Managing QA Costs in a Recession

Business owners and employees alike remember the economic recession that began in 2007 and lasted for two years, causing layoffs, bankruptcies, and a shift in financial priorities. While the current global economic forecasts remain uncertain, having a plan for economic challenges offers a level of security for business owners and employees. With a little preparation, businesses can help guard their companies and continue to QA their software solutions.

No matter the state of the economy, quality assurance remains a crucial component of the software development cycle. In fact, in an economy in which consumers and businesses have fewer dollars to spend, releasing reliable products is more important than ever. Managing your QA costs in a recession is critical, and it is possible.

One of the more effective ways to manage QA costs is by utilizing third-party software testing services. Outsourcing your quality assurance offers benefits in any economy, but it can be particularly effective when you’re trying to cut costs.

Why Outsource QA?

Outsourcing your QA program offers a variety of great benefits, which we’ll discuss in the context of a struggling economy – but they’re perks anytime.

Cost Savings and Flexibility

When you hire a third-party QA testing team, you’re offered a greater level of flexibility than when you rely solely on an in-house QA team. You can scale up or down depending on things like workload, demand, and available funds. Instead of committing to a full-time hire, you can pause and restart testing as needed, retaining testing knowledge throughout those adjustments. By working with a third-party QA testing provider, you also save the various costs associated with an in-house team, such as benefits, training, equipment, and software tools.

Turnkey

Outsourcing QA allows you to hire turnkey service, which means you avoid the growing pains of building an internal QA team. There’s no need to build, assemble, train, and familiarize a team–instead, your QA team is ready to work right out of the gate.

Available Resources

Across industries, companies are finding it difficult to find good hires right now, which means trying to fill a QA team may be difficult, especially if you’re in an area without a lot of qualified applicants. Resources are tight, which makes hiring frustrating and costly. By partnering with a third-party to perform QA, you negate a potential resource scarcity and get to work right away.

You also don’t have to perform a job search, hire managers, or even purchase tools and software. There is no training, benefits, or oversight required, all of which can be costly and time-consuming. Third-party QA teams are ready to go when you are, and able to stop and start as needed.

Access to Experts

QA experts can do more with less because they’re established, which is an advantage they have over brand-new teams. They’re used to working quickly on new projects, and their process is optimized, which reduces costs and cycle time. They know how to work together, operate efficiently, and manage the QA process, tools, and roles. third-party QA teams are the best at what they do because they’re allowed to specialize in QA, unlike internal teams who may be managing other roles. They’re experienced, which can save you time, impacting your bottom line.

Weighing the Risks of Offshore QA

Offshore QA can be an appealing option for companies hoping to save money right away. This can look many different ways–for some, their entire QA operation is outsourced. Others may choose to maintain an onshore lead while utilizing the services of offshore QA engineers. For onshore organizations, an offshore QA team may initially provide a positive impact to your bottom line, but ultimately, your QA may be impacted by communication breakdowns, language barriers, time zone problems, and hidden costs. When this happens, companies incur unexpected costs which are difficult to plan for and dip into other parts of project budgets, derail timelines, and create substantial roadblocks.

Selecting a third-party onshore software testing company may appear more expensive at first, but when you consider the advantages we’ve shared, outsourcing your QA needs provides significant cost savings and a more reliable and consistent solution.

Ready to protect your business with a quality assurance you can trust?

Let’s chat about how we can help you reduce QA costs during a recession – or any other time!