Software still needs to be tested, even if you haven’t hired an offshore software testing service. So, what can be done? Learn what NOT To do when it comes to testing internally

• Have the engineers test their own work. This is expensive (software developers are usually paid more than testers), and only marginally effective because developers tend to make a LOT of assumptions about what needs to be tested in the code they’ve written. Lastly, they are much better at building something than breaking something – which is where great Software Test Engineers excel.
• Assign “other” people to test it. The “other” people are usually people within the company in customer service or marketing. This is less expensive (though we certainly work hard to ensure that offshore software testing isn’t cost-prohibitive), but it’s the least effective method because they aren’t trained testers who understand how/what to test and what to do when they find a defect.
• Have the end users test it. This approach appears to be the least expensive but is actually the most expensive. End users that will eventually use the software to accomplish their work often experience frustration and loss of confidence in the application when they are put in this position. In addition, productivity and other opportunities are lost when they are pulled away from their regular work to test software.
• Do nothing and hope for the best. You wouldn’t be reading this if you really thought this was an option – after all, that’s why you’re even considering offshore software testing.
• Automate it! This is the holy grail of software testing. It involves writing a program to test a program – a very complex process that requires up-front investment and is really only valuable when you have a LOT of tests to run, very frequently, and in a very short period of time. See how On Demand (versus strictly Offshore Software Testing) can help with software automation projects.  Learn if your Agile development is wasting money on automation by checking out our reports.  Testing in Agile can make life a lot easier.

But if none of these are options are ideal, especially if you find yourself reading this AFTER you’ve started a software project, you may think it’s too late to consider offshore software testing services.  But it’s not.  TESTCo can help get your software projects back on track faster than you thought possible!