How to Manage a QA Team: Concerns, Solutions, and Tips

How to Manage an Outsourced QA Team

So, to help you feel more confident when working with an offshore team, let’s review common concerns, how they can be addressed, and what insights may help you out.

Communication

When it comes to QA outsource, the main concern is communication. Quality assurance teams are not physically present. So, it may seem there would be the issue of waiting time, which is common with online messengers, and discussions might lose their effectiveness when you are not face-to-face.

With a professional QA company, this worry is practically non-existent.

• QA experts are available via numerous communication channels. Depending on the project, you can have general and special chats for urgent updates or tasks that require prompt resolutions.
• Before the cooperation starts, you can establish clear communication guidelines. This will help you build trust with the QA team and let QA engineers fully grasp your expectations.
• Any technical troubles, e.g., the internet is down, can be quickly settled with the QA company’s management department. Such instances may be handled on the provider’s side, or a temporary substitute may be presented.

After all, we have been working within the digital ecosystem since 2020. Most companies are well-adapted to online collaboration and tailor their services to prevent and smoothly cover communication matters.

Varying Time Zones

Another aspect that many might find distressing is cooperating across different time zones. You will want to adjust the working hours to match, secure regular team meetings, and reach out to QA experts when needed. Such processes can become troublesome when local time differs, or so it may seem.

Frankly, this issue is often overthought. And sometimes, varying time zones can even become an advantage.

• QA engineers have enough common working hours to accommodate necessary live communication for a slight time difference.
• You can settle on the schedules in advance, and the quality assurance team can slightly modify their routines to better fit your desired working hours.
• QA specialists will use your preferred management tools where you can monitor all activities. They will provide timely reports, rely on the agreed testing software, and participate in scheduled meetings irrespective of the time zones.
• Finally, while your teams rest, the QA department runs testing. Your developers start their day with new bug reports and have a clean task sheet to cover.

Given professional communication, you can remove the ‘time zones’ issue from your worry list. Any concerns you might have can be swiftly resolved and working processes adjusted.

Fitting In

The start of the collaboration, particularly onboarding, might be distressing, especially when it is your first time engaging with outsourced QA services. Teams from different companies must have a common ground and stable workflow to be in sync. And it may be challenging for outside specialists to fit within your business ecosystem.

However, the essence of QA outsource is cooperation with other companies. And to make the long story short, they know how to do it.

• From your side, the optimal decision is presenting project demands from the beginning. Explaining your necessities fully will let a QA company select a better fit for your needs.
• Allow the QA specialists to get to know your project. For the most effective cooperation, they should be able to navigate needed documentation, files, communication channels, and tools you use. This will allow for a full immersion into your product.
• You should establish a clear workflow for the software testing team, organize their responsibilities, and align issue management procedures. In this way, QA engineers will be dedicated to their assignments and grow more productive.
• List the deliverables you expect. Any specific or general testing documentation/reports you want to receive should be discussed with QA experts for them to provide exactly what you want.

QA professionals are well-versed in these processes and typically have no issues when beginning a new project. They can even help set up or enhance the QA flow if this is something you need.

Lack of Control

A common pain point is simply letting go. Delegating certain responsibilities to an offshore team can be stressful. Also, managing the progress of external QA specialists as well as your own divisions may turn demanding. So can you ever be sure of the results your partner will present?

Interestingly, when you partner up with a QA company, you actually get triple control: from yourself, the quality assurance team, and the QA provider.

• The main aspect that will alleviate your worries is that QA work is visible. When QA engineers create documentation or report bugs, your entire team has access to these files and can see what was done.
• Experienced QA professionals always keep you up to date regarding their current and planned tasks. They know the value of timely updates and results, which are crucial for agile.
• Scheduling regular meetings to discuss plans and catch up on the executed work and using project management tools will help enhance the transparency of QA processes.

And do not hesitate to carry out specialized discussions with QA teams. This will let them feel more included, promote active project participation, and improve the workflow via their experience.

Regulations & Security

One more concern you might have, which is rather serious, is adhering to inner security and legal protocols. Say your region does not allow cooperation with certain countries. In this case, you need to be familiar with international regulations and watch out for dupes. But when it comes to keeping your company assets safe, it becomes a bit more unnerving.

In a nutshell, it all boils down to finding a truly professional QA provider and building trust.

• You could enquire about your QA partner’s information security certifications. For example, ISO 27001 certification is an auditable standard that demonstrates that a firm has the necessary resources and expertise to implement proper ISMS.
• You can create a legally binding set of documents designed to protect your assets, e.g., NDAs or SLAs.
• Also, competent QA companies do not keep project information in their systems. They only make use of data to which you provide access, including tools for password sharing.

You can discuss all these points before you settle on your QA outsource pick. An actually qualified QA vendor will be transparent with these matters and address any queries you might have.

Interaction & Availability

Selecting a QA company to cover your testing needs precisely may get a bit difficult. For instance, you may need just one QA engineer as extra help. Alternatively, you might want a dedicated QA team to work with you on a constant basis. Or maybe you need both options for different project phases. So, the question is: how the QA provider will accommodate this?

The first thing you will want to do is to get a full grasp of what you expect from testing. As with the examples above, you should understand what QA can do for your project in distinct scenarios.

• You should review the cooperation models the QA company offers and discuss what they think would be a good match. Relying on the expertise from both sides will produce an informed and viable decision.
• Then, there is the matter of making the right choice. Here you should enquire about the specifics each cooperation model entails. As an illustration, you may be offered part-time, full-time, by-estimate, or other options. Each of these is designed to cater to precise testing needs, e.g., the number of QA engineers, available working hours, etc.
• Also, you might need to go over the details regarding switching to a different model. As your project evolves and scales, you might begin to recognize new testing needs. Thus, your QA provider should be able to handle a live and changing product.

Overall, there is a fine selection of collaboration options that you can choose to implement. And one of them is bound to work out perfectly.

Level of Tech Expertise

When considering outsourced QA, technical expertise may turn into dismay. You can truly judge quality assurance’s effectiveness by results, and you do not see them until later. Hence, lack of experience in external teams is still a present fear, unfortunately.

However, this issue can be resolved with on-time assessments and in-depth discussions.

• First, you will want to communicate your testing expectations and goals and ask the QA company if they can achieve them. Always prioritize ‘how’ questions, as these will help you better understand whether the QA provider can deliver.
• Secondly, you should introduce the project and comb through tech details. Ask questions, share your concerns, and listen to what your potential partner has to say. Constructive and simple answers demonstrate enough expertise to not overcomplicate things and precisely address your pain points.
• You can also participate in the candidate selection process by reviewing resumes and attending interviews to be sure you get your wanted talent.

Adept QA vendors will strive to find QA engineers with experience similar to your project, as this will lead to faster onboarding and fewer confusions.

How QA Outsourcing Companies Manage Their Teams

To help you feel more comfortable with outsourcing, let’s go through the management process within a QA company. In short, it does not differ much from any other organization’s approach. It is all about business values and attitudes. But as we cannot speak for everyone, it would be logical to review management procedures from our side as an example.

Our main goal is keeping the teams productive and satisfied, which will lead to better output. So what do we do to achieve this goal? Here’s a number of things.

#1. Have an Established Onboarding Process for New Members

Apart from initial evaluations, which include technical interviews and test tasks, an important part of onboarding is clarity. In other words, it is critical to provide new QA engineers with a roadmap of what awaits them, set viable timelines, and properly introduce new projects. This will help avoid any fear factors, set clear expectations, and let them feel more welcome.

#2. Structure Knowledge Transfer and Education Procedures

To create an environment that encourages skill enhancement, it is great to establish resource bases to which QA agents can turn when needed. Further, teaching and training, e.g., organizing internal lectures and assigning mentors, is a good way to help newcomers grow professionally. Also, motivating QA specialists to receive certifications, e.g., ISTQB, gives them something to strive for and reinforces their own professional esteem.

#3. Set Performance Goals and Metrics

Having transparent milestones and quality standards makes the expertise improvement paths more visible for QA engineers. Knowing exactly what to do and how the work will be evaluated not only advances productivity but also points to aspects to focus on.

#4. Analyze the Work and Provide Regular Feedback

Regular progress checks let you keep up to date with QA specialists’ advancement. You can pick up on weak areas and offer resources to refine their skills. That is why giving constructive feedback is also essential. Besides reviews’ apparent benefits, it is often helpful to hear out an outside perspective on one’s performance.

#5. Listen to People

It may seem like a simple thing, but in big companies especially, this is actually an issue. You cannot overestimate the importance of communication for the success of both sides. Having one-on-ones with your team members lets you understand their ambitions, expectations, and attitudes toward different work situations. Which in turn builds trust and allows you to better apply QA talents.

#6. Motivate Your Team

It is critical to have a fine balance of praise and criticism. So, recognizing excellence, discussing complex issues, giving second chances, and learning from mistakes should always be evidence-based. Being positive yet firm helps establish healthy working relationships and allows you and your team to progress professionally and individually.

To Sum Up

When deciding on a QA provider, try not to capitalize on stereotypical perspectives. Instead, learn what you can about potential QA companies and focus on individual merits. Then, decide for yourself which option would be the optimal fit. And when you settle on a good business partner, managing working processes loses its fear factors, and any issues can be resolved via productive collaboration.