Outsourcing quality assurance needs can be both financially and timely beneficial. Yet, sometimes outsourced QA can create perceived or real conflicts with internal Agile and Scrum efforts. Fortunately, many of these conflicts can be decreased or eliminated with the following QA best practices.

Identify Gaps Early

The goal of using a QA vendor is to fill in any testing gaps. Both the client and the vendor must work together to determine where major gaps exist and what steps need to be taken to fill them. If the two sides strive to cooperatively integrate, the client will see drastic improvements in output quality.

Establish a Communication Plan

Clients often work with vendor teams around the country – or possibly even the world — when outsourcing quality assurance. Teams may not even be in the same time zone! The greater the time zone difference, the harder it is to maintain communication. However, a reliable communication flow is key to the success of any project.  Therefore, when selecting an outsource vendor, look for a manageably small time zone difference and verify that a solid communication process is in place.

Create an Issue Plan

If a conflict arises between the client and the vendor, ensure that a plan is in place to resolve problems. To whom should the problem be escalated if it can’t get resolved between two teams? What’s the plan for resolving these conflicts? You can help eliminate delays by having these answers in place and making all teams aware of them.

Select an Internal Point of Contact

With an agile environment, changes take place on a nearly constant basis. An external team may not be able to keep up with all of these modifications quickly without a dedicated internal point of contact. Select an internal QA lead that helps communicate any amended needs to the vendor. The main purpose of this member will be to quickly handle any change requests and the overall change management process.

Conduct Reviews With Your Outsourced QA Team

Review the output of the vendor as the project progresses. Also, verify that deliverables are received and that testing is adequate and complete. The vendor should also provide regular reporting to the client. Create a reporting schedule ahead of time.

Knowing these outsourced QA best practices can help save your company headaches and eliminate time and money-wasting delays. Contact us to learn why you should choose iBeta as your outsourced QA team.