Quality Assurance Is King: The Importance of Testing

Testing and quality assurance are key for any IT project—launching a product or service that is not up to quality standards is an easy way to drive users away.

You’ve likely already considered using your own team to conduct testing and implementation, but there are a few risks when a team decides to handle things on its own. While your internal technical staff knows the technology well, dedicating your team to testing takes time away from other crucial business operations. Moreover, your staff may not have the experience needed to maintain your quality assurance process.

Even if your team is full of tech savvy people, unless they are actively running QA or implementing technologies every day, they simply don’t have the skills or knowledge that come with those experiences. And without any experience, a lot can go wrong—a simple mistake could leave you vulnerable to security issues and unexpected downtime.

Fortunately, you can get all the benefits of increased quality assurance without expending extra manpower. Let’s contrast the pros and cons of conducting quality assurance in house versus through a qualified third party.

So You Want to Do it Yourself?

Choosing to handle QA testing in house will give you more control over every aspect, but that doesn’t mean everything will run smoothly or on time. If you have an in-house QA team, you can relax. If not, you’ll have to teach a tech team how to test and implement the product they just developed. It can be done, but you might have to dodge some crises along the way.

There are a few ways you can go about testing and implementation with an inexperienced internal team. Teams could research the process online, watch videos, or read blogs. But if problems arise, how do you troubleshoot? And if troubleshooting goes wrong, you’ll have to hire a subject matter expert to assist.

Before you know it, you’ll have paid more to fix the problem than it would have cost to outsource it in the first place—not to mention the substantial loss of time for your team that could have been spent on revenue-producing activities. Instead, with a qualified subject matter expert, you can ensure that implementation is done right the first time to reduce downtime, lost productivity, and costs.

While QA is something that can be done internally, it’s not always the best course of action. Poor QA can lead to a pileup of problems right at launch. If you don’t have a dedicated team or subject matter expert, consider a specialized technology company for QA and implementation.

Choosing a Qualified Technology Firm

When you choose to work with a consulting integration/technology company, you can expect them to have a tested approach. That means a proven, well-defined implementation process that results in fewer quality issues throughout the project. Their experts bring years of experience to the table, so they know what to look for and how to react when a problem arises.

A qualified technology firm will also provide a project manager that is solely dedicated to your testing and implementation needs. Prior to starting the implementation process, project managers create a comprehensive plan that includes a project timeline, downtime schedule, and post-implementation testing solution. This, plus regular updates to the status of the project, keeps management in the know regarding the progress of testing and implementation.

Once everything has been completed from the rigorous testing and implementation process, the project manager will sit down with your management team to explain and transfer total control of the solution. A single person leading the charge makes handing over the reins easier than if multiple team members had to explain the process and results.

Along with a project manager, a dedicated technology team will take over the technical aspects of the project and work directly under the project manager. This group of dedicated engineers comprises subject matter experts that are involved in every step of the implementation process. They work to ensure that time and resources are not diverted from your internal team. You get a team that evaluates itself and the project at regular intervals with a final, comprehensive evaluation and report (with documentation) at the close of the project.

Final Thoughts

When you outsource testing and implementation to a qualified consulting integration company, you won’t have to pull resources away from your internal teams and slow down revenue-producing activities. Plus, it ensures that you have a subject matter expert getting the process right the first time. If you need help with quality assurance or implementation, contact us to learn more about how CTI can act as an extension of your team.