Crowd testing has received a lot of attention over the more recent years and is considered an emerging trend in testing. With the mobile market growth soaring, it is predicted that by 2017 more than 160 billion apps will be downloaded globally onto consumer handsets and tablets (source: Juniper Research).
This infographic is originally located here.
Users are demanding systems that are optimized for their location, language, device and network. In order to remain competitive, businesses are required to deliver applications that provide a great user experience, and they need to do it fast.
Managed crowd testing used for beta, localization, usability, and UAT is one of the best and most effective ways to achieve these goals and is a strong method for these parts of the testing process. Gartner forecasts that in the next two to three years, crowdsourcing will play a key role in strategic decision-making.
However, crowd testing is intended to compliment conventional testing methods and not replace them. By integrating managed crowd testing into their test processes, our clients have developed cost effective methods to achieve the prime focus areas of application testing – Functional, Localization, Load, Security and of course Usability testing.
The comparisons in the infographic below are based on real life examples that QualiTest UK clients have experienced between dedicated test teams and our managed crowd testing solution.
However, for a complete testing process, crowd testing alone is not enough. Testing should extend throughout the development process, not only once an application is “done” and ready for release. Fixing small defects in the initial phases of their life cycle is both easier and cheaper than trying to fix bugs which have had a chance to develop alongside the application.
Software testing requires a holistic approach that blends professional testers with the crowdsourced community in a managed professional service. Once this process has been refined, the real benefits can be seen, including reduction in project costs, uptime of 24/7 testing, efficient coverage of device and regression testing, and shorter and more efficient sprints.