This piece will delve into every aspect of Crowdsourced Testing and QA outsourcing. It serves as a vital resource for companies that wish to delegate their testing tasks through Crowdsource and for testers interested in earning extra revenue through a career in Crowdsourced Software testing.
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Having your expertise and experience recognized is a moment of pride for any career individual. Acquiring new testing tool competencies enriches one’s knowledge, experience, and earnings. Nevertheless, every tester understands that inventive thinking is what pays off the most.
Crowdsourced Software Testing constitutes a sort of testing wherein testers receive compensation for their testing abilities.
In essence, Crowdsourced Testing, also known as Crowd Testing or Crowd Sourcing, is an ingenious method of incorporating an assembly of authentic users/testers into software testing amidst real-world circumstances.
In this situation, “Crowd” refers to a group of individuals worldwide, or a chosen few, based on their profile, professional history, academic qualification, devices they can operate, and other factors.
Points Covered:
- What is Crowdsourced or Crowd testing?
- Crowd Sourcing vs. Outsourced Testing/QA Outsourcing
- Crowdsource Testing: How does it work?
- 5 Phases Process
- Benefits and Limitation
- Where is Crowd Sourcing more beneficial?
- Crowdsourcing and Beta Testing
- How to Choose the Best Crowd Sourcing Companies?
- How to Avoid Failures in Crowdsource testing
- Crowd Sourcing as a Career Option
- Conclusion
What is Crowdsourced or Crowd testing?
Crowd testing has become increasingly significant in recent years as it not only offers feedback and genuine insight into the quality of products but also rewards testers for their contributions. With perks such as flexible payment, convenient timing, location of work, and a diverse range of testing alternatives for various applications, Crowd Testing has turned into an appealing option for a side gig.
In this era, easy internet access and social media awareness have greatly helped individuals utilize their technical expertise, perceptions, combination of scenarios, and experiences towards improving quality.
In several instances, a “Crowdsourced tester” turns out to be a more realistic tester as compared to an experienced tester.
Public initial perception about Crowd Sourcing versus its actual implication:
Crowd Testing is often misconstrued as solely amassing a crew of people to test a plethora of applications based on their skill set and reimbursing them for every valid bug/defect reported. While this is one aspect of Crowdsourced Software Testing, other facets like:
- Engaging appropriate and competent testers apt for a particular task within the organization
- Creating a crowd of end users or testers overtime based on their performance, who can offer feedback on the distinct phases of product development
- Collaborating with different firms and academical institutions to exploit domain expertise and reach end users.
Crowd Sourcing vs. Outsourced Testing/QA Outsourcing
The idea “More heads are better than one” captures the essence of Crowdsourcing effectively. It leverages the conjoined notions, skills, and contribution of individuals from diverse backgrounds.
Crowd Sourcing bridges the collective endeavor of a crowd of people operating from various workplaces, primarily through online procedures, culminating in significant outcomes. Testers partaking in Crowd Sourcing are remunerated only when their task is completed or the bugs they find are validated.
A classic example of successful Crowd Sourcing is the extensively detailed encyclopedia, Wikipedia, created by writers and editors from the crowd.
Conversely, QA Outsourcing integrates the collective effort of testers working in a shared workplace under the same conditions. In contrast to Crowd Software Testing, testers in QA Outsourcing receive payment regardless of their output in terms of bugs found or validated.
The fundamental differences between Crowd Sourcing and Outsourcing can be summarized as follows:
- In Crowd Sourcing, tasks get distributed among a suitable crowd, and payment is based on the quality delivered. Conversely, in QA Outsourcing, testers are paid regardless of their output.
- Crowd Sourcing incorporates a diverse group of individuals from various backgrounds, whereas QA Outsourcing integrates testers working in the same workplace under similar conditions.
Crowdsource Testing: How does it work?
Crowdsourced Testing is a method of software testing where “Skill” gets classified as a “Service”. Within a Crowdsourced Testing company, a competent project manager oversees the entire testing process.
The client is required to provide all the necessary requirements for the testing project, which includes device configurations and the necessary skill set of testers suitable for the project. Testers develop their profile, offering all the required information about their expertise, skill set, device availability, background, qualifications, etc. Some companies also execute trial tests or evaluations to assess the suitability of testers for a particular project.
After assigning a project to suitable testers, they receive comprehensive instructions, test plans, scripts, etc. Testers document their observations, findings, and defects while executing the given tasks and get rewarded with incentives based on the quality of their output. Some Crowdsource companies also utilize rating systems that determine the quality of the job delivered. Discussions and forums are available for dealing with related issues and concerns.
5 Phases Process:
Crowd Sourcing is a 5-phase process, as displayed in the diagram below:
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Benefits and Limitation:
Let us explore the advantages and limitations of Crowdsourced Testing.
The benefits of Crowdsourced Testing include:
- Cost-effectiveness: Crowdsourcing permits tasks to be divided among a suitable crowd, and testers are compensated for the quality delivered. Payment is directly connected to output, unlike fixed salaries in conventional companies.
- Affordability: Hiring engineers and specialists can be costly, but Crowdsourcing curtails expenses by involving a crowd eager to perform tasks.
- Localization: Crowdsourcing testing incorporates ideas and inputs from a diverse group of people, which is beneficial for testing localization-based projects.
- Availability of resources: Different software requires different specifications and resources. Crowdsourcing provides access to a diverse pool of testers with varied knowledge and resources.
- Speed: With the availability of multiple testers concurrently, Crowdsourced Testing enables faster execution and superior results.
The limitations of Crowdsourced Testing include:
- Confidentiality: Sharing task outputs online could risk disclosing critical project data. While this might not be a concern for many projects, confidentiality is a significant factor for some.
- Trivial bugs: Testers are paid based on the number of defects reported, which might result in the discovery of numerous low/minor or trivial bugs while overlooking critical/high severity bugs.
- Monitoring testing efforts: Managing testers in different locations and time zones can be challenging for Crowdsourced Testing companies.
- Communication: Effective communication is crucial for online jobs, and swift responsiveness could be an issue due to the availability of testers in different time zones.
Crowdsourced Testing ensures all testing areas are covered, enabling a “test in all” approach. It complements traditional testing methods and can be particularly efficient in the early phases of testing.
Where is Crowd Sourcing more beneficial?
Crowd Sourcing proves to be especially useful in the following situations:
- Load Testing application servers: Multiple testers simultaneously hitting the application can provide worthwhile knowledge about the application’s behavior under substantial load.
- Geographical weather conditions: Crowd testers in diverse locations can assess mobile devices’ performance under various climatic conditions or other factors like mountains or building basements.
- Distinguishing browser/device specific issues: A diverse crowd testing a specific application could unveil browser or device-specific issues that might be missed in traditional testing.
- Network issues: Crowdsourced Testing can help determine an application’s functionality under varying network conditions like cellular mode, flight mode, or Wi-Fi.
- Testing with unusual equipment: Some applications necessitate testing on rare equipment that is not readily accessible. Crowdsourced Testing can simplify this process.
- Usability issues: Usability testing concentrates on user-centric points that might not be evident in functionality testing. Crowdsourcing incorporates multiple live users and can be effective for usability testing.
Crowdsourcing and Beta Testing
Crowdsourced Testing is often associated with Beta Testing.
Beta testing signifies the last round of software testing before its production release. It allows authentic users, besides the development team, to test the application and offer feedback. Beta testing provides the final opportunity to implement improvements and rectify any remaining issues.
Crowdsourcing has become the prime choice for developers to run beta tests on their latest applications.
Examples of beta testing on live applications include:
- Android Play Store: Numerous applications offer beta versions on the Google Play Store, allowing users to test the app and deliver feedback before the official release.
- Wikipedia: The beta version of the Wikipedia app was initially released to the crowd through an app store. Users were invited to test the beta version and report their observations and defects.
- Microsoft Office: Microsoft launched a beta version of Office 2010 prior to the final release. Approximately 9 million people downloaded and tested the beta version, providing invaluable feedback for improvement.
Beta testing proves particularly useful for user-centric applications, enabling companies to enhance their final product.
How to Choose the Best Crowd Sourcing Companies?
When considering a Crowdsourcing company, one should assess various criteria:
- Experience: Experienced Crowdsourcing companies demand less maintenance and possess relevant experience from past projects.
- Capability: A company’s global reach, experience in skill delivery, security measures, and minimum functionality required should be considered.
- Scale: Mid-scale firms often concentrate on small projects such as mobile applications and websites, while large-scale companies handle enterprise applications and multiple projects.
- Financial stability: Choose a financially stable Crowdsourcing firm to ensure the long-term success of the project.
- Direct engagement: Avoid firms that merely act as brokers between clients and testers as they may not provide the quality control and tracking necessary for successful testing projects.
- Terms and conditions: Analyze the company’s pricing structure, security measures, confidentiality policies, delivery methodologies, compensation structure, and risk management.
Some reputable Crowdsourcing companies comprise Digivante, uTest.com, usertesting.com, mob4hire.com, 99tests.com, applause.com, crowdsourcedtesting.com, mycrowd.com, mogotest.com, usabilityhub.com, passbrains.com, oDesk.com, feedbackarmy.com, pay4bugs.com, and bugfinders.com.
How to Avoid Failures in Crowdsource testing
To deter failure in Crowdsourced testing, remember the following points:
- Be clear in your expectations and provide comprehensive instructions to testers.
- Create standardized forms to streamline the testing process.
- Ensure clear communication to prevent any misunderstandings or gaps.
- Prepare self-explanatory FAQs to reduce questioning via email.
- Engage suitable testers and ensure their work meets the required quality standards to create trust.
- Design projects that are interactive and challenging, and reward testers to maintain their interest and trust.
Crowd Sourcing as a Career Option
Several testers are considering pursuing a career in Crowdsourced testing. For success in this field, bear the following advice in mind:
- Select a reputable company that offers flexibility and a variety of options.
- Register with multiple Crowdsourcing companies to improve your chances of finding suitable testing assignments.
- Being passionate about your work is essential, not just the financial gain as a Crowdsourced tester.
- Routinely update and broaden your skills to increase your chances of attaining testing assignments.
- Avoid taking on too many projects simultaneously to ensure you deliver optimum results.
- Participate in Crowdsourcing discussions, read articles, and attend conferences to bolster your career and build confidence.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Crowdsourced Testing is a reliable, cost-friendly, and swift method to guarantee product quality and mitigate bugs. It involves harnessing capable users, consultants, and professionals in testing diverse applications under actual conditions.
Testing applications with real users and engaging a diverse crowd affords the best means of creating successful software.
Crowdsourced Testing can proficiently identify UI and configuration-based defects before the full-scale release of an application. It supplements an organization’s testing team but should not be considered a substitute.
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