The benefits of collective testing

Unless someone at your organization has built internal QA software, your in-house testers and your external testing resources are not testing under the same platform. We know, because no collective testing software exists, until now that is. We’ve enabled groundbreaking collective testing capabilities under our test management platform to keep your testing under one roof.

But what does this really mean? And why should you—as a QA manager, dev team leader, or DevOps manager—care?

In this post, we explore what collective testing is, its benefits, and what it looks like in the wild.

What is collective testing?

A tenet of networked testing, collective testing is a blended team approach that aligns processes and tools into a seamless workflow. It enables multiple forms of collaboration by organizing different test teams to cover more testing surfaces in less time, under a unified test management platform. For example, in-house testers might test secure code designed for internal eyes only. Meanwhile, networked testing resources can provide exploratory testing and real device coverage.

3 key benefits of collective testing

Many clients have asked if there was a way for their in-house testers to use the same QA platform we provide alongside our 10,000+ freelance testers.

Organizations that prioritize quality want to be able to…

• Open up the testing surface with options for in-house, networked testers, and both resources combined
• Purchase fully-managed or co-managed testing services based on their budget
• Simplify operations and reduce costs by getting rid of unnecessary test management tools and moving all resources (internal and external) to one platform

Our collective testing approach allows for all of the above. You can use our test management software with your in-house testers, our freelance network of testers, or both. You can also choose the right level of QA management services, based on your internal needs.

Let’s explore the top 3 benefits of collective testing.

1. Improved utilization of in-house testers

With collective testing, you can activate resources based on your needs, instead of getting locked into set costs.

• Use in-house testers for base needs – You’re not stuck in a pricey contract with a QA vendor. You can have your in-house testers handle some of your needs, and add on networked freelance resources for pressing release cycles and surges in project load.
• Engagement Manager co-manages networked testers – Another way to better utilize your in-house resources via collective testing is to have a Testlio Engagement Manager co-manage Testlio freelance resources for more specific project management.
• In-house and external testers test alongside each other – You can also add some of your internal QA testers to a test cycle that Testlio network testers are working on in order to expand capacity. This will also ensure that networked testers have knowledgeable internal contacts to turn to with any questions during the test cycle.
• In-house testers test secure code – If there’s code that you only want internal employees to see, you can more easily have internal testers work on it, and later have external resources perform functional or usability testing in a seamless, integrated workflow.

2. A single platform for all resources and strategies

With collective testing, your internal and external testers are under one roof.

But why does this matter? Being in the software world, we know that the phrase “all in one” either means a lot or very little, depending on the use case.

When it comes to QA, having a single testing management platform happens to matter a lot. For one thing, a collective testing platform allows you to better utilize your internal resources with the four methods detailed above.

Without a cohesive platform, your in-house testers can’t collaborate as seamlessly with external resources. This doesn’t allow your organization to maximize your software testing budget.

A single platform has other benefits aside from helping you get the most out of your internal resources. Because you can easily add-on networked testing resources, you can speed up your testing cycles as needed. Faster testing cycles mean faster releases. Having all of your test management in one cohesive place also makes bug finding and fixing faster as well.

The easiest time to fix a defect is when it’s fresh, so the faster your collective testing team can discover and report bugs, the faster your releases.

For an added bonus, putting your internal QAs and external QAs on the same platform represents a cost-saving, as you can cancel your subscription to your legacy test management tool, which isn’t optimized for making use of vetted freelance resources.

3. Higher standards of QA and UX

Ultimately, collective testing leads to improved QA and UX, as you’ll have the right number of resources at the right time, testing collaboratively together.

Here are some of the ways collective testing leads to higher quality:

• Streamlined operations – Getting rid of redundant tools and bringing everyone together improves efficiency and ensures that less bugs and feature sets fall through the cracks. Plus, experience testing results in-day, overnight, or over the weekend.
• More QA resources – With collective testing, you can add on the resources that you need, whether for a new feature or an important update. You’re not stuck with only your internal team and low levels of testing surface.
• Quality freelancers – QA managers and engineers often complain about crowdsourced testing. Unfortunately, most crowdsourced testers are paid per bug, which leads to low quality issue reports. At the same time, a lack of management leads to no bug prioritization. With a collective testing approach, you’re accessing vetted, quality freelancers who are paid hourly, work collaboratively, and are managed by an Engagement Manager or your in-house QA manager. Testlio client SAP shares the importance of experienced testers who helped them improve their fixed issue rate 3x.
• Better localization and device coverage – When you utilize collective testing, you tap into a network of quality freelancers. This means you can access vetted testers based on the languages they speak, the countries and cities they live in, the devices they own, and more.

With collective testing, your team has more control over both regular testing and special cycles.

Do you want to create the test cases yourself and assign them to your freelance testers? Or do you want your Testlio Engagement Manager to create the test cases and assign half of them to your freelance testers and half to your in-house team? A third scenario is that if you don’t have an in-house QA team, you can get all the resources you need to execute on testing cycles.

The options are endless, and the best part is, you’re not stuck with any one option. You can change up your resources and test allocation as you go along.

Learn more about collective testing and Testlio’s new platform features — schedule a free demo today.