Software testing prevents 80% of unplanned downtime

Market research studies show that 40% of unplanned application downtime is caused by application failures or “bugs”; 40% by application errors  and only 20% by hardware, environmental factors or disasters. Therefore, 80% of unplanned downtime can be alleviated by improvement of IT processes, pre-deployment testing and complete operations training.

But not all organizations have the “know-how” or resources to perform the software testing process. Software testing is crucial, but it is certainly not the core activity of most organizations that need it.

Outsourcing this process will allow a company to focus on it's core activities while software testing experts can handle the work proficiently, ensuring quality results. The company will save time and money on a process that would otherwise be too tedious and exhausting if performed internal.

There is a vital phase of any software development project - software testing. The risks of launching a product that is not yet fully prepared are greater now than ever before because of the change in expectations and demands of the end users.

Research studies and surveys proved a cost of finding and fixing defects that accounts for nearly 50% of the cost for all software development projects. The same studies reveal that offshore software testing can save companies up to 75% over in-house costs, improve quality and be a less risky method to develop mature offshore outsourcing skills.

Take it step by step

An the first step is to decide if it actually makes sense to outsource software testing.

You've got to begin by carefully analyzing your needs as they relate to this critical phase of software development. Software testing means many things to many people. One of the main objective of software testing is to ensure the software functions as specified before going into production. But it also means making sure the software is intuitive and easy to use.

Before you make the decision to outsource software testing, it's important to clarify what you want from the outsourcing company. As their popularity grows, so do the services these companies provide. Many also provide software design services. Or, they will plan, but not implement a software testing process for your organization. And they will even send individuals to your site to take care of integrating the software testing tools you purchase with your hardware.

What you gain?

Access to a skilled team of testers

Probably the most important reason why companies decide to outsource software testing is to eliminate the learning curve.

Reduce expenses with resources

Following the previously mentioned reason, it’s also important to say that software testing providers are not only specialists in testing tools but, obviously, they already own it. And these tools are pretty expensive. So the fact that you won’t have to buy them any more is already a significant cost saver.

An objective approach

Independent testing denotes the test design and implementation most appropriately performed by someone who is autonomous from the team of developers. This means that the results will be impartial and reflect an objective view of product’s capabilities.

Better software quality

Everyone quotes this reason. But how can you measure this? Well, increased quality is supported by:

•  Organization independence, which ensures focus on quality, correctness and conformance to requirements without schedule or budget overruns
•  Technical and process independence which is achieved through mature processes, specialized resources and tools for testing the application
•  Central repository of testing best practices such as mechanisms to identify defects in early release cycles and approaches for reducing test case development effort

Read more on the benefits of software testing.

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