In general, quality assurance and testing are the two key processes of the digital product development lifecycle that should be managed with the utmost attention. Though both these processes share the same objective, quality assurance is important as it focuses on fulfilling predetermined quality standards. In simple terms, quality assurance (QA) is about optimizing the software to meet quality standards and performance requirements. By executing robust quality assurance procedures, vulnerabilities that compromise data security and software performance are easily identified and resolved at the earliest. This reduces the need for running extensive test scenarios to identify and troubleshoot errors, thereby accelerating the time-to-market value of software products.
However, delegating the responsibility of software quality assurance to in-house development teams can be challenging for both tech startups and enterprises. In startups, in-house development teams may not have adequate time and bandwidth to quality check software products meticulously as they work under tight deadlines. Similarly, teams in large-scale enterprises deal with multiple development projects, making it difficult for them to maintain consistent quality standards for every software product. To overcome these complexities, organizations should consider hiring dedicated offshore experts for the quality assurance process.
Quality Assurance Offshoring – A Strategic Approach to Ensure Software Excellence
Businesses looking to achieve greater software quality excellence should opt for offshoring the quality assurance process. By offshoring, organizations can hire software programmers, who are well-versed in manual and automated QA testing processes. With expertise in both types of QA processes, these programmers ensure that the software products meet quality standards consistently, even when testing requirements evolve. Moreover, by delegating QA responsibilities to offshore developers, enterprises reduce workload burden and the risk of burnout in the in-house development teams. When dedicated developers handle the monotonous and resource-intensive QA process, in-house professionals are free to focus on other technical initiatives and drive innovation.
Other key advantages of hiring offshore developers for quality assurance include:
- Improved Risk Management – Offshore developers effectively use continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines and testing tools for troubleshooting bugs/errors in the software. This reduces the risk of post-deployment issues that lead to major recalls, user discontent, and reputational damage.
- Continuous Monitoring and Collaboration – By leveraging specialized monitoring frameworks, offshore programmers consistently validate new code updates and bug fixes and ensure compliance with quality standards. This approach enables them to release software products quickly without compromising quality and reliability. Additionally, through detailed documentation and communication protocols, offshore developers compile reports related to QA updates and issue resolution. These reports give stakeholders an overview of software quality progress and milestones.
- Cost Savings – Offshore software programmers hired for quality assurance and testing typically work in remote environments with greater infrastructure support. This minimizes the need for enterprises to spend huge overheads related to office space, equipment, and tool utilities while ensuring high standards in the quality assurance process.
Best Quality Assurance Practices Followed by Offshore Programmers
1. Adopt Agile Methodology
Offshore developers embrace agile project management methodology to execute an iterative and incremental software quality assurance process. By leveraging agile frameworks, such as Scrum or Kanban, quality assurance can be integrated into every phase of the development cycle. Frameworks offer testing tools that enable developers to validate every software functionality instantly and make necessary code modifications to reduce errors/vulnerabilities before launch.
Moreover, agile frameworks offer opportunities for offshore QA engineers to perform periodical sprint reviews and discuss updates/challenges with in-house development teams. This facilitates a collaborative quality assurance process and drives product development efficiency.
2. Utilize CI/CD Pipelines
When organizations hire software developers for the QA process from an offshore firm, automating the testing process and fulfilling quality standards becomes easier. Dedicated software programmers use CI/CD servers like Jenkins and GitLab to build automated testing pipelines. With these pipelines, developers easily test every code source involved in a software development project and identify bugs quickly. This minimizes the need for manual testing and enables developers to focus more on devising and implementing debugging measures.
The intuitive version control module in CI/CD pipelines effectively monitors and records changes made to the software codebase. This recording functionality enables developers to perform root cause analysis of vulnerabilities and incorporate security mechanisms in software products, thereby reducing the risk of security breaches/attacks after deployment. Furthermore, by using CI/CD pipelines, developers are able to release software builds based on batch deployment methods. This batch approach allows developers to isolate and troubleshoot errors in specific code without impacting the whole product, reducing the scope of failures and inefficiencies.
3. Design Quality Metrics Dashboard
For real-time monitoring of software quality, offshore developers design and deploy quality metrics dashboards. These dashboards gather quality-related data from code repositories, project management systems, testing tools, and display metrics. Quality metrics offered by dashboards include code complexity, mean time to resolution (MTTR), code defect density, and others. By continuously tracking these metrics, developers identify code modules that require quality improvements and implement essential optimizations to meet predetermined standards.
Quality metrics dashboards enable offshore programmers to monitor code defect-related metrics, thereby identifying and resolving vulnerabilities before they proliferate. Effective code defect monitoring and troubleshooting minimizes the need for extensive software recalls and rework activities. Moreover, defect monitoring helps developers modify their QA strategies, prioritizing the areas of software that require the most attention and ensuring extensive test coverage.
Closing Thoughts
In essence, by hiring offshore software developers for QA, organizations can improve the effectiveness of the testing process and release robust software products. Apart from the above-mentioned practices, dedicated developers execute a range of techniques to maintain high standards in software quality assurance. However, to make the most of quality assurance offshoring, it is crucial to consider key points in mind.
When businesses hire offshore developers for quality assurance, determining quality requirements and the scope of testing before initiating the process is highly important. This foundational step offers clear objectives for developers and enables them to meet desired quality requirements. Similarly, setting up reliable communication and documentation protocols is crucial to keep the QA offshoring projects on track. Through communication channels, businesses can perform periodical check-ins of the QA process and address the issues of offshore developers. Besides, documentation of all QA processes and test cases acts as a reference for both offshore developers and in-house teams. This enables organizations to achieve software quality excellence by largely aligning QA testing efforts with business requirements and industry standards.
