Six things CIOs should consider before outsourcing user acceptance testing

By Percy Dara Hilloo With the popularity of e-commerce, online banking, e-tail stores and other online based business models gaining prominence, more and more business are creating web based and mobile based platforms to exploit the humungous business opportunities. From cab services such as Ola and Uber to online retailers such as Amazon and Flipkart, these business ventures rely extensively on the web and mobile platforms for their business. However, in the recent past there have been many incidents across geographies that consumers, users and software developers themselves have faced technical glitches when operating on these platforms. In order to avoid such issues, more and more enterprises are realizing the benefits of testing services rendered by IT vendors to for addressing issues of bugs or malware on the platforms. Outsourcing User Acceptance Testing (UAT), is the last critical mile to cross before launching a product/software in the market and has slowly gained prominence over the years with the maturity of testing and outsourcing itself. While organizations may have started outsourcing low level testing long back to get the usual outsourcing benefits in terms of cost savings, improve quality, faster product launch, there has always been a constraint to outsource UAT. Since UAT is considered as the final check before it goes live, CIO’s are reluctant to lose control and they are of the opinion that an internal team has better understanding of the end-user requirement and hence they are in a better position to check the final release. However it is found that outsourcing UAT is leading to far better output than validation done by internal teams. There may be multiple reasons associated with that such as – – external team definitely adds value in terms of completing the test coverage – they have a more objective view of the business scenarios that may occur in that industry – external consultant can help to test the performance of the application during peak periods [caption id=“attachment_2412354” align=“alignleft” width=“300”]  Percy Dara Hilloo, head of testing practice, Blue Star Infotech[/caption] Guidelines While there may have been many conflicts whether to outsource UAT or not and what are the critical factors that can lead to success of such a critical engagement. UAT outsourcing like any other engagements can’t be an overnight process and has to go through step by step process of control mechanisms and procedures to be successful. It is important to choose the correct outsourcing partner and control the testing to achieve desired results. The following are some of the important aspects to consider before outsourcing UAT to an external vendor – -- Establishing goals for engaging with UAT consultants - Enterprises must frame objectives for IT vendors, who have an expertise in testing services, when associating with them during the Project Initiation phase itself. This helps IT vendors to effectively strategize their functions in the Testing phase. Also the External Test Consultants can be involved during the Solution Design phase to provide better visibility into the solution strategy and configuration designs. -- Innovation and customisation are key qualities for IT vendors –it is beneficial for enterprises to select IT vendors who have a creative approach to testing. Creativity empowers them to employ skilled and robust techniques to cover all possible scenarios which may not be a part of current transactional system be checked. -- Analysing trends and metrics - The reports from testing services should be analysed to understand how the tests are progressing and issues are getting reported. This is an important function because if there is a deviation in established standards and actual performance or there is a lack of information on complex it may lead to gaps in expected solution. -- Encourage cross functional coordination and inter organisational communication – The success of any outsourcing project depends on cooperation and proper communication between the internal team and external vendor. Coordination of activities and communication of suggestions or solutions helps in the smooth functioning of a project. Issues can be addressed without delay which helps in completion of projects in the given time period. -- Selecting Right Testing tool for the Right job: –the availability of an array of testing tools may create a difference in opinion amongst members on what tools must be employed. One may prefer Microsoft Excel to track tasks, another may prefer Microsoft Project, and yet another is a bit more advanced and uses SharePoint lists with automated workflow. IT vendors of testing services must select the most appropriate technique for the several platforms of the enterprises -- Developing effective Tracking and Controlling Mechanisms –UAT is a critical factor for software project’s success it is important for an organization to employ well-defined and measurable parameters for controlling and monitoring the outsourced Acceptance Testing process. Outsourcing of UAT may seem to be a challenge for many enterprises. However, by following the aforementioned guidelines the enterprises and IT vendors can form a robust partnership that may help in ending an organization’s challenges and be the panacea to the CIO’s ails. In order for this model to succeed, the vendor needs to take utmost care to ensure that the ‘conflict of interest’ situation is managed and organization considering outsourcing Acceptance Testing must prepare well to educate all stakeholders of the project in order to mitigate the occurrence of these issues. Factors such as cost, techniques, IT vendors’ expertise and adaptability of enterprises must be evaluated in order to reap rich dividends of outsourcing UAT. (The author is head of testing practice at Blue Star Infotech)