Rarely is on-demand testing referred to as online software testing, a term most often referred to in the context of online training for software testing, or online software testing tools. With that understood, let’s look more closely at on-demand software testing in the context of offshore testing.

On-Demand Software Testing is the smart application of experienced offshore testing engineers at the right place and right time in your software development project.

Most On Demand Software projects are typically a week or two in duration – just enough to get you out of a bind. Brand new applications with a small development team will benefit from quickly offloading the ad-hoc and functional testing duties that seem to accumulate quickly in the rapid and early stages of a software application’s life. Rarely on-demand testing is referred to as online software testing.

Mature software applications benefit from a rapid response team that can quickly and effectively build and run or automate a regression test suite.Software applications with a large number of new features and defect fixes can benefit from a team of experienced offshore testing engineers to close and verify fixed defects and new features.

Software development practices have accelerated significantly in the past 10 years with a change in focus from well planned releases to customer and market driven features and releases.This has distinguished the problem of “lumpy development cycles” where previous software development processes valued smooth planning and resource balancing. On Demand Software Testing addresses the problems of needing trained and experienced Test Engineers available exactly when you need them and not a moment sooner.

Profile of a Software Testing Company

A software testing company, like TESTCo, is designed to provide on-demand software testing and longer term, software QA services. TESTCo is in the sub-category of offshore testing companies that specialize only in software and web application testing. Another clarification is necessary here. “Offshore testing” can refer to any product testing done by a third party outside one’s country. This includes hardware testing, usability testing, etc.

With that in mind, if you are responsible for the software development and quality in your organization, the best advice we can give is to consider only those companies specializing in software or web application testing. If they use only software test engineers for testing and assign QA managers to every project (as does TESTCo), that will give you a higher level of confidence and peace of mind.

The Shifting Sands of Offshore Testing

One last word about offshore testing;  the term “offshore” originated when IT and call center services began to be outsourced to India in the 1990’s. Today, if you’re a U.S. company, the term means the source of testing is anywhere in the world where talent exists. Most of TESTCo’s software test engineers and QA managers are lot closer to home than people expect.