The Remote Testing Checklist: 5 Questions To Ask Yourself
So, you think you might want to make the switch to remote testing. You’re in the right place.
Maybe you read our recent blog and decided it sounded right for you. Or perhaps you’ve realised that there’s just no way, in the current climate, that your testing can continue without remote services. Either way, every engineering team knows that any solution that helps them keep up with lightning-quick SDLCs is incredibly valuable. So it’s not surprising that many teams are setting their sights on remote testing.
When it’s done right, remote testing can help scale up your QA capacity, increase test coverage and improve quality. It can also save you time, costs and a lot of stress-induced migraines!
What now?
You need a sturdy checklist to help you understand what you need to put in place to execute remote testing effectively. The key to delivering a quality product with the help of remote testing is simple:
“Plan, Plan and Plan again!”
- Global App Testing, 2020
That's why we’ve compiled the ultimate remote testing checklist to use as a base for launching your new remote strategy. Think of it as the essential questions that need answering before you begin. Let’s get started!
1. Have you assessed your budget?
We all wish it wasn’t, but this is the question on everyone’s lips. Endless budget is the distant dream of every CTO and QA Manager alike. And who wouldn’t want the money to buy shiny new tools, hire new headcount and have hundreds of testers at hand?
But, especially in the current economic climate where budget freezes are rife, this is far from reality.
That’s why it’s important to assess your budget capacity.
According to Payscale, the average salary for a QA Test Automation Engineer in the UK is £33,049, and even more (£36,918) for a QA Manager. Moreover, hiring a software tester in the UK costs on average £25,277.
That means that if you want to build out an ‘on the books’ remote QA testing team, you are going to need a large amount of budget to play with. And we all know budgets can be strapped at the moment.
However, if you would like to scale your QA and start remote testing with a smaller budget, you should look to remote software testing solutions that can provide remote QA services without breaking the bank. This means you can have access to a range of testing services and capabilities, without having to hire a whole cohort of new team members.
A crowdtesting platform like Global App Testing, for example, can help you scale your QA by providing a blend of automated and manual testing, enabling you to scale your test coverage remotely without expensive internal hires. On our testing platform Ada, you can conduct exploratory testing, lightning-quick test case execution and receive moderated test results, all without expensive hires.
2. Do you know what device coverage you require?
Wide device coverage is the key to delivering quality for each individual. It’s no good for your app to work amazingly for a user with an iPhone 8, but glitch out on a OnePlus 6T. That just means you have one happy customer and one that is likely to churn.
So, how do you achieve satisfactory device coverage remotely?
You could go shopping and buy your existing QA team members a range of devices, sending it to their homes so they can test remotely. But this isn’t exactly time or cost-efficient. You need to calculate shipping times, coordinate delivery, pay for each device and wait for them to arrive. By the time this is all over, Samsung will announce a new device and your whole plan gets thrown off-kilter…
Sounds a bit stressful, doesn’t it?
The alternative is to partner with a remote testing company that has access to hundreds of devices already, so you can test on a broad range of devices without the associated headache.
This will help you deliver quality every time, rather than your app not quite hitting the mark for some users. This is especially important when, according to Helpshift, 80% of apps are deleted after one use. You need to impress customers fast on any device, and thorough device testing coverage will help you achieve this.
3. Do you have enough testers?
Having one or two software testers on your books just isn’t going to cut it. Especially in today’s world, where quality is paramount and there are hundreds of device or OS combinations your customers could be using.
Remote testing is all about scaling up your QA capabilities and getting the test coverage you need to deliver quality every time. Having enough testers is an essential part of that process.
Ask yourself: do I have broad testing coverage?
If the answer is no, there are a few paths you can take.
Some companies choose to outsource their testing to another country, perhaps having 3 or 4 testers working remotely for them in Indonesia or somewhere else across the globe. This can be an effective way of hiring a new testing team quickly.
However, this is not always the most effective way to scale. For starters, it siloes all your testing in one location. This means that your testers are in one time zone, working office hours. Therefore, you may struggle to get in contact with your testers when you need it most - you can’t expect 24/7 support. This can really slow things down.
At Global App Testing, we have 40,000+ testers in 105 countries across the globe. This means you can have access to testers in the country of choice, 24/7. There’s no patiently waiting for your testers to wake up and start their working day. You can send off your tests on Friday at 5pm and your results will be ready on Monday morning. Our professionally vetted testers work on their own time schedules, meaning they are not confined to normal working hours. And they love to test!
4. Have you decided whether you want localized testing?
Hiring testers across the globe is a real pain. That’s why so many tech-first companies turn to tech-first solutions.
But you might think to yourself, “do I even need localization testing?”
The short answer is: yes, if you want to scale.
The global tech market has endless revenue potential. Annual worldwide app downloads grew by 45% between 2016 and 2019, and continue to grow to this day. That means there are new and exciting markets across the globe to tap into. But as your business scales, your QA needs to scale with it. That’s where localization comes in.
Having an app that works perfectly in different locations across the globe is vital to reducing customer churn. After all, if you want to capture the imagination of new global markets, you aren’t going to do so with an app that is substandard on their networks. It just won’t cut the mustard.
Remote localization testing enables you to sense check your product internationally, ensuring that translations, cultural nuances and different phone networks won’t compromise the quality of your app.
In this way, you can impress the global market with a quality product and scale your business quickly as a result.
5. Have you received a free QA consultation?
It’s no secret that there are a number of testing providers out there - there’s no need for us to hide it!
But we know that Global App Testing has something special.
We work with your existing QA team, helping you to deliver quality at speed, so you can scale your company and see growing ROI.
That’s why our growth specialists are on hand to provide you with a free QA consultation. They love talking about quality and QA best practices in the lightning-fast world of software development. Click here to book a free meeting - no commitment required. It could be the valuable first step on your remote testing journey.