How to Make Onsite-offshore Model of Software Testing Work for You?

by TestFortExpert on 09/24/2013

Onsite offshore model is a very widespread working mode for most of IT teams, the QA teams in particular. How it works? One of the QA team members, the service provider, works with the client at client’s location. The client location and the service company’s work place can be situated in any place or be in the same city.

How it works?

Responsibilities of Offshore team:

work on test cases;
sign off the test cases;
works on documenting the test cases;
prepare test data;
execute the tests;
report defects;
prepare test reports;
provide inputs for test metrical collection;
take part in the defect review and other project related meetings.

Advantages of Onsite – Offshore Software Testing Model:

1. This model can assure that there is work going non-stop, if to use it right.

2. Face-to-face client-team cooperation helps to build better communication and also enhances the business relationship. The information about the systems and the client’s requirements will be available for you.

3. Cost effective – offshore teams cost less and can easily reduce your expanses on this.

There are some expectations from the Onsite and Offshore resources. They are the following:

Responsibilities of Onsite Quality Assistance supervisor:

Conducts client-to-team experience. Receives the technical knowledge and share it with the team.
Distributes the functional requirements document and works on a test plan.
Examines the test cases with the client team and provides a sign off.
Maintains consultations on the test data preparation phase.
Communicates time lines, progress, delays etc., from the team to the client and vice versa
Supplies directions on test execution.
Executes the smoke and sanity test on any deployed build and gives a go ahead for the team to continue testing.
Participates in the test execution
Conducts meetings on defect review with the concerned development and support teams.
Collects metrics.
Supports UAT.

However, some of the common complaints we hear in our software projects are:

Onsite resources say that offshore resources don’t know what they are doing and are not available when they need them.
Offshore teams complain that they are not getting the right inputs they need.

To avoid this:

Remember that onsite and offshore are two sides of a coin. Nobody is more and nobody is less. The two counterparts should coexist in harmony; otherwise this model will be eventually broken.
Make sure you cover at least one hour time of work between you both.
Contact each other often and mutually exchange information.
Have a list of what you need to do for one another and make sure you are working on the list and updating each other on the progress.
Be thoughtful about the time zone differences. Spend few minutes before work with the onsite supervisor so you know what they request from you.

Hope this article explained how this model works. BugHuntress can provide you with offshore team of software testers, as our managers have 12 years of experience in delivering outsourcing services.

Check out our related articles:

5 Tips on Effective Offshore QA Team Management

Are You Onshore, Offshore Or In House?

Outsourced Testing: Arguments For and Against

We Work With

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.

Full-Cycle Services

By Platform

By Type

Industries