Quality Assurance with Global Sourcing
Quality assurance is crucial with IT development. Even the most knowledgeable, experienced developers can create code that has errors or “bugs.” If a defect is not detected until the point of construction or maintenance, it can cost the company significantly more to fix it than it would have cost during the initial creation process. Companies involved in IT development generally have a system for quality assurance. When IT managers decide to global source part of the development, they need to ensure that the vendor has similar quality assurance testing in place.
Quality assurance testing will confirm that all functionality, security and scalability issues have been addressed based upon the system requirements. This testing should be done for every process that is developed through global sourcing or in house.
The most common causes of code errors have to do with the IT vendor. The vendor may have lacked its own quality assurance team or assumed the outsourcing company would handle quality assurance testing in house. The project could have had a tight deadline and the vendor rushed through a quality assurance check or may have skipped it all together. Vendors also may misunderstand the system requirements, which would lead to inadequate testing. Whatever the reason, poor quality assurance can greatly impact a project.
Before signing a contract with a global sourcing provider, it is important to find out what type of quality assurance system has been established. Is there a quality assurance team? What processes are set up to correct code errors? How is the software being tested and does it include the end-user experience? Another key fact to uncover is whether the quality assurance testing done by the vendor is comparable to that of the outsourcing company. Many vendors have quality assurance teams that work with the developers to test the software.
It would be ideal for the global sourcing provider to conduct regular inspections of the software as it is developed. Inspections can be done at every stage of the development process and can include technical peer reviews of software designs and implementations. By conducting these inspections, schedule delays can be avoided and costs can be better controlled because problems would be detected early.
When choosing a global sourcing provider, take the time to review its quality assurance system. By carefully evaluating a vendor’s quality assurance processes, outsourcing companies can avoid waiting until software is released to discover it has code errors. A&E Consulting can help you choose a global sourcing provider and will oversee your first outsourced project.
Tags: global sourcing, global sourcing provider, IT development, quality assurance, vendor