Everything You Need To Know About Crowdtesting Solutions (FAQs)
What Is Crowdtesting?
Crowdtesting, also known as crowdsourced testing, is a process by which a developer or development company can test the quality of their software, including mobile, web and desktop apps, websites, and any other digital product. Crowdtesting can happen at any point in the software development process. It involves employing a team of independent digital experts that may have different demographics, be based in different locations, speak different languages, have different backgrounds, and so on, to act as a “proxy” audience for the software. The testers run the software on their own devices and provide detailed, real-world feedback on its quality, user experience, and functionality, along with details of any error, bugs, or areas for improvement. While testing, they can look at the software as a whole or be asked to focus on specific aspects of it, such as testing its features, accessibility, localization, or usability.
How Does Crowdtesting Work?
Crowdtesting solutions provide a centralized platform from which you can oversee and manage each of the four stages of the crowdtesting lifecycle. These are as follows:
Stage One: Planning and Preparation
In this stage, you outline the goals of your testing and identify the scope of testing. This includes the testing window/schedule and which product or features you want to cover. You also need to identify any specific skills that testers need, for example that they have knowledge of a certain industry. Finally, you need to outline your budget and deliverables, and set up a point of contact to manage the tests and set up a contract with your crowdtesting provider.
Stage Two: Initiation
In this stage, you configure the different scenarios to be tested and create a reporting template that your testers will use to capture the results of their testing. You also need to ensure that testers are provisioned with the level of access they need. If you want to set up a trial round of testing, that will also take place during this stage.
Stage Three: Execution
Once you’re ready and the testers know what’s expected of them, you can start the crowdtest.
Stage Four: Result Evaluation
When the test has been executed, you need to collect and evaluate the testers’ feedback. A crowdtesting solution should provide an interface to which testers can directly submit their reports, and from which your internal team can access them. It should also enable you to triage any identified issues according to their severity. They should integrate with your ticketing software to make it easier for your internal team to address those issues.
After resolving any issues that have been reported, you may want to re-test your product to ensure that all feedback was properly addressed.
What Are The Benefits Of A Crowdtesting Solution?
There are multiple benefits to crowdtesting:
- Flexibility and Scale: When you crowdtest a product, you essentially augment your in-house team with testers from various backgrounds and specialties from across the globe. By utilizing a larger testing team, and because testers provide feedback across all time zones, you can obtain actionable results much more quickly. It also frees up your internal team to work on any issues found as soon as they’re reported so that they can meet release deadlines—without compromising quality.
- Device Diversity: Testing labs and internal testing teams are often limited in terms of how many different device/operating system types they can test on, due to costs. They also usually have to follow a specific testing “path”, using the product as it was designed to be used. While this uncovers some flaws, it doesn’t simulate how real-world users might interact with the product, so may not pick up on everything. By crowdtesting, you can test how the product works across a wider range of devices, operating systems, browsers, and networks, and you can see how the product responds in real-world scenarios.
- Tester Diversity: Crowdtesting involves hiring a team of geographically distributed testers. This means that the demographics of those testers can have endless variations, which provides you with cultural-, accessibility-, and language-based feedback that you may not get in the lab. Plus, you can conduct targeted testing based on a specific demographic, if necessary, e.g., if you’re designing an app for a specific age range.
- Cost Optimization: Using a crowdtesting provider can help you access testers more quickly and at a lower cost than if you were to hire in-house product testers. Additionally, it’s much easier and cheaper to fix issues early on in software development lifecycle—before the product goes to market. Crowdtesting help you pick up on bugs and issues more quickly, making them cheaper to fix and helping to improve customer experience once the product is released.
- Documentation: Crowdtesters provide you with detailed, written reports that document any bugs, defects, or other issues they’ve found, including how you can find it in order to fix it. These reports also often include screenshots of the issue. When you use a crowdtesting solution, these reports are submitted to a single, central platform. Some crowdtesting solutions even provide integrations with issue-tracking software, making it easier for your team to manage and address submitted feedback.
What Features Should You Look For In A Crowdtesting Solution?
When comparing crowdtesting solutions, we recommend that you consider the following features to make sure your chosen solution aligns with your specific testing requirements:
- Testing Types and Coverage: evaluate the types of testing the platform supports, such as functional testing, usability testing, and security testing. Make sure that it covers any test scenarios relevant to your application.
- Diverse Tester Base: make sure the platform has a diverse pool of testers with varying devices, operating systems, and geographical locations. This helps simulate real-world usage scenarios.
- Skillset and Experience: check that the crowdtesting platform has testers with the relevant skills and experience for your project, particularly if your project requires specific technical expertise or industry knowledge.
- Real Devices and Environments: check that the crowdtesting solution provides access to real devices and environments to ensure accurate testing on various platforms.
- Reporting and Communication: look for a platform that offers clear and comprehensive reporting. In particular, look out for effective communication channels with testers and the ability to provide feedback.
- Security and Confidentiality: any reputable crowdtesting solution should have robust security protocols in place to protect your product’s confidentiality and sensitive data.
- Scalability: make sure the solution can scale based on the size and complexity of your project. This is important for handling a large number of test cases and ensuring quick results.
- Integrations: make sure the crowdtesting solution integrates well with your existing product development tools and processes, such as automation and ticketing tools.
