In the past couple of years the IT industry has experienced a sea of changes as it has ever before. From the cloud based storage to the open-source applications, every change is making the industry more user-driven. It would be unfair to say that the testing industry remains unchanged or unaffected with such evolution, which takes place every now and then. Changes are always meant for betterment; however, it might create some complexities at times. For example, high-end devices with different complex configurations possess various challenges to test the applications.
There are various contrasting testing mechanisms that can be performed. However, most of them fail to provide the realistic environment that is needed to test an application from a user’s perspective. In addition, most of the conventional testing approach lacks fresh ideas and often collaborates both testers and developers. A rather realistic model of testing is the Crowdsourced testing. Ever since the concept of Crowd testing came into existence, there has been a buzz around for the most diversified approach of testing. With the passage of time, it has found its place in some of the most successful business models. Today, Crowdsourced testing is being widely used by renowned organizations and various sectors.
The essence of Crowd testing lies in the fact that it utilizes the power of highly qualified professionals, who are geographically distributed. It can be considered as a testing model, which provides the most realistic testing environment on a secured network. It has proven to solve various challenges and issues that were found with the traditional approach. With different brains and fresh ideas, Crowdtesting promises to offer much more than what have been achieved so far.
Crowd testing can benefit the testing world in several ways. Some of them are discussed below.
- Uses a collaborative model to incorporate fresh yet different approaches
- Takes real scenarios from the user’s perspective
- Provides quick and effective feedback
- Proves more efficient than in-house testing by providing a larger scope for tools, platforms, browser, etc.
- Solves complex issues with innovative ideas
- Brings different testers under one roof to solve a problem
- Reduces testing time and proves cost efficient
A better analysis of the Crowd testing approach will make you take the right decision and helps avoiding mistakes. However, before plunging into the world of Crowd testing, it’s better to be aware of certain limitations.
- Some confidential projects might get exposed to some miscreant users
- Diversity of testers in terms of experience, language, and technical skills could be challenging at times
- Needs a highly efficient management to ensure effectiveness
In order to overcome various inadequacies and challenges while managing Crowd testing, one should consider implementing the following principles.
Well defined expectations: Clear and specific information structured in a standardized form would help the users to avoid mistakes.
Transparent approach: Transparency is the key to success in any project, especially in Crowd testing. Information related to work, cost, selection process, etc. needs to be addressed in a comprehensible manner to avoid any discontent.
Quality assurance: Recruiting the right people for the job is the key to improve bug reports and meet client’s requirement, thus improving the overall testing quality.
Rewards and recognitions: Social media can be used as a platform to value the good work that is being done. Rewards and recognition can be used in motivating someone, which can result in a positive impact on the business.
A qualified project lead: A proven and qualified manager helps in reviewing test strategies and implementing any amendment that is required.
