Offshore Testing

Heaven Or Hell

Steven Devry

Quasus

The days of first-to-market « good enough » IT products are over. Now more then ever, quality is key in gaining consumer loyaltyand confidence. QA however has his price.

Is the cost saving factor of Offshore testing always possible and valid? Or are the problems related to this approach costing more then they gain?

Offshore Testing

Heaven or Hell

Steven Devry

© quasus 2005

Agenda

• Models Offshore testing

• Tactical Outsourcing

• Dedicated Offshore Test Centre

• Test-Validate-Transfer

• Set up Offshore Test Centre

• Take over Offshore company

• Offshore projects flow

• From Theory to Practice

• Test Management problems

• Language

• Conclusion

• Q&A

© quasus 2005

Tactical Outsourcing

• What:

Contracting your testing work to an offshore vendor on a

project-by project base.

• Benefits

No cost and challenge of updatng your organization’s

technical skills every time a poject requires a special

capability

Low cost resource staffing accorrding to the project demand

Pricing based on project scope

Offshore vendor choice is flexilibel

© quasus 2005

Tactical Outsourcing

• Disadvantages

Reoccurring costs for administration and knowledge transfer

with every project

Local software, (non English) is not possible in pure

Offshore mode

Risk of bad performance from Offshore vendor

© quasus 2005

Dedicated Offshore Test centre

• What:

100% dedicated resources for the length of the contract.

Typically three to five year contracts.

Responsibility is transferred to the offshore partner

• Benefits

Access to a wide range of skills and technology expertise

without heavy local investments.

Continuity of business and process knowledge around your

application and users

No overhead cost for HR and infrastructure

© quasus 2005

Dedicated Offshore Test centre

• Disadvantages

High cost at the program start for knowledge transfer,

environmental set-up, … .

Vendor choice is crucial, since the contract is for a long

period

Less flexible resource adjustment

© quasus 2005

Test-Validate-Transfer

• What:

100% dedicated resources for the length of the contract.

Long term solution

Ownership is not transferred to Offshore partner

• Benefits

Full control over the project and teams.

Smaller learning curve since transferred team is part of the

Offshore team.

Limit overhead cost for HR and infrastructure

Testing of Local (non English) software is possible

© quasus 2005

Test-Validate-Transfer

• Disadvantages

Higher general cost. Since the transferred team is on

European salary.

Only possible for big and diverse projects

Not easy to find people that are willing to go abroad for a

long period of time.

© quasus 2005

Set up Offshore test centre

• What:

Creation of own Offshore test centre. Staffing and

infrastructure is own responsibility

• Benefits

No contractual negotiation needed.

Once fully operational, smaller learning curve needed

because of transparent approach

Possibility to work on local software.

No additional cost for the offshore vendor

© quasus 2005

Set up Offshore test centre

• Disadvantages

Requires a large investment in time and money before fully

operational

High Management involvement needed in countries with

different laws and procedures

Possible conflict with near shore employees.

Purchase - and maintenance cost of the hard and software

Resource staffing is less flexible

© quasus 2005

Take over Offshore company

• What:

Bying an established offshore testing company.

• Benefits

Same as Set-up offshore test center

The time to be fully operational is smaller then when setting

up your own offshore test center

© quasus 2005

Take over Offshore company

• Disadvantages

The best IT companies have already been bought

Seasoned, multi-lingual project and managers are needed

to work through, language and cultural barriers

Possible conflict with near shore employees.

High investment cost

Resource staffing is less flexible

Specific knowledge needed to make Offshore Direct-

Investment a succes

© quasus 2005

Offshore Projects

• One of the key success factors in Offshore is near shore

management

Dedicated

OffshoreOnsite

Offsite

Most Projects have

elements of Onsite

and Offshore which

will bring true

benefits of

outsourcing

Offshore

© quasus 2005

Unit and

Integration

testing

Analysis and

specifications

Check fixes &

handover of

Deliverables

Integration

Test Design

Review

Test Design

Acceptance and

implementation Project

closure and

warranty

Flow of work

Investigate and

solve found

issues

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Project Process Flow

High Level Design

Low Level Design

Coding

Code Walk-through

Unit Testing

Test Plan

Test PlanReview

Test Case

Integration Test Plan Review

Implementation

Client

Sign off

SRS Preparation

Requirement Study

SRS Review

Review

Internal Review

Integration Testing

SystemTesting

Integration Test Plan

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From theory to practice

• Why are so many projects in Offshore testing still having

problems?

• Project management off Offshore test projects is different

and demands special management skills

• Offshore Culture is different from the European mindset

• Language barriers makes it almost impossible for local

projects to go in Offshore mode

• Vendor selection demands insight in the offshore market

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Project 1

Client Office, Onsite

Office, India

Transfer complete

responsibility to

Offshore centre

After complete testing

give the result

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Project 2

Off-site/OffshoreOn-site

Near Shore

Project ManagerBusiness Analyst /

Solution Architect/

Developer-Tester

Customer

Project

Leaders

QA, CM, RM,

Documentation

Designers,

Programmers,

Testers

Project

Manager

Office Of

Excellence

© quasus 2005

Problems: Test Management

• Is this project suited for Outsourcing?

• Offshore vendor choice?

• Complete Offshore outsourcing or partial?

• Planning an Offshore test project?

• How to Set up of the Offshore test environment?

• How to track the progress of the test efforts?

• How to motivate the offshore team?

• How to manage the relation between the near shore and the Offshore team?

© quasus 2005

Is your project suited

• Detail and prioritize your projects goals and the projected

timetable to achieve them.

• Identify the core internal competences and the needed

competences.

• Based on the result ,evaluate whether it makes sense

going in Offshore mode

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Is your project suited

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Offshore Vendor Choice

• Find out their process and methodology in testing

• Get an insight in the competences they have

• Get down the details

Metrics for measuring success

Penalty closure when metrics and SLA aren’t met

• Get the vendor’s background package

Financial situation

Size of the company

• Investigate there references

If possible take contact with the reference company

© quasus 2005

ODC Head

Work Pack TeamsWork Pack Teams

Work Pack TeamsWork Pack Teams

Work Pack Teams

Onsite Coordinator(s)

HR Cell

Process Group

Resource Mgmt.

Admin Cell

Quality and Delivery Mng

Work Pack Managers

Tech Cell

Project Manager

Project Manager

Mgmt. Rep.

Perf. test

Autom. test

Quality Mgr

Auditor Quality

Auditor

On Site

Off Shore

Customer

Steering Committee

Project Committee

Complete or Partial

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Planning an Offshore Project

Test Effort Plan

Onsite

Offshore

© quasus 2005

Set up test environment

Offshore

• No downtime

• No support needed after

business hours

• Infrastructure requirement is

bigger for Offshore vendor

• Timeloss is bigger with

blocking issues

Near shore

• Tracing of test efforts is

more easy

• Releases to test

environment are more easy

• Maintenance and support

cost for the environment is

high

• Security is always an issue.

© quasus 2005

How to track the progress

• Plan regular visits to the offshore team

• Agree upon a communication plan upfront

Weekly progress report

Online tools for test management

Validate the progress near shore, by doing ad hoc testing of

the performed work offshore

Daily evaluation on the problems of the day

• Tend to question there work.

© quasus 2005

Motivation teams: Offshore and Near shore

• Emotional intelligence is a key factor in Offshore projects

Be aware that near shore people will feel a treat from the

offshore team.

Offshore cultural is different from the European culture.

Take the time to learn this culture, it will give you a different

insight in the problems of the team offshore

Give the offshore team the feeling there part of the project

team by visiting them on a regular base

© quasus 2005

Tips and tricks for EQ

• Ask for feelings, not functions

• Use Six Thinking Hats

• Listen!

•

• Focus on objective (what do you want to achieve?)

• Wait before answering

• Never escalate via e-mail

• Consider the culture

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Offshore Problem: Language

• What to do if requirements are not in English?

• What to do if the application is not in English?

• Problems with non native English speaking teams

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Non-English requirements

• Possible solutions

Solution 1

• Test design is done near shore and in English

• Test execution is done Offshore

• Offshore test execution will be more focussing on technical

aspects

Solution 2

• Go for Outsource model 3,4 or 5

• In order to lower this cost a joined venture with other

companies could be a solution

© quasus 2005

Non English applications

• Automation

Where the specific words in different languages are

parameters.

• Disadvantage:

1. More complex automation scripts

2. More preparation works

3. Not suited when application design changes

frequently during the project

• Advantage

1. Language can even change within the project

2. Regression tests take less time afterwards

© quasus 2005

Non native speaking teams

• Take more time in the design phase, to be sure that the

requirements are understood correctly

• Review the test cases, before going to the execution

phase

• Question the understanding of the offshore team.

© quasus 2005

Conclusion

• Offshore is an option , but still not for all projects

Evaluation is a key before going in outsource mode

1. Time

2. Resources

3. Complexity

4. Mindset and maturity of the project

Language is still an issue and if not English will make the

offshore project cost more and increases the risk

• There is a budget saving when going offshore for large

projects. But it has to be planned very carefully

For small project, Offshore is not a solution and the costs

involved are higher then the savings.

• It’s not the promised land, but diving into offshore can

become hell, because of the many risks involved.

Q&A