Crowdtesting: what fears lurk in the heart of an entrepreneur

It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!
Black Queen

The quote of Lewis Carrol’s character from his poem “Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There” sounds like she had known what IT industry is. If you are not keeping up with the pace – you are overboard. There are trends in the industry that can’t be ignored, if you want to succeed on the market of custom software development and crowdtesting is among the most future-oriented. As one industry analyst said about crowdsourced testing: “It is not Shakespearian question, whether to use crowdtesting or not. The question is where and when”.

He who reigns within himself and rules passions, desires, and fears is more than a king
John Milton

People are conservative, what is determined by their survival instinct. This is right for the majority, but the point is, that progress is driven by the ones who think beyond the square and dare to discover and try the unknown. They are the trailblazers, scientific pioneers and entrepreneurs. We have prepared the list of the most common fears about crowdtesting, that should be overcome to gain benefits from it.

Fear of non-confidence

A lack of transparency results in distrust and a deep sense of insecurity
Dalai Lama

A natural discomfort about the control over the process that is connected with all outsourced services. How do I know if the hired testers work stated time? How can I make sure that they are testing my product and the work goes on? Uncertainty and the lack of control over the processes chills customers to the bone. Lots of them go on a leash of their stereotypes and loose such a great opportunity. And it’s their loss! Today professional crowdtesting platforms have a solid infrastructure to support the testing process. You could track everything: time spent by the particular tester, list of bugs reported, and overall effectiveness. Everything is logged and could be monitored 24/7 anywhere. This could ease even the strongest anxiety.

Fear of integration

Starting something new is always scary, but in case of crowdtesting this fear is groundless. The entry barrier is very low. There are just a few simple steps that lay between you and the beginning of the process:

• first, sign up to the platform (2 minutes)
• answer the phone – Project Manager is calling!
• specify your tasks and requirements
• upload your testing build to the platform
• tip back in armchair and relax

The process is initiated, traced by PM so you can go about your business.

Fear of unskilled testers

Hell is full of musical amateurs
George Bernard Shaw

Nobody wants to pay for amateurs. Neither do you, right? Your fear whispers that sly providers dream about palming you off a newbie testers or even end users. No. Professional crowdtesting platforms have only certified testers with proven skills, technical background and good level of English. The staff they provide to you is their reputation that costs much more than few hundreds of dollars. Moreover, if you are not satisfied with the results of a particular tester you can easily switch for another. Even if you need beta testing, is is better to hire a skilled team. If your product has a lot of bugs, simply testing it on end users will give you short and negative feedback, without appropriate bug reports. The best solution is to combine crowdsourced professional team, and some third party users for unbiased feedback.

Fear of the price

It is greed to do all the talking but not to want to listen at all
Democritus

Business is about money and perspectives. However there might be a balance between wasting them or losing opportunities due to your own stinginess. Some may even decide not to test their app, thinking that their work is enough. Sounds weird? We have met business owners with such delusion. Many don’t understand why use crowdsourced testers when it is possible to hire an in-house. Okay, just imagine you have testers of your own. You have to provide a continuous workload for them, all the needed devices for testing (iOS is not a problem, but how would you cover all the range of Android devices?), manage them, handle all the HR issues, sick leaves e.t.c
Crowdsourced team beats them by a mile: they have all the necessary and work when you give them tasks. Some customers have concerns, that provider can switch testers between the projects. It takes time for tester to look at the product and adapt. You don’t want to pay for this? Hire the same people, that will be ready at your disposal any time, knowing your app better than anybody else.

Fear of data breach

Knowledge itself is power
Francis Bacon

Each customer worries about his intellectual property (IP). You give your product to other people and don’t want anything to be used behind your back. Crowdtesting companies sign Non Disclosure Agreement with their testers and also with their customers to secure company’s reputation and the IP of their clients. Along with this, companies have special features to additionally pacify clients. For example, Ubertesters use controlled Over-The-Air (OTA) build distribution, which means that the access to any revision anytime could be blocked to any of its remote testers, if needed. Moreover, it prevents possible leakage of your product to any private parties, or to the web.

How to keep calm and sleep well?

Banish your fears. World lies beyond the comfort zone, and you have to try new approaches, new ideas and tools to get to the top. And crowdsourcing will sky over your business. From our part, Ubertesters team is ready to provide all the guarantees you want and be your safe partner.

Fear nothing, dear friends, we will guard you.