"We might spend much more time on outsourcing vendor selection," according to recent
surveys, that is an opinion of 7 out of 10 executives whose companies are involved in
outsourcing.
The recommendations given below reflect BugHuntress 7-year experience in the IT
outsourcing market. Of course, they are not a cure for all problems
and require adaptation to your situation. Nevertheless, we will be glad if they
help you to avoid some mistakes in a vendor selection.
A company for which software testing services are the only source of income has to be
more effective and more responsible than IT vendors of the "all-in-one" type (e.g.,
software development services + testing + applications / IT infrastructure maintenance
+ etc.). Best-of-breed specialized professionals are equipped better, trained better
and, as a rule, their results are better.
Also, a typical mistake is to outsource both software development and its testing to
one and the same vendor (more in Quality assured software development outsourcing).
Companies with a proven track record, goodwill in the outsourcing market and personnel
seasoned in software testing are preferable.
Companies aimed at long-term partnership are the best choice because their goal is
to do their best, uphold their reputation and, as a result, add real value to the
customer's business rather than get a one-time project at any price. So, are there
long-term projects in vendor's portfolio? Can the vendor provide contacts to speak
with such customers?
Hint: Partnership-oriented testing company usually realizes one-time
(single-task) projects too. In other words, a long-term project isn't a mandatory
requirement of service rendering.
It is a very important aspect in today's fast-paced and dynamically changing
business environment.
Does a potential vendor allow pilot projects? Is team resizing or technology change
possible during the project? And so on.
Can the vendor provide a level of informational security necessary and sufficient for you?
Regular communication is extremely important for the project success especially at the initial
stage of cooperation. How can the vendor's specialists communicate with your team?
Is there high-bandwidth Internet, IMs, VoIP, phones? Are acceptable visits to each other's
sites, trainings? Is there a dedicated manager to communicate with and support your company?
Business domains, industries, technologies in which the vendor is mostly proficient
and whether this experience meets your testing needs. In some cases this criterion isn't
the most crucial one. Nevertheless, usually the deeper the vendor understands the application
and environment in which it is used the better testing results.
A testing company delivers you a package of documentation: test plan, test cases,
test scripts, test reports, test statistics, and recommendations as
for software quality improvement. What documentation templates are used by the vendor?
Which of the testing documentation standards are they based on? What tools can be
used for documentation preparation and bug reporting? Can you have online
access to them too?
Hardware: PCs, mobile/wireless devices, network equipment, etc. Software:
operating systems, drivers, browsers, e-mail agents, etc. Testing tools:
automated testing tools, bug trackers, metrics tools, and so on.
Does the vendor have infrastructure necessary and sufficient for comprehensive testing
of your software product?
Last but not least:
ensure that vendor's management style is compatible with yours. Note: not only formally
compatible with ISO or CMMI standards but first of all consistent with YOUR company processes
and practice.
The aspiration of itself to certification (widespread in countries with process-oriented
cultures like India and less spread in result-oriented countries like the USA or
Ukraine) is not 100% guarantee of successful cooperation. For example, the vendor is
CMMI level 5 certified, your company is not, and, as a result, you speak different
managerial languages what can be a crucial point.
In fact, established ISO(CMMI)-like style of management, proper commitment to your
project, responsibility, technical proficiency, striving to discuss problems timely and resolve
them in a frank and mutually acceptable manner, regular communication and reporting
usually provide a good basis for the testing project success
(see also Item 3).
Some more recommendations see in the section
Outsourced software testing project - How it can work in practice.
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How to choose a software testing services vendor
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