Software testing outsourcing

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Software Testing Outsourcing is software testing carried out by an independent company or a group of people not directly involved in the process of software development.

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Software testing is an essential phase of software development. However, it is often viewed as a non-core activity for most organizations. Outsourcing enables an organization to concentrate on its core development activities while external software testing experts handle the independent validation work. This offers many business benefits, which include independent assessment leading to enhanced delivery confidence, reduced time to market, lower infrastructure investment, predictable software quality, de-risking of deadlines, and increased time to focus on development.

Software Testing Outsourcing can come in different forms:

Software Testing Outsourcing is utilized when a company does not have the resources or capabilities in-house to address testing needs. Outsourcing can be given to organizations with expertise in many areas, including testing software for the web, mobile, printing, or even Fax performance. Testing companies can provide outsourcing services located in the home country of business or many other onshore or offshore sites. A testing partner could mean someone in the same city or another city across the country. It could also mean onshore but rurally sourced. Near-shore options are located in the same time-zone but cheaper markets like Mexico, while offshore testing usually takes place in countries like the Caribbean, Ukraine, and India.

Software testing offshore is considered more ideal when pricing is a key factor and when the task is simple enough for lesser experienced staff with limited direction. Offshore is also a more common choice when there can be tight coordination and time zone overlap is not an impediment. If the testing is more complicated and requires focused coordination and frequent interfacing with internal teams, onshore services will be more critical. Security and cultural alignment are also important factors that are most often satisfied by an onshore partner.

Pros of Software Testing Outsourcing Onshore:

On-hand information: Fluid and first-hand information from throughout the process.

Face-to-face communication: enables on-time detection of emerging issues and efficient problem-solving.

Effective communication: With no time and distance gap or cultural differences, there are almost no misunderstandings within teams.

Time-effectiveness: Real-time work model with no time zone delays ensures efficiencies.

Enhanced Time to market: Based on all of the above, speed to market is guaranteed.

Pros of Software Testing Outsourcing Offshore:

Hybrid: Software Testing Outsourcing Offshore in execution with Onshore Over-site

Some companies offer an onshore, local project lead to oversee an offshore outsourced team.

Advantages of Onsite-Offshore Outsourced Testing Model

Top established global outsourcing cities

According to Tholons Global Services - Top 50, [1] in 2009, Top Established and Emerging Global Outsourcing Cities in Testing function were:

  1. Bengaluru, India
  2. Cebu City, Philippines
  3. Shanghai, China
  4. Beijing, China
  5. Kraków, Poland
  6. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Vietnam outsourcing

Vietnam has become a major player in software outsourcing. Ho Chi Minh City's ability to meet clients’ needs in scale and capacity, its maturing business environment, the country's stability in political and labor conditions, its increasing number of English speakers and its high service-level maturity make it attractive to foreign interests. [2]

Vietnam's software industry has maintained annual growth rate of 30-50% during the past 10 years.[ citation needed ] From 2002 to 2013 revenue of the software industry increased to nearly 3 US$ billion and the hardware industry increased to 36.8 US$ billion.[ citation needed ] Many Vietnamese enterprises have been granted international certificates (CMM) for their software development. [3]

According to Global Services Location Index 2017 by A.T. Kearney, Vietnam ranks sixth in the global software outsourcing market. Vietnam's position in this year's index reflects its growing popularity for Business process outsourcing (BPO). Its BPO industry earned US$2 billion in 2015 and has annually grown by 20-25% in the past decade. [4]

Argentina outsourcing

Argentina's software industry has experienced exponential growth in the last decade, positioning itself as one of the strategic economic activities in the country. As Argentina is just one hour ahead of North America's east coast, communication takes place in real-time. Argentina's Internet culture and industry is one of the best, Facebook penetration in Argentina ranks 3rd worldwide and the country has the highest penetration of smartphones in Latin America (24%). [5] Perhaps one of the most surprising facts is that the percentage that internet contributes to Argentina's Gross National Product (2.2%) ranks 10th in the world. [6]

India outsourcing

India's software outsourcing industry plays a critical role in the country's economy, contributing significantly to its Gross Domestic Product (GDP). As of 2021, the Information Technology and Business Process Management (IT-BPM) sector in India accounted for approximately 8% of the country's GDP. [7] [8] The sector also employed over 4.5 million people, making it one of the largest private-sector employers in the country. India's outsourcing industry is dominated by software services, which contributed about US$150 billion to the country's export revenues, according to the Economic Times. [9]

Related Research Articles

Outsourcing is a business practice in which companies use external providers to carry out business processes that would otherwise be handled internally, Outsourcing sometimes involves transferring employees and assets from one firm to another.

Offshoring is the relocation of a business process from one country to another—typically an operational process, such as manufacturing, or supporting processes, such as accounting. Usually this refers to a company business, although state governments may also employ offshoring. More recently, technical and administrative services have been offshored.

Nearshoring, or Nearshore, is the outsourcing of business processes, especially information technology processes, to companies in a nearby country, often sharing a border with the target country. Both parties expect to benefit from one or more of the following dimensions of proximity: geographic, temporal, cultural, social, linguistic, economic, political, or historical linkages.

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is a subset of outsourcing that involves the contracting of the operations and responsibilities of a specific business process to a second-party service provider. Originally, this was associated with manufacturing firms, such as Coca-Cola that outsourced large segments of its supply chain.

Knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) describes the outsourcing of core information-related business activities which are competitively important or form an integral part of a company's value chain. KPO requires advanced analytical and technical skills as well as a high degree of specialist expertise.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Business process outsourcing in the Philippines</span> Overview of the process of outsourcing of various business processes

One of the most dynamic and fastest growing sectors in the Philippines is the information technology–business process outsourcing (IT-BPO) industry. The industry is composed of eight sub-sectors, namely, knowledge process outsourcing and back offices, animation, call centers, software development, game development, engineering design, and medical transcription. The IT-BPO industry plays a major role in the country's growth and development.

Business process outsourcing to India refers to the business process outsourcing services in the outsourcing industry in India, catering mainly to Western operations of multinational corporations (MNCs).

Legal outsourcing, also known as legal process outsourcing (LPO), refers to the practice of a law firm or corporation obtaining legal support services from an outside law firm or legal support services company. When the LPO provider is based in another country, the practice is called offshoring and involves the practice of outsourcing any activity except those where personal presence or contact is required, e.g. appearances in court and face-to-face negotiations. When the LPO provider is based in the same country, the practice of outsourcing includes agency work and other services requiring a physical presence, such as court appearances. This process is one of the incidents of the larger movement towards outsourcing. The most commonly offered services have been agency work, document review, legal research and writing, drafting of pleadings and briefs, and patent services.

On-demand outsourcing is a trend in outsourcing wherein major internal operations processes of a company are being shifted to a provider that is paid for by the number of transactions involved. The business transferring the services pays for the quality, special skills and the competence of the service provider's employees. There has been an expansion of the outsourcing concept to include on-demand outsourcing. This refers to the process undertaken by business managers to adopt an outsourcing policy that ensures that the specific business and supplies including technical manpower are accessed as the need arises. It focuses a business strategy to improve its goods and services and to drive a business towards quality improvement.

In software engineering, offshore custom software development consists in offshoring the software development process in a country where production costs are lower, thus decreasing budget spending.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dalian Software Park</span> Industrial zone in China

Dalian Software Park, also called DLSP, is an industrial zone, created in 1998 in the western suburbs of Dalian City, Liaoning Province, China, where many of the world's large and medium-sized IT-related companies have set up shop to do software development and information services. It is part of Dalian Hi-tech Zone in the broader sense. While American and European companies typically have gone to Bangalore and other cities in India because of the English language capability, Japanese companies have gone to Dalian and other cities in China due to the Japanese language capability.

The information technology (I.T.) industry in India comprises information technology services and business process outsourcing. The share of the IT-BPM sector in the GDP of India is 7.4% in FY 2022. The IT and BPM industries' revenue is estimated at US$ 245 billion in FY 2023. The domestic revenue of the IT industry is estimated at $51 billion, and export revenue is estimated at $194 billion in FY 2023. The IT–BPM sector overall employs 5.4 million people as of March 2023. In December 2022, Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar, in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha informed that IT units registered with state-run Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) and Special Economic Zones have exported software worth Rs 11.59 lakh crore in 2021–22.

Outsource Partners International (OPI) was acquired by EXL in June 2011. The acquisition marked the end of F&A outsourcing of OPI. OPI was a multinational company with headquarters in New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA. It operates from more than a dozen global locations throughout the US, UK, India, Bulgaria, and Malaysia. OPI was formed in 2002 through the acquisition of big four accounting firm's Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) division and itAccounts, a finance and accounting BPO company with an offshore F&A outsourcing facility in Bangalore, India. It offers finance, accounting and tax outsourcing services.

eTelecare

eTelecare Global Solutions, Inc (PSE:ETEL), was a provider of complex business process outsourcing (BPO).

Banking business process outsourcing or banking BPO is a highly specialized sourcing strategy employed by banks and lending institutions to facilitate the business acquisition and account servicing activities linked with the customer lending lifecycle. These specific BPO services are usually offered through multi-year service-level agreements for all or portions of the credit card lending, consumer lending, or commercial lending segments of the financial services market. Some larger financial services organizations choose to extend their sourcing strategy to include other outsourced services such as ITO systems and software, human resources outsourcing and benefits services, finance and accounting outsourcing (FAO) services, procurement outsourcing, and training outsourcing.

Robotic process automation (RPA) is a form of business process automation that is based on software robots (bots) or artificial intelligence (AI) agents. RPA should not be confused with artificial intelligence as it is based on automotive technology following a predefined workflow. It is sometimes referred to as software robotics.

Information Technology in Sri Lanka refers to business process outsourcing, knowledge process outsourcing, software development, IT Services, and IT education in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is always ranked among the top 50 outsourcing destinations by AT Kearney, and Colombo and ranked among "Top 20 Emerging Cities" by Global Services Magazine. The export revenue of this industry grew from USD 213 million in 2007 to USD 1.2 billion in 2021.

Acquire Business Process Outsourcing is an Australian based global business process outsourcing firm that specializes in back office support, customer acquisition, customer service, technical support, lead generation and software development.

The business process outsourcing industry in China including IT and other outsourcing services for onshore and export markets surpassed 1 trillion yuan in 2016 according to the Ministry of Commerce (MOC).

Outsourcing in Ukraine is a widely used service in Ukraine. Most often, outsourcing services are provided in the Information Technology (IT) sphere, but they are also popular in the areas of logistics, marketing services, recruiting, accounting, processing and systematization of information, medical services, administration, and others.

References

  1. ↑ Vashistha, Avinash; Khan, Imrana (October 2009). "Top 50 Emerging Global Outsourcing Cities: A Global Services-Tholons Study" (PDF). Retrieved December 13, 2017.
  2. ↑ "Software outsourcing: Recovery and development". LogiGear Corporation. January 20, 2011. Retrieved December 13, 2017.
  3. ↑ Greene, Will (December 9, 2014). "Vietnam IT Services Climb the Value Chain". Forbes Media. Retrieved December 13, 2017.
  4. ↑ "Read @ATKearney: The Widening Impact of Automation". www.atkearney.com. Retrieved 2018-10-18.
  5. ↑ "Argentina". New Media Trend Watch. December 17, 2008. Archived from the original on February 21, 2009.
  6. ↑ "Internet aportará u$s24.700 millones al PBI de la Argentina en 2016" (in Spanish). May 3, 2012. Archived from the original on May 5, 2012.
  7. ↑ "PFLB Platform". platform.pflb.us. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
  8. ↑ "Indian IT & BPM Industry". www.investindia.gov.in. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
  9. ↑ Sachitanand, Rahul (2017-01-15). "India's $150 billion outsourcing industry stares at an uncertain future". The Economic Times. ISSN   0013-0389 . Retrieved 2023-07-26.
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