Crowdsourcing is not a very popular term in the IT world but it is gaining popularity due to its economic advantages to the organizations. In this article, we are going to analyze whether Crowdsourcing is good for quality assurance or not. But before I dig into that, let’s first understand what we mean by crowdsourcing.

In simple terms, crowdsourcing in QA world would be “outsourcing testing of a software to a crowd”. In other words, few smart individuals are selected for testing across the world and asked to perform testing on the software application, they are paid only when they find a bug or defect if nothing is found then no payment is made.

It has its own advantages and disadvantages. Let us put some light on both.

Advantages of Crowdsourcing:

#1. Reduces Labor Cost And True Payment For The Best Effort

Crowdsourcing has a very simple rule that if you find a bug then you will be paid. As a result, the extent of testing by any freelancer is extreme who will not leave any stone unturned to unveil the defect in the software application under test. The freelancer knows this very well that his or her payment is directly proportional to the number of valid defects found. Most of the software organizations have a separate QA team to carry out testing when testing is assigned to part-time individuals across the world then cost of labor would be reduced to a great extent which in turn reduces overall project cost. Such type of measure shows the clear transparency between the payment and the work.

#2. Saves Time And Efforts:

We all have seen that in IT, most of the QA’s are doing the same tasks repeatedly. Their efforts can be used for other important tasks which would yield better results. When testing is outsourced, time and efforts of QA team can be redirected to other tasks. The best example is that suppose an organization which has an elite QA team can still prefer Crowdsourcing as it adds weight to their internal testing procedures. Testing is all about the new ideas or approaches to test a software application that may cover maximum testability. Therefore, the more ideas we implement as a collaboration between the internal QA team and Crowdsourcing members, the better is the overall application testing. It is often seen that Crowdsourcing members are much focused towards finding the defects in the application and they rarely care about the testing approach whether it is exploratory testing, monkey testing, random testing, etc. or another testing approach. All they care about is finding the valid defects and rest of the QA procedures and documentation can be taken care by the internal team which keeps the QA brigades up at the professional level to maintain an organization QA standards. Using this approach, we are not only saving time and efforts but fetching a quality testing result to an organization.

#3. Out Of The Box Bugs:

Since in crowdsourcing different minds are involved, there is a high probability of getting out of the box bugs. Every individual would try different scenarios to get different bugs. Therefore, I will say that Crowdsourcing is an economical way to import new testing ideas and test beyond the reachability of a traditional tester.

#4. Makes Software User-Friendly:

mentioned earlier, when so many different users test the software from their own perspective, the final software would be more user-friendly. Testing from a different perspective not only gives bugs which could be found only by users but also, gives the confidence on the success of the software in the market. We all are very aware of the facts that if any critical defect is found post software launch in the market then it is fatal to the company’s credibility or reputation. This is the reason, the best organization never bother to spend or increase their budget on both internal testing as well as crowdsourcing. For example, a person from Bangalore found a defect in one of the functionality of Facebook which was confirmed by the Facebook project team and the same guy is paid a huge amount of money for just to unveil and report that defect to the Facebook. Therefore, if you are doing Crowdsourcing for a very renowned company, we can understand the fact that chances of finding the defects are very rare but when found the amount paid is very huge as compared to the normal salaried tester.

Disadvantages of Crowdsourcing:

#1. Consistent Communication Becomes A Challenge:

This is an obvious point since, in crowdsourcing, users are selected from all over the world, it is definitely a challenge to have consistent communication of the bugs they found and the efforts they have put in.

#2. The Process Of Bug Fixing Becomes Slower:

It is crucial to have regular communication between QA team and developer team in order to get all the bugs fixed as soon as possible. When testing is outsourced, communication becomes a challenge and this will slow down the overall process of bug fixes and software adjustments.

#3. Invalid Defects:

Since Crowdsourcing members are paid against the number of valid defects found. Often these members lack the appropriate test cases or confidential project documents which may result in finding the invalid defects. Such effort go waste and may result in compromising the testing quality due to lack of payment and interest from the crowdsourcing members.

Conclusion:

Crowdsourcing has many advantages but communication is crucial. It is always beneficial to have multiple views when it comes to testing a software but it is equally important to have consistent communication with the development team to have a smooth process. I think crowdsourcing would give the maximum benefits when it is carried out after the internal testing by the QA team is completed. Since the QA team would follow all the protocols and requirements, we would know what to expect and what not to expect when software is live in the market. What are your thoughts on this? Do Share in the comments section below.

I think I have addressed all major Advantages and Disadvantages in the Crowdsourcing testing. To get software testing articles in your inbox click here to Subscribe with your email address or add your email address below:

Happy Testing!!!