Software development cycles vary throughout the year. During peak times, every staff member – and potentially more – is needed to ensure that the product is finished on time, within budget and in working order. During slow times, however, many development and QA resources may be under-utilized, wasting precious budget and potentially making good employees disgruntled.

To save money, many businesses will consider using outside resources. Businesses have two main options for external solutions: hiring a temp agency/contractor or outsourcing QA needs to a software testing company.

How to Know When You Need Additional QA Resources

You probably don’t need outside resources for every project. Generally, businesses need more resources when:

• They’re on extremely tight deadlines and are afraid that they may not meet them.
• The current project needs more resources than are currently available in-house.
• They don’t have resources with the skills needed to do the testing.
• The company doesn’t have the time or capital to hire additional in-house resources.

If your business falls into any of these categories, it’s time to think about external solutions.

Temp Agency/Contractor Option

When businesses need additional resources, they often turn to temp agencies and contractors to fill the need. If the goal is to eventually hire a temporary worker, then this can be a good choice. If the purpose is simply to get help on a single project or set of projects, then this could be troublesome. When you hire a temp worker or contractor, you never know the quality of the resource until you work with the person for a while. Many people look good on paper and may say the right things during the interview, but that doesn’t mean that they actually can effectively do the work.

Software Testing Company

The other option is to hire a software testing company. Software testing companies offer advanced expertise in the field, and they generally offer a wide range of on-demand software testing. They also provide outside viewpoints – having the same team do both the development and QA functions can lead to lost objectivity. Plus, these companies can help speed up the production time of a project.

Rather than hiring a temp agency or bringing on more staff, a software testing company like iBeta’s QA is a great way to beef up resources without risking quality or exceeding a budget. A few of the benefits of our model include:

• Skilled and experienced resources
• A consistent pool of resources available when you need testing
• The same point of contact to ensure consistency with your teams and processes
• Highly cost effective

Contact us to learn more ways our software quality assurance services can help your team — and your amazing software — hit the ground running.

How do you know when you need additional resources to launch a software application? Tell us in the comment section below.