Every organization has limits on the resources available to it. Software Outsourcing permits you to redirect resources towards activities that provide a greater return in serving your customer. Let us see what is "Software Outsourcing"?
Software outsourcing means you hire somebody outside your company to provide IT services or get your software developed from somebody who is not part of your software company.
Offshore software outsourcing
For Offshore Company, Outsourcing of software is just a software development at another location, a facility connected with the client's location using high-speed data communication links to allow engineers and managers to communicate on a real-time basis. The communication from both sides is possible online. For an Offshore company you can
monitor software development process and project milestones on an up-to-the-minute
basis. As a professional, the software developed through offshore company, must ensure both quality and progress. If you are an offshore programmer who develops software for outsourcing must have:
-Expertise in latest technology
-Rapid deployment
-Lowered Costs.
Your company, as an offshore company for software outsourcing, is responsible for high-risk and powerful proposition will be a high-gain. For an offshore software development a "good relationship" is the key for success. Your offshore company must have technical skills and quality for outsourcing and it will be a relationship based on compatibility, trust and mutual respect.
Testing
Testing is the most important phase in Software Development Life Cycle. You must
test the program code of your offshore software that has been outsourced to you.
You must always use different testing techniques for your outsourced software.
Who does the testing?
Alpha Testing: Alpha testing is done at programmer's site. Your team members or employees can participate in this testing. Offshore company always prefers Alpha testing usually after the basic design of the software that has been outsourced. Now you have to look over the program and make suggestions or give ideas to your designer to improve existing status of the software. To solve the MAJOR problems you can report and give ideas to your Programmer or Designer. Just avoid reporting the little things. There's bound to be a number of bugs after a program is created and the designer most likely knows about many of them. This isn't the main concern in alpha testing.
Beta Testing: Beta test is carried out after Alpha by the customer first time at his site. Beta testing a product can become very tedious for the designer to do all by himself. It's also not recommended because it's likely that you'll overlook several things. You will
require the Beta testers to test your product. Beta testing requires a good communication between the designers and the beta tester. As a designer it is your responsibility to keep the tester active during testing phase. Beta testing is like proofreading a paper. Offshore companies always keep in mind that the designing and alpha testing is not sufficient for an
outsourced software product. Such a product is not going to be used by the public unless it's absolutely flawless. It is impossible to have a product 100% free from bugs. But remember that even a little thing doesn't seem right then the person that's using it will probably get the feeling that the entire product is flawed. It's very important for you to test your product by multiple testers and for you as a tester to catch these bugs and report them.
When?
You must follow the Software testing after the design phase of the Software that has been outsourced to you. Alpha testing takes place at the Designer site. Once the Alpha testing is over, Beta testing is carried out as customer site. Types of test cases are available e.g.
Stress Testing, Black Box Testing, White Box Testing, Regression Testing, Functional Testing etc. which helps you to test the performance of the system. Thus you, as a Designer, must take care about testing until your offshore software product that has been outsourced to you is totally bug free.
What if something is wrong?
You will receive feedback from a beta tester(s) on changes made in the program for outsourced software and also receive proper reporting about the bugs. You must act like the developer try to add new features and find the solution for existing bugs. You must think about the following things before handing over it to the offshore company:
-Is the product good enough?
-Is the product user friendly?
-Does the product satisfy the user's requirement?
-Does the product is bug free?
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