In case the company does not work in the technology sector, chances are the idea of hiring a full-time QA department simply won’t fit: when the app hits the market, technical support for it won’t require as many people as during the development phase. Even if a company owner takes the idea of forming a full-time testing squad for a few months into consideration, there are still a lot of pitfalls. Workspace, costly equipment, legal arrangements, taxes, recruiting, onboarding, social benefits for employees ― all this becomes the top manager’s headache. As opposed to offshore software testing services, where literally everything related to the process from electricity bills to HR management is included in the price. To offshore software QA, all you have to do is provide the information about your product, negotiate the testing strategy, sign the necessary documentation (which is standardized at large vendors), and ― bam! ― your first bug report is already there, waiting to be reviewed.
Access to industry-specific background
Just a few years ago, software testing was considered nothing else than a set of actions aimed at spotting code bugs. As the quality standards for programming products grew, so did the strategic importance of software quality assurance. Over time, testing penetrated literally every single stage of a software development life cycle: it now starts with prototype and concept testing and gets followed by UI/UX analysis, MVP testing, pre-release QA, installation testing, and ongoing technical support after the launch.
High-level quality assurance aiming at discovering business-threatening issues before they make it to the end product requires industry-specific expertise and niche background in teams. The thing is, different industries have completely different requirements for the software systems, which are mostly connected to functionality expected from a program, target audience, the use of specific testing tools, and even laws and regulations in some cases.
As an example, let’s look at two CRM systems, one to manage sales and marketing operations of an online store and another one for a healthcare establishment. Despite the fact both products are called CRM systems, they have different essences. Of course, each system is expected to work well, be user-friendly and responsive, keep all the in-house processes in order, etc. But for a marketing manager and a doctor or nurse adjectives like “user-friendly” and “responsive” do not mean the same. This has to be correspondingly reflected in the approach to quality assurance.