Sometimes. Outsourcing can give you specialist capability, independence and flexible capacity. It can also give you a remote team executing a script nobody understands while your internal staff spend half their week explaining the product to them.
If you are considering outsourcing, we can help work out what should genuinely leave the building, what must stay owned internally and what evidence you should demand from whoever you buy.
Outsource work, not ownership
Your organisation still owns product quality and release risk. A supplier can test, advise and provide evidence. It cannot magically absorb the consequence of a bad release because the contract says ‘managed service’.
Outsourcing works better when the scope is clear, the supplier has access to the right people and environments, the internal team can judge the quality of the work and there is a reason for external delivery beyond ‘procurement already has a framework’.
Use specialists where specialists make sense
Performance, security, accessibility, independent assurance and bursts of manual or automation capability can all be sensible external purchases. Long-term embedded testing can work too, but only if the supplier understands the product and is allowed to challenge rather than simply hit contract metrics.
Watch for incentives. If the supplier is rewarded for number of test cases, you will receive many test cases. If it is rewarded for automation percentage, behold: automation. Contracts are surprisingly good at producing exactly the wrong behaviour very efficiently.
Keep enough capability to be an intelligent customer
Even with a fully managed supplier, somebody inside your organisation needs enough testing knowledge to judge the work. Otherwise you are asking the supplier whether the supplier is doing a good job and receiving, somewhat predictably, a very reassuring monthly report. Before signing, decide how you will judge whether that supplier is actually any good.
Internal ownership should understand the product risks, challenge scope, interpret evidence and connect testing with engineering, operations and business priorities. You can outsource execution and specialist skill. You should be very cautious about outsourcing your ability to know whether the answer is any good.
Plan for knowledge transfer too. If the contract ended next month, would you still understand the test assets, environments, automation and outstanding risks? If not, you have bought a dependency as well as a service.
If you are considering outsourcing and want an independent view before committing, talk to us. We can help you work out what should stay internal, what is sensible to buy externally and what evidence you should expect from whoever does the work.