evaluation of the workload back. When you have a mutual agreement on the estimation, it means you are ready to proceed with the choice of a dedicated team model. Then the process of testing takes its start, and you can proceed with task management and regularly receive updates and reports on the work done. When the series of testing finishes, you launch the project. In case you liked the provided testing service, and this is not the only idea you have, the scheme may start over again with a contract renewal. We chose to visualize the whole process for your convenience.

How to hire dedicated teams

Who outsource testing to?

In IT outsourcing, there are fundamental screening criterions, which may help to find the one team you need. Since this process is directly related to high level of trust and mutually beneficial cooperation

Bear in mind, that a motivated employee – is the one who delivers faster. Doers by nature, these people will get work done no matter where they are located. However, offshore dedicated teams have to be provided with a proper guidance beforehand.
Trustworthiness is key when you hire an offshore team. Choose the outsourcing company with an extensive project portfolio and testimonials of the clients who appreciated the quality of provided services. Pay attention also to media authorities you trust. For instance, Harvard Business Review mentions Ukraine as the top country to locate dedicated teams.
Expertise. Your trust can’t just appear out of nothing, it should have a solid ground. Visual proof of what remote QAs are experienced in – is essential. The lack of info about company’s expertise can be a disturbing sign. You can also ask for QA awards while establishing the contact. Professionals with extensive experience usually have something to show.
Hire dedicated team, members of which are comfortable to work remotely. Candidates have to understand that this is a very peculiar type of cooperation. It requires being online to establish a successful written communication, and they have to be fine with it. In fact, it would be perfect if they thrived in a less-social environment.

Offshore dedicated team: pros and cons

Now, let’s talk about advantages and disadvantages of QA outsourcing, which may first seem like an obvious bunch of notions. As practice shows, there is still the need for a thorough explanation of what’s good and bad about this type of partnership. Unfolding the matter below.

The model perfectly fits middle and long-term projects. Offshore professionals prove to be as experienced as onshore staff, and even more. Yet, the services are affordable, while contracts are quite flexible. Your company’s strategy is respected, so the work of outsourced employees will be aligned and integrated accordingly. Transparency within each process ensures fast and high-quality results.

In addition to that, QA outsourcing can be as convenient as onshore staff hiring in terms of overall team control. Professionals from abroad also work by the most popular, yet productive software testing methodologies like Agile and Scrum. They can be as competitive in automated and manual testing as on-site experts. The team you hire is “dedicated” in the full sense of this word: it works on your priorities only without jumping from project to project.

It usually is difficult to choose a team that suits best for you. Law differences, time zones, and language barriers are the peculiarities that need your attention to as well. That is why cooperating exclusively with trusted partners can eliminate the possible risks of outsourcing.

How to level the risks with offshore dedicated team?

The first right and important thing to do would be taking into account the potential setbacks. The extensive choice of outsourcing companies may first appear as an advantage, but it also may become an obstacle while choosing the best solution exactly for your project – every provider claims it is the best, but how can this be actually verified?

Clutch.co shows ratings of 7000+ companies, while you also have numerous platforms offering freelance engineers. The choice is big, therefore confusing. Still, it is possible to face the issue this way:

Pay attention to the dedicated teams’ level of expertise and outsource Quality Assurance only to the reliable testing solution provider.
Check the company’s reviews and case studies for a deeper understanding what they can and cannot do. For example, not all of them provide regression, functional, security and other types of application testing, so research a little before you hand-in the project.

We already mentioned the lurking inconveniences which may occur on the first stages of the outsourced testing partnership. Disputes about the law while composing a contract used to be the most common ones. Nevertheless, this difficulty may be smoothy settled nowadays.

It would also be nice to consider time zone differences and language barriers, because sometimes they can make your mutual work a little bit awkward. However, time zones may be easily managed by clear communication or an agreement, which ensures that offshore dedicated team will work at the time you prefer to perform tasks as well. Language barriers can be easily handled by the experts who provide such cooperation for many years and have proficient language skills.

Overall misunderstandings may also occur if your questions are not answered from the very start. For instance, you want to know whether your project will be supported after release. Or what tools for communication and task management will be used in the process. How testing is performed and what kinds of reports are provided in the course of it? These points have to be discussed and sorted out properly in order to prevent potential arguments.

Why outsource testing after all?

Many leaders are struggling to ensure risk-free operation while creating new IT product. Outsource Quality Assurance in order to eliminate the potential failures thanks to the inherent flexibility of the offshore dedicated teams. Well-adjusted working process ensures transparency and flexibility. This is why you are usually provided with the latest techs for tracking and management of the workflow.

Dedicated team model will work impeccably in case people you want to hire are experienced enough to perform the hardest tasks. Speaking specifically of testing engineers, their competence level may be defined by the provided certificates like ISTQB, CTAL, CTFL. Usually, only the most skillful ones acquire them, which can be a sign for you that this is a right choice.

QA outsourcing is an affordable solution which brings high-end result quite rapidly. Especially, regarding Quality Assurance, it is very desirable, because we know you definitely want to launch product already, and it is only possible if everything is perfect.

Hiring a dedicated team often brings innovative solutions according to the diversity based on various backgrounds, skillset, mindset, culture, and values. It is a great opportunity to learn from their experiences and win a global audience with a mix of onshore and offshore dedicated teams.

Using dedicated team model seems to be a win-win solution for both sides. Remote skilled IT employees will bring their diverse experience to the table. It is a great opportunity to regulate the budget for a project and keep the entire control over the process. All you need is to find a reliable service and start a successful partnership right away. Feel free to reach us and hire our QA experts for the future outstanding collaboration.

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Having one outside team deal with every aspect of quality assurance on your software project saves you time and money on creating an in-house QA department. We have dedicated testing engineers with years of experience, and here is what they can help you with.

Software is everywhere around us, and it’s essential for your testing team to be familiar with all the various types and platforms software can come with. In 21+ years, our QA team has tested every type of software there is, and here are some of their specialties.

There are dozens of different types of testing, but it takes a team of experts to know which ones are relevant to your software project and how to include them in the testing strategy the right way. These are just some of the testing types our QA engineers excel in.

The success of a software project depends, among other things, on whether it’s the right fit for the industry it’s in. And that is true not just for the development stage, but also for QA. Different industry have different software requirements, and our team knows all about them.

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