INTRODUCTION

For the longest time, this question has been lurking around the identity & existence of an independent QA industry. Now we put all assumptions to rest in this candid interview session with the Thought Frameworks Head of QA Delivery, backed with years of hands-on expertise and experience, Sreevalli BS explaining why outsourcing QA might be your best choice for product success. Keep reading to find out more.

1. WHY OUTSOURCE QA?

Let’s start with the elephant in the room. Shall we?
From a product success point of view, oftentimes the developer team is self-handling in-house QA, right? Especially for startups, for investing intelligently in QA you need experts, roadmaps, structure, & full-time test managers.
Investing 40-50% off additional development investment in QA service vendors ensures that safe QC & QA protocols are followed. With no added headaches or additional responsibilities. The right managerial roles, standardized team process, additional responsibilities, and bringing value with the right pitch-ins always bring in an investment-controlled structure which is definitely not possible with a lack of expertise. So outsourcing QA is definitely a win-win situation all the way.

2. The need to check on a test teams’ credibility?

Obviously, the clear criterion here is transparency with deeper abilities and domain skills, while understanding knowledge expertise and owning the product’s success. We are passionate about owning the happiness and success of the client’s end product. Taking complete ownership and responsibility from the quality POV.
We have QA experts working with years of experience in product background areas who are well versed in domains and have the ability to pick up highly productive team members to collaborate on a project together.

3. Should we pre-evaluate the scope of the project, resources, and limitations?

There are 2 levels to it. Mapping the exact requirements, it’s definitely good to have a screening plan.
And for further confidence building, we have detailed calls with clients, we boast QA experts with on-demand market experience and a high profile background assessment. With every little detail on team members that possess that level of clarity to work on a project successfully.

4. Is checking in on transparency and communication important?

Very very important. About 50 percent of project failures are caused by communication gaps in my experience. Or the lack of it. It’s our responsibility as an independent QA team to structure well-defined transparency plans in the kickoff meetings itself, followed up by daily communication channels, with chatting tools like SLACK, and MS teams for direct integration with developers and the project task force.

5. Setting up strong KPIs before collaborating. Do we need an improvement tracker? Include discussing the following KPIsLike Active Defects Logged. Automated Tests Threshold Tests Executed – both manual & automated?

Definitely, KPIs or key performance indicators and metrics are needed for daily status, report sharing, defining the scope of testing tasks, and assessing client requirements, like what to deliver and when.
We need to map our performance, progress, delivery, and value additions to ensure our client’s overall satisfaction.

6. What kinds of testing automation tools and modalities are used?

Involves the expertise and support ability to be able to use the right tool with discretion, the right POCs ( Proof of concept guides), and the capabilities to take any automation tool like selenium/Cypress and invest in the best available automation according to the project requirements. We do possess that expectation on the decision-making part of the client to suggest what’s best needed for their product roadmap.

7. The flexibility of service engagement models?

Quite important. We’re able to design different models to suit any development team’s expectations. For example, if they lack test engineers, we as an independent testing organization should support that requirement, like leasing our expert testers for an allotted project period. The same goes for specialization projects and also for end-to-end testing services that are allotted in a specific time period. We do have the feasibility and options to pick the right team size suiting the client’s needs and the project size.

8. The adaptability of working hours (from the QA Team side)

Is highly needed, it’s a second nature of our job roles. Working across different time zones needs to get integrated by additional overlapping hours. We demonstrate that flexibility matches up to the product team’s expectations with capable mature team members, who have years of work experience, responsibility & consistency.

9. Key SLAs (Reporting & project management timelines,(Test case efficiency, defect reporting quality, traceability, test plan quality, etc.), Domain knowledge, process compliance)?

A good STLC, testing life cycle, standardized tools, and the testing quality track requirements. Need traceability and well-planned estimation for releases. A good communication protocol and point of contact with well-defined roles and responsibilities. We collect all critical metrics, test case repository reports, and repository metrics for each release with effort variation and defect density, and so on.

10. Scalability metrics?

Definitely yes, we need an estimation for the current scope of the project with the ability to support all types of services needed down the line also while testing new features as and when they’re implemented and adding value. Making the client’s needs scalable, helps build an overall future of potential business growth and expansion.

11. What if there’s a change in management & how’s your adaptability?

We clear our checklists and ensure we’re well introduced and the progress showcases are done with the processes followed. We make sure to initiate stable communication and integrate the same standards with the newer management.

12. Communication & how to bridge the gap? Testers & developers.

In most cases obviously, the tester’s work is remote. Hence clear communication channels are imperative, with defined protocols, a proactive daily status report puts forth plans and ideas clearly building the capability of coordination with the right stakeholders to answer the most important questions.
Communication channels and protocols are very strategic when it comes to a product’s success.

13. Customer Relationship management skill? How can we help the most?

There is a hierarchy and levels to it.

The team leads are very proactive with clear communication channels across the board. There is no gap. With converging, calls on weekly basis status and reports roadmaps are set up for next week. We can’t afford to skip managerial calls every week or month, bridging corrections across multiple layers of connection with the right stakeholders.

14. Intellectual property protection (I P) & the importance of data security?

Very critical. Assuring trust while given sensitive data accessibility, requirements, environments, and documentation access is very important. We have the highest possible security standards and are ethical to handle sensitive information for any vendor for intellectual property protection.

It hallmarks our credibility as a successful independent QA service provider over the years.

15. Quality Deliverable team(QA Manager, QA Lead and Test Engineers) and their clocking timelines?

At times we extend and work extra hours crossing our expected timelines. Although we kickstart a project with the right workhour estimation, that being said we don’t hesitate to put in that extra effort or walk that extra mile (like working on holidays and weekends) to ensure that the client’s product quality is taken care of as promised.

16. Our unique management style & work ethic?

Very proactive. We have strategies and standards that are defined and we stick to our processes and follow the development team’s effort directions as well. We make sure the end product is delivered on the promised timelines and are truly committed to the client’s unique product needs. We also boast the same enthusiasm and energy levels right from the kickoff stages till the project ends and are uniquely passionate when it comes to QA. All for the sake of following the
standardized QA methods and best practices to manage testing models, with well-defined roles and frameworks making a project foolproof.

17. Quick responsiveness. How fast we really are?

We are proactive and connect with developers via daily status reports. And we are very aggressive (in a passionately positive way) when clocking our deliveries and fulfilling all requirements, especially from the QA side of things.

18. Documentation Standards & kinds of verification or certification techniques deployed?

We map requirements with documentation, design test cases, the product architecture, roadmaps, listing in the tools and technologies, and the extended testing service requirements as well. It’s all well-planned and documented for ease of functioning.

19. Domain Experts? Can we handle niches?

Yes being a service-based organization. It’s important staying relevant in the industry, we believe in adaptive testing including learning more about exploring newer domains like blockchain, cryptocurrency, ML, cloud, and AI. With the rapid market changes coming in, staying relevant is important and imperative. And we involve all team members in our internal RnD sessions to understand different domains & picking up niche domain-specific products.

20. ROI savings with competitive pricing?

Easily over 50-60 percent savings rather than having their own in-house team, with a guaranteed better QA job done.
Accuracy and time management involve just paying for the work done.
As only the relevant work hours are charged for & that’s cost-saving, while improving the overall quality of the outcome, and it’s really feasible looking at pricing POV. So it’s suggested to spend aptly and be competitive enough to guarantee the quality of work by hiring an independent QA for unfailing project success always.

About Thought Frameworks

Thought Frameworks is a U.S.-based QA testing organization that’s been leading in business since 2009, armed with the ultimate solutions for all your software OA testing challenges. We have headquarters both in California, USA, and a fully functional well equipped QA Test Lab in Bengaluru-India, delivering premium QA and QC services endlessly across different domains. An ISTQB Partnered Company, our superhuman test team heroes have delivered numerous QA and QC projects across the globe. Powered by our deep dive bug hunting process helps your software in clocking release cycles on time while delivering excelling quality and functionality.