5 Key Advantages of Independent Testing

Testing is an important factor, not only in identifying and fixing bugs in an application but also in determining its life cycle. You will agree that thorough testing is crucial for rapid delivery of high-quality software. Industries across the globe have competently transformed testing mechanisms to proactively prevent bugs, thereby attaining higher quality standards. Independent testing is a collection of tests performed by one or more professional software testers, who are not related to the product development team. They are called “independent” because they are neither associated with the producer nor the consumer. Independent software testing can be conducted for web applications as well as applications on iOS and Android platforms. 

Need for Independent Testing

Organizations are expected to continuously develop and deliver high-quality software products with minimum budget. But they can neither hire different testers in advance nor as-and-when required as the former will hit the overall revenue of the organization in case if they are not put to use and the latter will impact product delivery. They also grapple with the never-ending change in client requirements and need to keep up with market demands. As product objectives change, testing requirements also change. Due to time and cost constraints, organizations may not be able to cater to these changes. As a result, product quality is either compromised or delayed, which is harmful for the reputation of an organization. All these challenges along with factors like software complexity, size, and user sophistication have led to the birth of independent testing organizations. Independent testers are neutral umpires who can analyze software from a business perspective rather than developer perspective. Not just that, independent testing teams can be scaled up and down as per testing requirements.

Key Advantages of Independent Testing

Independent testing has an upper hand over traditional testing in many ways. Let’s take a look at some of the key advantages that it offers:

1. Improved Software Quality – One of the top benefits of outsourcing testing to independent testing organizations is improved software quality. Independent testing teams engage in a bias-free procedure and make sure that the product is developed according to customer requirements and meets the desired objectives while maintaining high quality.

2. Experienced and Skilled Manpower – Independent testing organizations have experienced and skilled manpower to carry out testing activities in the best possible manner. They hire the best of talent across various testing domains like automation testing, manual testing, load testing, security testing, etc.

3. Lower Life Cycle Costs – Organizations that employ independent testers can focus exclusively on quality and adherence to requirements and maintainability and scalability to address future needs. This ensures low failure rates and reduced maintenance costs. Rigorous testing cycles for both functional and non-functional aspects like performance and stress handling is covered.

4. Reduced Time to Market – There is a reduced and improved time to market for organizations having an independent testing practice. Access to expertise in test automation skills ensures faster testing cycles. Predictability to testing efforts ensures adherence to timelines. Optimized staffing ensures effective handling of dynamic requirements.

5. Flexibility – We are living in a fast-paced world and we need to be flexible in order to keep up with the pace. You can opt for automation testing or manual testing based on organizational needs. You can easily switch between manual and automation testing as independent testing organizations have the best of talent and expertise to do so.

Conclusion

The need for ‘Independent Testing’ or ‘External Independent Evaluation’ started when some companies found that they could not afford testing resources on a permanent basis or when there were no skilled resources available to them. You can also choose independent testing if you feel that the output by your internal team is not sufficient or if you want to speed up and improve your application life-cycle. Evaluate your decision on the basis of certain factors such as time vs output, skills-set of the current workforce, organization’s finances, and market demands.