LTS QA

Software Quality Assurance (SQA) is an important part of the entire software development life cycle. Through the testing phase, software defects can be identified early and remedied before final product delivery.

Why Software Quality Assurance is a MUST in every software development life cycle?

Software bugs can cause serious loss of money and people. Starbucks was forced to close about 60% of its stores in the United States and Canada, even serving free coffee because it was unable to process the transaction due to a software bug in its POS system. In 1994, China Airlines Airbus A300 crashed due to a software error, killing 264 people.

The examples above show that businesses can save up to millions per year, minimizing serious problems if they have a reliable and strict testing process. Besides, a software that is error-free and undergoes many rigorous quality checks will easily win the trust and satisfaction of customers; bring efficiency in both cost, security, as well as sustainable development.

>> Learn more about Software Testing And 8 Common Questions

What are the challenges and difficulties of building a software quality assurance process?

However, enterprises will face many challenges to be able to build an optimal testing team and a strict quality management process such as:

• High initial investment cost for human resources: According to Payscale, based on the latest updates on Jan 04 2022, the average salary for a Software Tester is $56,468. However, the investment cost for a Software Tester Engineer does not just stop at salary, but also includes the cost of recruitment, training and other employee benefits.
• High initial investment cost for testing tools: Besides the investment in human resources, businesses will have to prepare a budget for both facilities and testing tools. It can be the cost of investing in machinery, testing tools, and even in different testing environments.
• Bias in Software Testing: How Do Testers Miss Bugs? When the testers implement any test case, they might be influenced by their own biases – framing thoughts and judgments based on their previous experiences such as where there would be potential defects, the history of the program, who is developing it and what might be their common mistakes,…

The following infographic will give you the deepest knowledge about SQA to help you overcome these challenges more easily.

To Know Deeply About Software Quality Assurance Infographic

 

>> You can find a more specific comparison between Manual Testing and Automation Testing in this infographic.

Final Thoughts 

With a profound and specific infographic above, LTS hopes to help you understand more about this field and find the best solution to optimize your business’ QA process and speed up time to market. If you are still struggling and need further professional advice, our experts can help!

 

We, at Lotus QA, are just a contact form away:

Website: lotus-qa.com/

Tel: (+84) 24-6660-7474

Fanpage: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lqa//

Software testing is an important part of the entire software development life cycle. Through the testing phase, software defects can be identified early and remedied before final product delivery. Therefore, many software development companies focus on building strict testing processes and investing in in-house testing teams. This article will help you unlock the most common problems before diving in.

1. Why Software Testing is a MUST in every software development life cycle?

Software bugs can cause serious loss of money and people. Starbucks was forced to close about 60% of its stores in the United States and Canada, even serving free coffee because it was unable to process the transaction due to a software bug in its POS system. In 1994, China Airlines Airbus A300 crashed due to a software error, killing 264 people.

The examples above show that businesses can save up to millions per year, minimizing serious problems if they have a reliable and strict testing process. Besides, a software that is error-free and undergoes many rigorous quality checks will easily win the trust and satisfaction of customers; bring efficiency in both cost, security, as well as sustainable development.

 

2. How many types of Software testing?

Based on different criteria, we can classify Testing in many ways including:

a. According to test levels

• Unit testing: the process of testing corrections on an individual unit or component to assure that they work properly on their own. Unit testing is important because it enables us to find more defects at the unit test level, reduce wasted tests, and speed up testing strategies.
• Integration tests: a level of software testing where two or more modules of an application are logically grouped and tested as a whole. The focus of this type is to search for the defect in communication, interface, and data flow among modules. A top-down or Bottom-up approach is used while integrating modules into the whole system. This type of testing is done by integrating modules of a system or between systems.
• System Testing: a level of software testing that validates the complete and fully integrated software product. The purpose is to evaluate the end-to-end system specifications. Usually, the software is only one element of a larger computer-based system. Ultimately, the software is interfaced with other software/hardware systems. System Testing is defined as a series of different tests whose sole purpose is to exercise the full computer-based system.
• Acceptance testing: ensures that the end-user (customers) can achieve the goals set in the business requirements, which determines whether the software is acceptable for delivery or not. It is also known as user acceptance testing (UAT). Acceptance testing is a type of testing where the client/business/customer test the software with real-time business scenarios. The client accepts the software only when all the features and functionalities work as expected. This is the last phase of testing, after which the software goes into production. This is also called User Acceptance Testing (UAT).

b. According to test types

• Functional testing: a type of testing which verifies that each function of the software application operates in conformance with the requirement specification.
• Non-functional testing: a type of testing to check non-functional aspects (performance, usability, reliability, etc.) of a software application.

c. According to test methods

• Automation testing: a testing technique utilizing tools and test scripts to automate testing efforts. In other words, specified and customized tools are implemented in the testing process instead of solely manual forces.
• Manual testing: the technique in which a tester/a QA executes the whole testing process manually, from writing test cases to implementing them. In manual testing, QA analysts carry out tests one-by-one in an individual manner to find bugs, glitches and key feature issues prior to the software application’s launch. As part of this process, test cases and summary error reports are developed without any automation tools.

 

3. Is Automation Testing the most popular and why?

Manual Testing has been the most popular method of the quality assurance process in general, yet it exposes some limitations that cause many businesses to become testing-ineffective.

Up until now, automated testing is considered a more innovative technique to boost the effectiveness, test coverage, and test execution speed in software testing. With this new “approach”, the testing process is expected to yield more test cases in a shorter amount of time and expand test coverage.

While it does not entirely exclude manual touch within the process, automation testing is a favorable solution for its cost-efficiency and limited human intervention. To put it in other words, automation testing requires manual efforts to make automation testing possible.

The 8 promising prospects of Automation Testing include:

•  High yield of ROI

• Consistent regression testing
• Broad test coverage
• Accuracy and Reliability
• Faster pace
• Developers and Testers unburdened

• Reduce Human Intervention
• Records of measure quality metrics

>> Learn more about From Manual to Automation Testing: Why Even Bother?

 

4. Manual Testing vs. Automation Testing comparison, and when to use each method?

Manual testing is the traditional and fundamental test method in software testing. We often use the manual method to test new products or when we don’t have a clear understanding of the products or when the systems haven’t become stable yet.

Automation testing is considered a high-tech test method in comparison to manual one. We often use this test method to reduce resources and time consumed for testing a system that is stably functioning and we already clearly know about it.

You can find a more specific comparison between Manual Testing and Automation Testing in this infographic.

 

The answer of whether you should choose automation testing or manual testing depends on your situation.

Choose manual test if:

• Your product is new and you don’t have experience with this kind of product before.
• The AUT (Application under test) changes frequently.
• You have a limited budget.
• You want to ensure user-friendliness in the product.

• You want to handle complex test cases.
• Your team doesn’t have the tech ability (for any reason) to set up and maintain automation.

And choose automation test if:

• There are repetitive tasks in a stable-functioning system and you want to reduce these tasks.
• When your system has frequent releases and you want to decrease test cycle time to speed up the processes.

• You have a great budget for building automation testing.
• You consider the test ability is needed in a long-term period.
• You want better transparency of testing activities. Statistics and graphs about the test process, performance, and error rates are explicitly indicated.

> Learn more about Which is the cost-effective solution for your firm?

 

5. Automotive test vs Automation test: Aren’t they the same?

Many people still misunderstand that Automotive testing is Automation testing. Therefore, to better understand Automotive testing, let’s distinguish those two concepts:

Automation testing – is a software testing method with an automated nature, precisely, the Tester only needs to write a piece of code or use some tools such as Selenium, Test Complete, and JMeter,… to run all the stages automatically, including entering information, clicking, checking results, comparing actual results with hypothetical results, etc., without having to perform manual operations over and over again.

Automotive testing – is the testing of embedded software written for embedded systems. Specifically, embedded software is software that is pre-installed by the device manufacturer into a product and that is utilized immediately with the electronic device without the need for the user or third-party installation. An Embedded system is a combination of hardware and software and here the software is embedded in the hardware.

 

6. What are the challenges and difficulties of building a software testing team and process?

High initial investment cost for human resources 

According to Payscale, based on the latest updates on Jan 04 2022, the average salary for a Software Tester is $56,468.

However, the investment cost for a Software Tester Engineer does not just stop at salary, but also includes the cost of recruitment, training and other employee benefits. The IT industry is currently facing a shortage of human resources; therefore, recruitment becomes extremely competitive among businesses. Software testers have a high chance of job hopping when they find a company with better benefits and salary. Employers have to invest a lot of money and effort for headhunt services to successfully recruit a quality employee.

In addition, Software Testers at different levels also have different salaries range. Below is the salary range of a Software Tester from Entry level to Experienced.

The costs listed above are only calculated for one employee. Try to do a quick calculation, multiply this number by 5 or more if you want to build an in-house testing team.

High initial investment cost for testing tools

Besides the investment in human resources, businesses will have to prepare a budget for both facilities and testing tools. If it’s automation testing then you will only need to set up your computer and buy testing tools. But if it is an embedded test, the enterprise will have to invest in more complicated and expensive testing machines such as CANoe and CANat equipment, … Not to mention, when it comes to Integration and system testing, it requires set up for different test environments.

Bias in Software Testing: How Do Testers Miss Bugs?

According to Psychology Today, a bias is a tendency, inclination, or prejudice toward or against something or someone. Some biases are positive and helpful—like choosing to only eat foods that are considered healthy or staying away from someone who has knowingly caused harm. But biases are often based on stereotypes, rather than actual knowledge of an individual or circumstance. Whether positive or negative, such cognitive shortcuts can result in prejudgments that lead to rash decisions or discriminatory practices.

One of the fundamentals of software testing; as referred to by the International Software Testing Quality Board (ISTQB); is that testing helps detection of defects. Taking into consideration that humans are an integral entity in software development, it is impossible to certify a 100% bug-free program when tests aren’t detecting any defects. Human testing detects and reduces the probability of undiscovered defects remaining in the software but even if no defects are found, it is not proof of perfection.

When the testers approach any testing, they are already influenced by their own biases – framing thoughts and judgments based on what to look for, where there would be potential defects coming up, who is developing it, the entire history of the program etc., and the list goes on.

 

7. In-House Software Testing vs. Outsourcing: What should you choose?

For the above challenges, many businesses choose to outsource software testing services. Because a flexible and quick team ramp-up/down on demands will bring benefits to businesses such as:

Cost-Effective and Time Efficient:

As mentioned above, effort, resources and investment costs for an in-house testing team are extremely expensive. Outsourcing a testing team will be the optimal choice to save the above investment costs. In particular, businesses can take advantage of low-cost labor when offshore outsourcing. For example, in Vietnam, the average salary of Software Test Engineer is $18633.55/year, 5 times lower than in the US and 6 times lower than in Japan (according to Salary expert data).

In addition, by outsourcing, your business can set up a testing team immediately, skipping the entire process of recruiting, training, setting up office equipment. An 24/7 available and flexible testing team that can ramp up or ramp down on demand. A team works independently, along with the in-house team to increase work efficiency and speed up time to market. Especially, when the demand for testing is huge due to continuously release, in-house QA team struggle to handle, offshore team can help optimize resource allocation. Your in-house team will not be overloaded and be able to focus on core business.

 

Access to larger pool of Expertise and quicker transformation to another test method

When outsourcing to another country, your business will expand its talent network. This will also make it much easier to switch testing methods or types. No need to compete with domestic enterprises to hunt for candidates, no time to research and train new methods. If you want to move from manual testing to automation testing to optimize testing effort and speed up time to market, why not outsource it?

For example, in Vietnam today, IT resources are growing in both quantity and quality. According to the latest report of TopDev, Vietnam currently has 1.03M IT labor force and 62,000 graduated IT students/year. The Vietnamese government also has policies to support the development of the IT industry and facilitate international cooperation.

In Vietnam, there are also leading testing companies, meeting international standards. LQA is an example when it becomes a silver partner of ISTQB (International Software Testing Qualifications Board).

No bias and Fresh perspective:

As shared above, one of the challenges and disadvantages of in-house testing teams is bias. To solve this problem, businesses can ask a 3rd party to cross-evaluate the quality of the product. From there, compare with the results of the in-house team to get the most objective result. Eliminating the trails of in-house testers and approaching fresh perspectives is the special benefit that offshore testing teams bring to businesses.

Below is a comparison table of the most basic criteria between Offshore Software Outsourcing Testing and In-house Software Testing. Businesses can rely on this assessment to choose the most optimal model for their needs at this time.

 

However, every coin has two sides, outsourcing software testing also has some drawbacks, including language barrier and low security. Therefore, businesses must survey, learn and thoroughly evaluate the reputation of vendors before cooperating. Deeply aware of these concerns of businesses, LQA has always focused on improving the English skills of its personnel and always puts security first. With a closed quality management process and absolute security, LQA has been trusted by many large enterprises such as LG Electronics, Toshiba, Qualacomm, FPT, Baoviet,…

 

8. How many Offshore Software Testing Models are there and Which one is the Best-fit?

Once you have chosen a reputable vendor to outsource testing services, the next thing you need to pay special attention to is to agree on technical and engagement models from the very beginning. Working remotely with a team sitting on the other side of the globe will lead to miscommunication, misunderstandings in the process of cooperation. To limit this, businesses must agree on the process and way of working from the beginning. Below are the commonly used models and the cases where each specific model should be applied.

 

Final Thoughts

LQA has listed and answered the above questions based on previous experience working with businesses. The above 8 questions are the 8 problems that many businesses worry the most when learning about Software Testing solutions. With thorough answers, LQA hopes to help you understand more about this field and find the best solution to optimize your business’ QA process and speed up time to market. If you are still struggling and need further professional advice, the LQA experts can help!

 

We, at Lotus QA, are just a contact form away:

Website: lotus-qa.com/

Tel: (+84) 24-6660-7474

Fanpage: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lqa//

 

Hi there! Welcome to LQA’s guide on Manual Testing vs. Automation Testing comparison, their characteristics, applications, and when to use each method. 

We will cover manual testing and automation testing differences in an infographic. But before going into details, we want you to be clear that:

• Manual testing is the traditional and fundamental test method in software testing. We often use the manual method to test new products or when we don’t have a clear understanding of the products or when the systems haven’t become stable yet. 
• Automation testing is considered a high-tech test method in comparison to manual one. We often use this test method to reduce resources and time consumed for testing a system that is stably functioning and we already clearly know about it.

So, an ideal path is to use manual testing for the first time(s) and utilize automation testing to reduce test efforts and increase test productivity when things become stable and predictable!

Also, automation test doesn’t mean that the whole test process will be automated. Such steps like Requirements analysis, Test planning, and Test case design are done manually before a test automation engineer can program the test script and start automation test execution and test report.

That’s a quick look. And now, let’s go into comparison!

 

Manual Test vs. Automation Test Comparison

 

You may want to know: 6 steps to transition from manual testing to automation testing.

So, Manual Testing vs. Automation Testing – Which one is for you?

The answer of whether you should choose automation testing or manual testing depends on your situation. For example, choose manual test if:

• Your product is new and you don’t have experience with this kind of product before.
• The AUT (Application under test) changes frequently.
• You have a limited budget.
• You want to ensure user-friendliness in the product.
• You want to handle complex test cases.
• Your team doesn’t have the tech ability (for any reason) to set up and maintain automation.

And choose automation test if:

• There are repetitive tasks in a stable-functioning system and you want to reduce these tasks.
• When your system has frequent releases and you want to decrease test cycle time to speed up the processes.
• You have a great budget for building automation testing. 
• You consider the test ability is needed in a long-term period.
• You want better transparency of testing activities. Statistics and graphs about the test process, performance, and error rates are explicitly indicated.

Want to dig deeper into manual testing vs. automation testing and decide the one suitable for your business? Contact LQA now for a FREE consultation with our specialists and experts.

• Website: https://www.lotus-qa.com/
• Tel: (+84) 24-6660-7474
• Fanpage: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lqa

Since the launch of the economic reform Đổi Mới in 1986, Vietnam has taken effective steps toward an open and supportive business environment. As of 2022, Vietnam makes it to be among the top 10 destinations for software outsourcing services. So, what factors make Vietnam stand out, and what challenges remain?  This article will dig into the pros and cons of IT outsourcing in Vietnam, plus what we can do (and are actually doing) to resolve these disadvantages. But first, let’s take a look at Vietnam’s IT outsourcing infrastructure!

Vietnam IT Outsourcing Market Outlook 2022

5 Benefits Of IT Outsourcing In Vietnam

IT outsourcing to Vietnam brings loads of benefits regarding resources and quality, facilitated by competitive pricing, strong IT infrastructure, and an open business environment for the IT sector.

1. Cost saving

Spanning South-East Asia – one of the cheapest regions in the world, Vietnam has successfully seized this pricing advantage to become the 6th-greatest destination for software development. As of 2022, Vietnam scores 99.8/100 in Cheap manufacturing costs rated by the US NEWS and is among Asia’s lowest, according to a survey by TMX Global.  That’s why the first benefit of IT outsourcing to Vietnam is a much lower cost than that in most other IT outsourcing countries. For example, it takes $20-$45 per hour to hire a senior Vietnamese developer and $65-$130 per hour for an American one.

2. Access to qualified IT human resources

As quality is a prerequisite while the IT sector is so particular, a skilled IT workforce is vital to ensure qualified and secured software products. Talking of numbers, Vietnam has 1,08 million IT staff including 400,000 programmers. 148 Vietnamese universities and 412 vocational colleges are qualified to provide IT education, adding 62,000 IT human resources to the market annually.  In a quality manner, Vietnamese IT labor is considered skilled, hard-working, and trustworthy, acting as per what they promise and adhering to the plan. Some achievements that they’ve got:

• Top ten countries with the highest number of engineering graduates (2022) 
• Vietnam ranks 29th in terms of Skillvalue Worldwide in the Developer Skills Chart of Skill Value Report (2018). 
• Top 06 worldwide in Developer Skills Charts of Topcoder (2022). 
• Rank 23rd worldwide in Developer Skills Charts of Hackerrank’s Report (2016). 

3. Keeping pace with new technologies

Another advantage of outsourcing IT functions in Vietnam is that you can utilize innovative technologies ability to build software applications with enhanced quality, security, and user experience. Here, how does Vietnam actually develop new technologies ability? Education comes first! Annually adding, adjusting, and enhancing training programs in AI, Data Science, Big Data, Cloud Computing, IoT, VR / AR, Blockchain, 3D Printing, etc.  Also, hosting awards to encourage initiatives for new technologies, such as the AI Award 2022 and RMIT Blockchain FinTech 2022. Next is infrastructure, Vietnam is ambitious to build a National AI Research and Development Program with an AI Valley in Quy Nhon. We also establish many communities for specific technologies, such as the Vietnam Blockchain Association (VBA), VietAI, AI4Life, Artificial Intelligence Community, etc.

4. Access to dedicated end-to-end IT services

A big bonus when outsourcing software development in Vietnam is comprehensive and professional end-to-end IT services, thanks to the rise of end-to-end IT outsourcing firms.  Take LTS Group, for instance, we have LTS EDU specializing in IT training, LTS for software development, LQA for software quality assurance, and GDS for digital transformation. Meaning that our clients will conveniently get comprehensive services to optimize their business outsourcing.

5. Open and stable business environment

Vietnam ranks 21st globally in Open For Business fueled by a stable society and supportive government policies. Dig deeper, Vietnam is a united nation with one party and religions co-existing beautifully. Vietnam is almost free of religious conflict. Also, the government has provided many exemptions and reductions in tax, land rental, etc exclusively for the IT industry.  Hence, outsourcing to Vietnam will help business owners lower the risks of being distracted by unfavorable social situations or struggling with complicated cross-border procedures when working with offshore partners.  Also read: Top IT outsourcing companies in Vietnam

Disadvantages Of IT Outsourcing In Vietnam

Yes, the above benefits are undoubtedly great, but the challenges of IT outsourcing in Vietnam do exist. Let’s dig into them and see what we can do to resolve them!

1. English is not a native language

Vietnamese software developers have used English for many years as the official working language when working with global partners. But, above all, English is not a native language, and you shouldn’t expect perfect English communication when working with Vietnamese IT providers.  This is probably the biggest challenge when IT outsourcing to Vietnam. So, how IT companies in Vietnam are improving this, and how the clients can lower the risks? Apart from English subjects as mandatory at schools, companies themselves are encouraging English learning in specific ways. For example, at our holding company LTS Group, we have an active English club with hands-on communication sessions every morning, plus set Friday as a fully English-speaking day. And 86% of our employees can communicate well in English. On the other hand, as a client, you should carefully assess the people that will communicate with you and report to you during the project, especially the project leader. Another tip is to prioritize vendors with solid experience in working with global clients from various countries.

2. Time Difference

A common disadvantage in offshore development that not only Vietnam facing is the timezone barrier. Vietnam with the GMT+7 timezone is 11 hours ahead of the US and 7 hours ahead of the UK, for example. So, it can be a challenge if you work on an agile development model that often requires real-time interactions and responses. So, the solutions are so clear here. The client can consider the project-based model to minimize interactions or both parties together find a proper way of communication and reporting to lower the barrier of timezone.

Key Takeaways

There’re always pros and cons when working with an offshore development provider. In the case of IT outsourcing in Vietnam, the juiciest benefits are probably competitive costs and quality assurance while the biggest challenge lies in the language barrier. Still, overall, we see that the benefits of outsourcing to Vietnam outweigh the drawbacks, proven by the current strong position of Vietnam on the global IT outsourcing map.

About LQA

LQA is the first independent quality assurance company in Vietnam. We’re a member of LTS Group which specializes in software QA, software development and BPO. If you are seeking dedicated end-to-end IT services or specific IT functions, don’t hesitate to leave us a message and get our responses in no time!

• Website: https://www.lotus-qa.com/
• Tel: (+84) 24-6660-7474
• Fanpage: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lqa/

 

Kiểm thử phần mềm là một quy trình quan trọng trong vòng đời phát triển phần mềm. Tuy nhiên, nhiều doanh nghiệp với sự hạn chế về nguồn lực cũng như chuyên môn và thời gian đã lựa chọn thuê ngoài dịch vụ testing như một giải pháp thay thế hữu hiệu cho nguồn lực nội bộ. 

Trong bài viết này, chúng ta sẽ tìm hiểu 5 lý do tại sao nên thuê ngoài dịch vụ testing nhằm giúp các doanh nghiệp có thêm thông tin trong việc lựa chọn giữa insourcing và outsourcing. 

1. Hiệu quả về chi phí 

Sử dụng dịch vụ testing thuê ngoài giúp doanh nghiệp giảm thiểu các chi phí về nhân sự, quản lý và cơ sở hạ tầng cho hoạt động kiểm thử phần mềm.  

Đầu tư nguồn nhân lực và cơ sở hạ tầng cho một quy trình kiểm thử phần mềm nội bộ luôn là một thách thức với các doanh nghiệp có nguồn lực hạn chế. Bằng việc sử dụng dịch vụ testing của công ty kiểm thử phần mềm, doanh nghiệp có thể tránh được một số vấn đề như sau: 

• Sự thiếu hụt nguồn nhân lực testing trong bối cảnh cuộc chiến nhân tài công nghệ ngày càng gay gắt. 
• Chi phí tuyển dụng và phúc lợi cho nhân viên trong ngành IT cao. 
• ROI thấp do nhu cầu sử dụng thấp nhưng chi phí đầu tư cho cơ sở hạ tầng (phần mềm, thiết bị test) cao. 

2. Cải thiện chất lượng kiểm thử 

Thuê ngoài dịch vụ testing giúp doanh nghiệp tăng chất lượng kiểm thử nhờ nguồn nhân lực có chuyên môn cao, đa dạng phương pháp kiểm thử và tiếp cận nhiều luồng quan điểm khách quan hơn. 

Lợi ích về nguồn nhân lực 

Nguồn nhân lực testing tại các công ty chuyên về dịch vụ kiểm thử phần mềm thường được đào tạo bài bản và có nhiều kinh nghiệm trong ngành. Ngoài ra, các công ty dịch vụ chuyên nghiệp có khả năng thu hút được các chuyên gia trong ngành cao hơn. Do đó, thuê ngoài testing giúp doanh nghiệp ở mọi quy mô tiếp cận nguồn nhân lực chất lượng cao và thực hiện việc kiểm tra chính xác hơn. 

Đa dạng phương pháp kiểm thử 

Trong một số trường hợp, việc kết hợp các phương pháp kiểm thử khác nhau giúp gia tăng hiệu quả phát hiện lỗi và giảm chi phí kiểm thử phần mềm về lâu dài cho doanh nghiệp. Tuy nhiên, để đầu tư một đội ngũ kiểm thử nội bộ đa chuyên môn luôn là một thách thức. 

Ví dụ: Xu hướng kết hợp phương pháp Kiểm thử thủ công và Kiểm thử tự động trong một sản phẩm phần mềm đang trở nên phổ biến.   

• Kiểm thử thủ công cho functional testing, compatibility testing. 
• Kiểm thử tự động cho API testing và performance testing, cũng như các thao tác lặp đi lặp lại. 

Tuy nhiên, kiểm thử tự động yêu cầu người kiểm tra có khả năng về code và các công cụ phần mềm hỗ trợ như Selenium, Katalon và không phải nhân viên kiểm thử thủ công nào cũng có thể nhanh chóng chuyển qua kiểm thử tự động. Do vậy, việc thuê ngoài testing sẽ giúp doanh nghiệp liên tục cập nhật các công nghệ, phương pháp testing mới nhất, mang lại hiệu quả phát hiện lỗi và lợi ích về đường dài cao hơn. 

Tiếp cận nhiều luồng quan điểm 

Một nhóm kiểm thử nội bộ có thể có các thiên kiến hoặc những hiểu biết trước về sản phẩm và chỉ chăm chú vào các khía cạnh đó. Tuy nhiên, một nhóm kiểm thử bên ngoài không có kiến thức trước đó về sản phẩm sẽ chú ý đến mọi góc cạnh và có xu hướng đánh giá lỗi khách quan hơn, nhìn ra nhiều vấn đề hơn và thực hiện testing toàn diện hơn. 

3. Giảm thời gian đưa sản phẩm ra thị trường 

Một lợi ích khác của việc thuê ngoài testing là sự linh hoạt trong việc tăng/giảm quy mô nhóm để nhanh chóng đáp ứng với các biến số và tránh sự gián đoạn trong quá trình phát triển phần mềm.  

Ngoài ra, quy trình làm việc tối ưu cùng năng suất làm việc cao của công ty kiểm thử phần mềm cũng góp phần đẩy nhanh giai đoạn kiểm thử, giúp rút ngắn thời gian phát triển và đưa sản phẩm ra thị trường nhanh hơn.  

4. Giảm rủi ro mâu thuẫn nội bộ 

Thuê ngoài dịch vụ testing giúp doanh nghiệp giảm được rủi ro về mâu thuẫn giữa nhóm phát triển và nhóm kiểm thử trong một quy trình phát triển phần mềm.  

Trong khi các nhà phát triển muốn hoàn thành công việc trong thời gian ngắn nhất, các chuyên gia kiểm thử thường vô tình kéo dài thời gian phát triển với việc cố gắng tìm ra lỗi và yêu cầu sửa lỗi. Do đó, mâu thuẫn này luôn tồn tại trong các công ty công nghệ và việc thuê ngoài đội kiểm thử sẽ giảm thiểu tình trạng xung đột trong nội bộ công ty. 

5. Tập trung vào lĩnh vực cốt lõi 

Một lợi ích rõ ràng khác của việc thuê ngoài dịch vụ tesing là doanh nghiệp có thể tập trung nguồn lực vào các hoạt động quan trọng và mang lại hiệu quả sử dụng nguồn lực cao hơn. Ngoài ra, việc chuyển giao bớt công việc cho đối tác giúp giảm áp lực lên các nhân viên của công ty, giúp mọi người làm việc năng suất hơn và tạo nên môi trường làm việc hiệu quả hơn.  

Lựa chọn đối tác kiểm thử tin cậy với LQA 

Như vậy, có nhiều lợi ích để một công ty quyết định thuê ngoài dịch vụ testing. Nếu bạn đang tìm kiếm những yếu tố này thì kiểm thử phần mềm thuê ngoài rất đáng để cân nhắc: 

• Tiết kiệm chi phí 
• Cải thiện hiệu quả kiểm thử 
• Hiệu quả về đường dài 
• Giảm thời gian phát triển sản phẩm 
• Giảm rủi ro mâu thuẫn nội bộ 
• Tập trung vào lĩnh vực cốt lõi 

LQA là một công ty chuyên về dịch vụ kiểm thử và đảm bảo chất lượng phần mềm với 6 năm kinh nghiệm cung cấp giải pháp tùy chỉnh cho khách hàng đến từ 9 quốc gia. Liên hệ LQA ngay để được tư vấn về dịch vụ kiểm thử phần mềm cũng như các kiến thức liên quan!   

 

A test automation framework defines a set of rules or best practices which you can follow in a systematic way to achieve the desired results in test automation. The success of automated testing highly lies in choosing the right type of test automation framework. Unfortunately, different automation projects come with separate requirements and challenges, making it hard to find a one-size-fits-all solution to go.

So, let’s learn how to choose a suitable automation framework for your project.

How to choose the right test automation framework?

 

Selenium is among the most popular test automation frameworks

Step 1: Clarify the project requirements

Every effective automation test project starts with the right requirements set. First and foremost, you need to have a clear understanding of the project characteristics as well as the target testing outcome.

For example, when we designed test automation frameworks for our client’s F&B applications, we listed out the following:

• Test scope: 20 web & mobile applications with 5 – 6 releases per year for each application.
• Client’s needs: UI automation testing & APIs for backend testing; Cross browsers and operating systems testing.
• Target outcome: Reduced time for regression test.

• Challenges: End-2-end test flow is complicated and the data set is huge for API tests.
• Solution: Develop API test program (using Java), support data-driven to test a huge dataset.

Step 2: Define the budget

To set a budget for your test automation project, you have to calculate the effort for developing and maintaining scripts, plus the budget for automation testing tools and infrastructure. Types of test automation framework include:

• Open-source frameworks

• Commercial frameworks
• Customized frameworks

Then, decide whether you will use a free, open-source framework or pay for a commercial tool. There are pros and cons to each option:

• Open-source tools: They are free tools with an active community, free tutorials, and meetups. However, open-source tools may become outdated, become too slow, not 100% fit your project, and require high-tech capacity to customize.
• Commercial tools: Also called paid tools, offering a lot of features outside of the box. Still, with high costs, they’re unpopular and hard to find tutorials and support from the community. They should provide users with prompt customer support for all technical issues.

Although the commercial tools come with high initial investments, they help increase productivity and benefit us much better in the long term. If you’re ready to spend money on a commercial tool, it’s better to start a free trial and experiment on a small project before buying the full package.

Step 3: Consider the tech stack

An ideal framework for test automation should be compliant with the programming language used for the project as well as familiar with your team.

Firstly, you should see if your test automation engineers are well versed in a particular language and framework, then, compare it with the programming language that your project was developed on. If there’s a difference, take into account the effort spent on getting familiar with the language and the effect of using it. Maybe it will decrease your team’s productivity, but it won’t expand the required tech stack and allows you to ease into the process while helping to avoid unexpected issues.

In case you work with mobile apps, you’ll also have to consider the supported platforms. If you target various platforms, you should choose a tool that supports all. For instance, Selenium and Appium support both IOS and Android.

Step 4: Evaluate the test automation framework

There are some aspects that you need to consider before choosing a framework for the automation project.

Maintenance and reusability

A significant factor that escalates the total cost for test automation is script maintenance. Even a small change of application can cause the script to fail. So, if debugging is easy, it could reduce the effort.

On the other hand, script reusability saves you and the team a great deal of time for similar test cases as you can reuse test scripts.

Integration capabilities

CI/CD is now becoming quite popular in software development. The chosen framework should be able to integrate into the CI/CD pipeline to ensure full automation.

Nice-to-have features

• Report: A well-categorized, easy to read, easy to understand report display will be a bonus for an automation framework. Because the ability to analyze errors when reading reports will help reduce debugging effort for the project.

• Behavior Driven Development Framework: If you are not a techie, using BDD frameworks with Gherkin syntax will be an advantage to help you better understand the project. The BDD framework also gives a fairly readable report with the steps written in human languages (English, Vietnamese…)

Step 5: Verify the selection

When you come up with your selection among automated test frameworks, don’t implement it immediately. Proof of concept (POC) may be very useful for conformity checks or in case you still have some doubts about the tool.

This POC can help you identify:

• How the framework is maintained

• How easy it is to use
• Whether it meets your requirements
• If it addresses some of the high-priority edge cases you have, as well as different scenarios and controls in the application.

Step 6: Make the final decision

You now have all the necessary information to decide the right framework for your automation test project. You should have a strong awareness of the test automation tool, understand all the strong and weak points of the solution and keep the balance between cost and benefits.

Let LQA helps you choose the right test automation framework

Although choosing between different types of test automation framework will take some time and effort, it is a prerequisite to ensure effective automation tests in the long term.

At LQA, we have 6 years of providing custom testing and QA solutions to global clients. We implement both manual and automated tests to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of your project. Don’t hesitate to contact us for a free consultation regarding selecting the test automation framework or figuring out the plan for your next steps!

• Website: https://www.lotus-qa.com/
• Tel: (+84) 24-6660-7474
• Fanpage: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lqa/

 

Automation testing has emerged as a new destination for quality assurance, resulting in consistently high demand for automation testing labor. But amid the tech talent war, companies do need an effective test automation engineer hiring process to attract quality automation candidates.

So, in this article, we will guide you through 5 steps to hire a test automation engineer. This guide comes from real recruitment experience at our company as well as consulting some experts in the industry. Let’s take a look first:

• Clarification of requirements
• Write a job description
• Source and shortlist candidates
• Interview
• Final step

How To Hire A Test Automation Engineer?

1. Clarification of requirements

Clarifying the role should be the first step to hiring a true Test Automation Engineer. To do that, you need to define whom you want to hire, their contribution and the skills needed. At LQA, we divide automation test workers into three main groups which are junior, middle, and senior. Also, this article will focus more on a senior automation tester interview as it requires more aspects to consider.

Generally, a senior tester engineer will take part in the planning phase, make decisions, handle complicated tasks, and lead a small team. He/she can also be the bridge between the team and other stakeholders if needed. Therefore, we often require as follows:

• Manual test experience
• Automation test experience
• Test scripts creation ability
• Understanding of test automation technique
• Language ability
• Management skills

As automation tests differ from manual tests in the way that they use code-based test scripts to automate processes, a senior automation test worker should be able to define, develop, execute, and maintain test scripts. He/she also possesses manual test experience and understands test cases, hence can decide when to use manual tests and when to apply automation tests to optimize the QA process. Besides, he/she ideally understands various kinds of test automation frameworks to select the best suit.

2. Write a proper automation test engineer job description 

A smart JD is a key to an effective test automation engineer hiring process. This is when the hiring department understands the above requirements and builds an ideal candidate profile on paper. As we are seeking a senior role, the job description (JD) should be custom and specific. We recommend you include the following aspects.

Company summary

Talk about the employer branding, working environment, and whatever makes your company stand out. Especially, employer branding is an important part of a good job description. According to Glassdoor statistics, 75% of active job seekers are more likely to apply if an organization manages its employer brand. So, don’t forget to briefly convey your company’s reputation in your JD.

Job responsibilities

Here, let talk about the role’s duties and contribution to the company. Senior automation engineers also care about their effect on the company as well as their career path. Thus, they wish to see more impactful activities in the responsibility section, such as planning, managing, optimizing, and innovating, instead of raw tasks only.

Requirements

This is the section for must-have and nice-to-have skills and expectations for this role. Here, clearly mention what you expect from the applicant. For example, bachelor’s degree in computer science, Python language knowledge, mobile or web application automation test experience, Selenium WebDriver framework ability, etc. Plus, they ideally have equivalent certificates in software testing like the ISTQB and in languages such as IELTS certificates.

Benefits

And last but not least, don’t forget to include details of the salary and other compensation that he/she will get. According to Glassdoor, money is the biggest motivator for 67% of candidates. Meanwhile, Zety statistics showed that 74% of job seekers expect to find salary information right in the JD.

3. Source test automation candidates and pre-screen

In this step, the HR department seeks candidates through various sources, including active and passive candidates. Remember to post the job as soon as possible to increase the chance of receiving more applications as well as for the selected candidate to get ready. Particularly, when you source passive candidates who are employed, it may take a month or more for them to be ready.

Here, we recommend two effective ways to source automation engineers as follows.

Find them in forums and groups for automation engineers, such as:

• The largest communities of testers in the world like uTest.
• Top-performed automation test groups on Facebook like Automation testing – Seleniums.
• The top recruitment sites for IT talents, e.g. Dice and Linkedin.
• Place where tech engineers are the most active such as Github and StackOverflow.

Partner with companies that provide hiring support, including:

• Headhunting like McDermott + Bull.
• Employee referral programs like Boon and Jobvite.
• Staff Augmentation or B-O-T services such as LQA.

Recruiters then come up with a list of potential candidates, do pre-screening and brief telephone interviews, and return to the automation department with a list of ideal profiles. The person in charge of the test department will screen again to find out the top potential candidates for the interview phase.

At LQA, the automation leader is responsible for screening and evaluating the candidates. For such high-level positions, apart from reviewing the information provided by this person, he also refers to the references of previous colleagues and checks the candidate’s social networking profile.

4. Conduct automation test engineer interviews

After several steps to find out the most potential applicants for a test automation expert, we now come to an in-person automation test interview. But first, do you know what our CTO and automation leaders advise the most when it comes to an interview in tech? They are:

• Make it a comfortable and practical talk instead of police interrogation (obviously, right?).
• Focus on effect, as experience is not always the number of working years.

• Don’t bring a big technical test into the interview that takes 5-6 hours of your candidates, unless you are hiring employees for Google and Microsoft.

Why should you focus on effect?

At LQA, we concentrate on the impact when hiring a senior automation test engineer. E.g., if a candidate has generated 100 test scripts for UI automation tests but none of them work efficiently, or he has executed a small number of similar tasks during his previous 3 years of working, then we won’t prioritize him.

Conversely, once an applicant with less working time proves his ability via the effect, such as in a previous automation project, he was able to lower the time for executing a regression cycle from this time to that time and reduce time-to-market for new releases, then we highly value this.

Why shouldn’t you ask for a big test? 

Because we already have an overview of the candidate’s ability from step 3, plus there are various questions that the interviewer can ask to deeper check if this person is proficient in automation testing techniques. At LQA, we prefer to bring an actual project to the interview and ask related questions to know if they have the practical knowledge and skills that we need.

Here are some test automation interview questions to more accurately assess an automation engineer’s ability.

Define the scope of automation:

1. How would you define the test cases for automation?
2. Please select the test scenarios to be automated from this QA process and say why or why not for a scenario to be automated.

Select automation testing tool:

1. How would you decide on the tools and frameworks?
2. Please choose automation testing tools and framework for this QA process and explain why.

Management skills:

1. What is your principle to avoid and handle conflicts between testers and developers?
2. Please tell us about your previous challenges in test automation and how you dealt with them.

Others:

1. Any other examples that you want to show to demonstrate your abilities?
2. Do you have any questions for us?

Lastly, remember to check if the candidate fits your organization’s culture and working environment, as he/she as a senior member will have a relative effect on other employees. Don’t hesitate to ask why he/she wants to be part of your company, their working methodology, management style, etc., and observe the way he/she behaves.

5. The final step to optimize future recruitment

The final step is when you make decisions and inform both selected and non-selected candidates about the test automation interview results. We have only one piece of advice here – do get back to all the candidates.

What we’ve noticed is that some companies just don’t get back to all interviewed applicants. Still, carefully informing them of the results will give the candidates a better feel for the company, help you extend the candidate pool for the future, and avoid bad reviews that lower the company’s reputation.

Final words

This article has come to an end! Above is what we want to share with you about how to hire a test automation engineer. Of course, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for companies to attract tech talent, but we’ve seen this Test Automation Engineer hiring process works for our company as well as our partners so we give it to you as an additional reference source.

About LQA

LQA has been a trusted Quality Assurance partner in the global IT market with clients in 9 different countries including Japan, Korea, the U.S., Singapore, Hong Kong, etc. We have implemented the best QA engineer hiring practices to build a qualified tech talent pool with over 50 testing staff. Hence, don’t hesitate to contact us if you need a trusted QA vendor for your business!

 

The benefits of IT Outsourcing are undoubtedly one of the most juicy reasons in any outsourcing decision. But what are the deciding factors that can drive one business owner into implementing IT Outsourcing? Let’s find out more about the Top 5 IT Outsourcing benefits that you need to know here.

5 Juicy Benefits of IT Outsourcing

1. Lower cost for your project

Unquestionably, the first advantage of IT outsourcing is cost reduction. As despite the amount of money and time that you need to spend on one project/application varies, it will definitely cost you quite a lot to put a fully functioning and bug-free application online.

Under the circumstance of the global economic market, many executives now prioritize their budgets, meaning that they would want to look for the most cost-effective solutions. Henceforth, if you put an in-house team, which can cost millions of dollars to build and maintain, and an outsourced team, which is 30-50% less costly on the table, the executives are leaning towards IT Outsourcing.

Look at this example, and you’ll understand what we’re trying to illustrate here. According to an UK talent report, it costs you $55,000/year to hire an average Java developer in the United Kingdom, and the number even reaches $90,000/year for an experienced one.

 

Benefits of IT outsourcing – Cost reduction

 

In contrast, the equivalent job in the Vietnam IT market would only cost you approximately $10,000. Looking at these numbers, you can see the huge gap between the talents from two different places. However, if you look closer into how the Java developers in Vietnam code and communicate, you will see no difference, at least in terms of professional knowledge.

So, what we’re trying to say here is that you will be able to hire a fully capable Java developer in Vietnam at a much lower price. The saved amount of money can be used in other investments within your projects.

Besides the lower salary, your business can save a fortune on the recruitment agency fee and management costs. No employer branding is needed, no costly marketing campaigns and no uncalled-for managing expenses.

Read more: How to estimate IT Outsourcing Cost

2. Higher chance to hire in-demand tech talents

What are the deciding factors for a high-profile software developer when they choose between companies?

According to a survey from TopCV Vietnam, 57,9% of the participants stated that they are concerned with how interesting it is to work in a company, while 48,7% emphasize the importance of the company’s tech stack. Both of these features can be found in big enterprises or IT-majored companies. But how about the small-to-mid-size companies that have no experience in digitalization and technologies? How are they gonna find the most suitable IT talents for their tech projects if they have no reputation?

These questions can be answered with IT Outsourcing advantages. With IT Outsourcing, you don’t have to worry about IT recruitment, as it is all taken care of by the vendors. These vendors have their tactics to attract, recruit, manage and retain tech talents. With them doing this for your business, you can save a lot of time while still having great access to their IT talent pool.

3. Quick time-to-market

Customers’ unquenchable desire for the most up-to-date features, corporate growth targets, shorter life cycles, and senior management pressure all contribute to speed-to-market. Many consumers demand a continuous set of upgraded features on an annual cadence due to the amazing velocity of innovation in mobile handset devices.

 

Benefits of IT Outsourcing – Quick time to market

 

When companies fail to reach their time to market targets, they lose money as well. A product that is six months late to market makes 33 percent less profit over five years, according to classic research by McKinsey & Co; if it is released on time but is 50 percent over budget, profits are only decreased by roughly 4%.

In the B2C software business, technology companies frequently employ and prosper with the concept of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Although this method entails some risk in terms of client satisfaction, it also allows the team to move rapidly and shorten the time to market by releasing a version with only the most essential functionality.

But how to you obtain quick time-to-market if you are still tangled with hiring and training talents? The answer is IT Outsourcing, as this approach helps you hire very quickly, and these hires barely need any training in the industry and technologies.

4. Flexibility & agility

Businesses grow and shrink at different times. It is widely recognized that these companies must be able to respond to these developments by adopting a flexible and scalable approach to their extended operations as well as their main business. As a result, it’s critical that your IT outsourcing partner can match and react to these changes in order to meet demand.

 

Benefits of IT Outsourcing – Flexibility

 

Businesses can adjust to shifting priorities and requirements because to this flexibility. Here are some reasons why IT outsourcing is critical to your business:

• • The outsourcing team can adapt to your company’s goals.
  • The outsourcing team can change in internal operations and advancements.
  • You can make adjustments and recommendations to shift focus, especially in agile methodology.
  • You can flexibly scale up and down your outsourcing personnel but it’s not that easy to an internal IT team.

5. More focus on your core business

Many activities in the workplace can serve as a distraction from the primary goal of the company. When a result, as the burden grows, the essential activities of the business deteriorate, which is bad for the company and hinders its growth.

Businesses can benefit from IT outsourcing by delegating some tasks to third parties, eliminating opportunity costs of implementing non-core businesses, and allowing them to focus on their core competencies. Third parties play an important role here by obtaining the tasks and manage everything. When a company’s burden is excessive, outsourcing can be tremendously beneficial.

 

Benefits of IT Outsourcing – Focus on core business

 

It’s been proven time and time again that focusing your time and attention on what you’re good at makes a lot more sense. If you run an education establishment, you should put your clients and teaching as your priority. But in order to elevate your service, you decide to develop an app that helps to learn. Instead of hiring a full-time and long-term team to work on the app, you should always outsource and update on the regular basis.

You will have more time to focus on the key things like inspiring employees and making profit by collaborating with an organization to take the lead and deliver your projects and products.

Reap the IT Outsourcing benefits with Lotus QA now

Lotus QA has the expertise and experience with IT services in many domains such as retail, food and beverage, healthcare, etc., making us one trustworthy and professional service provider for businesses wanting to implement IT outsourcing. When working with us, you will get access to many benefits of IT outsourcing, including:

• High Security: LQA not only follows stringent procedures of ISO 27000:01 for optimal security and international standardized process but also flexibly adapts to clients’ requirements
• Quality Human Resource: we ensure staff competency through strict rounds of interviews, on-job orientations, continuous learning & development for the most suitable QA staff.
• Flexibility: We provide different working models to allow clients to choose or change the plan at any time.

Contact us for more support:

• Website: https://www.lotus-qa.com/
• Tel: (+84) 24-6660-7474
• Fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/LotusQualityAssurance