by Ran Rachlin, co-founder & CEO of Ubertesters
In today’s dynamic technological age, businesses face increasing pressure to deliver high-quality software quickly while keeping costs under control. Traditional quality assurance (QA) methods, with their reliance on in-house testers and lab environments, can be time-consuming and expensive.
This is where crowd-testing has emerged as a cost-effective, agile, and scalable solution for companies looking to optimize their software testing processes and complement their in-house teams.
The Rise of Crowd Testing
So, what exactly is crowd-testing?
Crowd-testing leverages a diverse group of real digital experts from varying backgrounds and locations, with different devices, operating systems, and environments, to test your software. This approach provides a wide range of perspectives and feedback, helping to identify bugs and issues, as well as getting valuable user feedback, that might be missed by an in-house team.
Unlike traditional testing models, crowd-testing offers a flexible, pay-as-you-go approach.
You only pay for the time and resources you use, which can lead to substantial cost savings.
Imagine having access to a global pool of certified testers who can work around the clock to ensure continuous feedback and faster issue resolution – that’s the power of crowd-testing!
Let’s break down the benefits:
Scalability and Flexibility.
Whether you’re launching a small app or a major software update, crowd-testing scales to your needs. You can quickly scale up the number of testers for major releases or scale down for smaller updates, giving you the flexibility to adapt to changing project demands.
Global Testing Reach.
With crowd-testing, you can tap into a diverse pool of testers worldwide. This diversity minimizes the need for maintaining an in-house team spread across various geographic locations, in different markets and languages without the need for extensive travel or localization which can be costly.
Improved test coverage and quality.
Crowd-testing can offer a broader range of devices, operating systems, and network configurations for testing, resulting in better test coverage and higher-quality feedback. It also saves on the need to purchase and maintain these devices in-house, reducing costs while still delivering comprehensive testing.
Faster Test Cycles.
Faster testing cycles with crowd testing translate to quicker time-to-market. This agility can lead to a competitive edge and cost savings by capturing market opportunities sooner, allowing faster product releases and potentially reducing development costs.
Real-world testing environments.
Crowd testers can provide feedback on your product’s performance in real-world scenarios, and in your own specific target market, such as different network conditions, device types, and user behaviors. This can help you identify and address issues that may not be apparent in controlled in-house testing environments.
Managed Service with a Dedicated Project Manager.
Crowd-testing is a managed service, with a dedicated project manager assigned to oversee the entire test process, ensuring smooth execution and high-quality results without adding to your internal workload.
Mitigation of Research Bias.
Crowd-testing reduces research bias by involving a large and diverse group of testers, offering more objective and unbiased insights into your product’s performance.
Cost-Cutting Benefits of Crowd Testing for Mobile Apps And Web
To reduce testing costs, crowd solutions seem perfect. Here are some examples of hidden cost savings with crowd-testing
Reduced Time to Market.
Faster testing cycles lead to quicker product launches, saving on development time, reduced overall project costs, and lost revenue opportunities.
Improved Quality & Reduced Rework.
Crowd testing uncovers a wider range of bugs, reducing costly post-release fixes.
Enhanced User Experience.
Crowd-testing enhances conversion rates and customer retention by identifying and fixing bugs before launch, ensuring a smoother user experience. This leads to higher satisfaction, making users more likely to convert and stay loyal to the product. A well-tested, reliable product reduces frustration and builds trust, encouraging repeat engagement.
Avoiding Delay Costs and Reputation Damage.
Delayed releases can be costly, not only in terms of additional development and marketing expenses but also due to missed revenue opportunities. Launching a product with significant bugs can harm your company’s reputation, resulting in customer loss and costly damage control efforts.
Savings on In-House QA Management.
Our dedicated project manager becomes an integral part of your team, bringing specialized expertise to enhance your testing process and complement your in-house efforts, ultimately optimizing costs and efficiency.
Tips for effectively incorporating crowd testing into your QA strategy
Incorporating crowd-testing into your QA strategy can significantly enhance the testing process by leveraging diverse perspectives, real-world environments, and a wide range of devices.
Here are some tips for effectively integrating crowd-testing:
1. Define Clear Objectives.
- Set specific goals: Identify what you want to achieve with crowd testing, such as discovering usability issues, performance bottlenecks, or compatibility problems across devices.
- Scope clarity: Clearly define what aspects of the software should be tested, including functional, exploratory, and usability testing, so testers can focus their efforts accordingly.
2. Choose the Right Crowd Testing Platform.
- Evaluate platform capabilities: Look for platforms that provide a large, diverse vetted tester base, detailed reporting, and integrations with your existing QA tools and bug-reporting platform.
- Consider location and demographics: Choose testers who reflect your target user base to get more relevant and practical feedback.
3. Develop Detailed Test Plans.
- Clear instructions: Provide testers with precise guidelines about what to test and how to report issues. Use structured test cases when necessary, but allow for exploratory testing to uncover unexpected issues.
- Real-world scenarios: Design test cases that reflect actual user behaviors, covering typical usage scenarios as well as edge cases.
4. Integrate Crowd Testing into Your Continuous Integration (CI) Pipeline.
- Ongoing testing: Incorporate crowd testing as part of your CI pipeline to ensure continuous feedback as your product evolves. This can help catch issues early in the development process and improve overall software quality.
- Automated integration: Integrate the results from crowd-testing with your existing bug tracking and project management tools for seamless handling of test reports and defects.
5. Emphasize Communication and Feedback Loops.
- Clear communication: Ensure open lines of communication between internal QA teams, developers, and crowd testers. Provide feedback to testers to ensure that they understand expectations and can improve the quality of their testing.
- Regular updates: Keep testers informed about updates, test cycles, and changes in the application so that they are testing the latest version.
6. Analyze and Prioritize Feedback.
- Triage bugs effectively: Not all issues reported by crowd testers will be critical. Create a prioritization system to sort and address issues based on their severity, frequency, and impact on users.
- Focus on patterns: Look for patterns in the feedback. Multiple testers reporting the same issue likely indicates a high-priority bug that needs immediate attention.
7. Budget Wisely.
- Cost management: Crowd testing can be more cost-effective than hiring full-time testers, but costs can quickly add up if not managed carefully. Balance the number of testers, the testing duration, and the types of tests to maximize efficiency.
- Look for Flexible Pricing Options: find a provider who offers a variety of pricing models that allow you to scale your testing efforts based on your specific needs. Whether it’s a small project or ongoing testing cycles, you only pay for what you need—helping you avoid unnecessary expenses.
8. Combine with In-House Testing.
- Complement internal efforts: Use crowd testing to supplement in-house QA by focusing on areas that require diverse testing environments or user perspectives while keeping critical and complex testing tasks in-house.
- Fill gaps: Crowd testing is excellent for exploratory testing and real-world feedback, while in-house testing can focus on deeper, more technical tests like unit testing, regression, or security testing.
Final Thoughts
Crowd testing isn’t just about cutting costs — it’s about gaining a competitive edge through real-world feedback from a diverse pool of users. The insights you receive go beyond what’s possible with in-house teams, allowing you to identify critical bugs and improve usability faster, all while staying agile and responsive to market needs.
By tapping into a global network of testers, you ensure that your product is tested in real-world conditions that reflect how your users will actually experience it. This approach not only enhances the quality of your software but also accelerates time-to-market, making your release cycles more efficient without the need for a large, full-time QA team.
What’s more, crowd-testing offers flexibility that allows you to scale up or down as needed, so you’re only paying for what you use. This makes it easier to manage your budget and allocate resources where they’re needed most — without sacrificing quality.
Ultimately, crowd-testing complements your existing QA processes, filling in gaps and providing the kind of real-world testing environments that in-house labs simply can’t replicate. The result? A more robust, user-friendly product and a smoother, more confident launch.
Ran Rachlin is the co-founder & CEO of Ubertesters, the global leader in crowd testing services. Ran has massive global experience, managing and leading new initiatives from inception to implementation and significant sales as well as managing large global organizations in different countries. Ran is a speaker in several industry events and is known for his unique view of the QA and testing world.
