How to create a collaborative QA strategy with collective testing

If you’re reading this, chances are your organization is already aware of the additional management effort, devices, and testers required to ensure quality QA through software testing.  

You’re likely not doing it alone. Your in-house testers and external resources are probably scattered across different testing management platforms and software. But multiple platforms make collaboration more complicated than it needs to be.

Testlio works with a collective testing approach, a blended team approach that aligns processes, testers, and tools into a single test management platform. 

So what really is collective testing, and how does it offer a better solution to traditional methods of collaborative QA?

Data collection and software testing

Software testing is complicated by the many data points collected throughout the testing process. Companies need great testers, but they also need a seamless way to collect, organize, and integrate the following:

• System test data
• SQL test data
• Performance test data
• O/S and device specifications
• XML test data
• Bug reports
• Pass/Fail test case data
• Exploratory usability test scripts

Not only is data available from various sources (analysis, market research, bug reports, internal know-how), it’s also in different platforms, test management tools, and across global locations. 

Without a singular, efficient way to collaborate and share information, it’s harder to leverage the data to fix issues or build a better product.

The solution? By utilizing a collective testing approach with an experienced testing partner, you simplify operations by moving all resources (internal and external) to one platform.

Let’s take a look at a real example of how to apply a collaborative approach to QA with collective testing:

Meet the client… and their problem

The client, an early-stage startup and B2B data-management vendor, is facing two major issues. 

• Product update: The client hires Testlio while pivoting their offering from mobile device management to data management. 
• Critical renewal: Their largest end user’s agreement is up in six months, and will only renew if the client delivers a satisfactory version of their new offering.

The challenge

With the new offering in its infancy, the client is rapidly developing but can not be sure of its quality. Without end-users lending feedback, the measure of quality falls entirely on pre-release testing teams. 

The internal testing team, consisting of engineers and product experts, struggle with best practices for reporting, managing, and prioritizing QA issues.

The client needs confidence that the product will meet the requirements of their largest end-user across all necessary devices. And they are behind schedule – testing needs to keep up with the breakneck pace of development.

They wanted to keep their in-house knowledge, but extend the breadth of coverage quickly to meet their release (and renewal) deadline. 

They partnered with Testlio, and we deployed immediately with a collective testing solution. With Testlio’s collective testing approach, a companies in-house and Testlio’s networked testers work on the same test management platform to increase testing cohesion, device coverage, and speed.

The Testlio solution

Instant, burtstable testing

18 expert testers from Testlio joined ten internal testers, nearly tripling resources overnight to meet strict deadlines. 

During the week, the client’s internal teams create new builds and conduct unit and ad-hoc exploratory testing. On Friday, they send new feature notes to Testlio’s engagement managers. Then the engagement managers translate feature notes into task reports and test cycle invites. Over the weekend, Testlio’s team works in short 1-1.5 hour bursts, conducting regression and structured exploratory testing for broader, comprehensive, expert coverage. 

Extend device coverage

Testlio’s internal testers also own a multitude of devices and O/S combinations that are not readily available in-house. The client can also reap the benefits of real device testing as opposed to simulators/emulators, including location-based testing, network realities, and device-specific bugs.

For the client, Testlio combined their device coverage with existing internal device coverage – alongside client data and end-user requirements – to ensure coverage on the core devices used by end-users. 

Testing best practices

The internal team works alongside Testlio’s QA experts. This side-by-side, collective approach allows the Testlio team to demonstrate testing best practices for structuring test cases, documenting results, and prioritizing issues. The benefit for the client is two-fold: high-quality testing from Testlio, which provides an example for and empowers higher-quality testing from internal teams. 

Testlio empowered internal teams to expand device coverage and accelerate testing. The results saw improvements in QA knowledge, an immediate increase in testing hours and device coverage, and a 329% increase in approved issues.

The value of collective testing

The true benefits of collective testing are the improved utilization of in-house testers, a single platform for all resources and strategies, flexible management style, and immediate coverage amplification.

Collective testing infuses internal teams with Testlio’s expertise, accelerated coverage, and a wider device pool. 

Collaboration is not one size fits all; allowing options for fully-managed and co-managed testing lets individual companies and their internal QA teams take the lead, or hand the reins over to Testlio’s Team leads.

When releasing a web or mobile app, having a centralized team on a single platform ensures that the product can roll out successfully to end-users in all locations, on all devices.

Want more QA? This free e-book walks you through how collective testing leads to flexibility, cohesion, and faster release cycles.