B.B. King’s signature song, “The Thrill is Gone,” sums up the feeling many engineering managers have about their software QA outsourcing company after having worked together for a period of time. The software testing company has been doing the job, meeting deadlines, but it’s just not the same. Something is missing, or is it you? It’s not you.

Familiarity Breeds Contempt or Why I Stopped Loving What You Do for Me

We have all experienced the situation where you just wake up one day and decide that what you’ve been doing in the recent past just isn’t cutting it anymore. What used to be new, shiny and valuable has slowly turned into old, tarnished and low value. Why?

In the world of software testing, we believe this happens because “value” is not specifically pursued as a prime goal. The need for software testing services seldom just goes away or becomes radically simpler such that fewer people are required. The software testing and development workload is relatively constant and slowly increasing over time with almost any growing software product company.

What does change with time are the environment and goals. The environment (or economy or marketplace) changes and that usually forces a change in a software company’s goals. The changed goals are usually communicated to the software development team but not always – and even then, seldom communicated to the outsourced software testing team. So, the development team changes focus and direction and the outsourced software testing team just tried to understand as best as they can and keep up running more tests.

We see this happen all the time!

Considering your first partnership with a software QA outsourcing company?
Here’s a post that will be helpful.

What is Value for Software QA Outsourcing?

Value can be thought of as the benefits received divided by the cost paid. This isn’t exact math but you clearly know when you’ve received much more than you’ve paid and you definitely know when you’ve paid too much for what you’ve received. Yes, it’s a perception but it is a very important one to establish and then maintain.

The Cost of this Sneaky Problem

Here’s what happens when your value ratio begins to decline.

• You get fewer references and referrals because your clients are not impressed enough to say how much they like what you do
• Your customer satisfaction scores decline but the feedback on why is very sparse.
• It becomes very hard to figure out how to make your clients truly happy with your services.
• Your employees become frustrated and unappreciated – causing more problems with hiring a retaining great talent.
• Your revenue begins to decline and you can’t figure out why.

How We Build Value at TESTCo

At TESTCo, we are constantly pursuing value with every customer. We conduct an ongoing Value Proposition System that insures that our clients are always receiving the benefits that are most important to them at that time. We also acknowledge that goals and value change over time so we regularly update each client’s Value Proposition.

We start by working with our clients to understand the following:

• Jobs & Tasks you want us to perform
• Pains you want to avoid
• Gains you want to achieve

We take that information and build goals, strategies and plans that spell out the tactical work we need to do to keep your software moving forward and achieve your strategic goals. We also build a Value Proposition Strategy and Plan so that our “normal” Jobs & Tasks work also accommodates the Pains and Gains you’ve told us are important so that we can help you achieve your goals.

We measure our Value Proposition Plan weekly and adjust it monthly based on feedback from our clients.  When we have achieved your goals, we start the process again looking for more value that we can create for you.

At TESTCo, we believe in honoring promises and one of those promises is to deliver Real Value Every Day. The TESTCo difference is that we know the value you want because we took the time to ask and then do something about it.

If you aren’t happy with the value you currently receive from your  partner for outsource software testing, then contact us and speak with our client who have trusted us for years.