Crowd testing benefits are directly related to its wide availability, as it is available on-demand and doesn’t redirect development resources. Crowd testing simplifies the quality assurance testing team’s workflow and eases the burden of testing. You can work with or without detailed test cases, and it gets you results faster, helping to pinpoint problems in specific builds or hardware versions.
Crowd testing provides collective intelligence access, with real-world testing capabilities that wouldn’t have been possible a few years ago. It allows companies to test their software on a massive variety of devices in many different real-world environments. The more testers in the crowd, the more diverse the devices they’re using to run the software will be. The variations might be present in form factor, hardware, and operating systems.
What is crowd testing?
Crowd testing is the practice that leverages the power of crowdsourcing for software testing. It involves carefully selecting people to test solutions in real-world environment. In crowd testing we distribute software, such as mobile apps, SaaS, native desktop applications, or websites to crowdtesters. These crowd testers run the software on their computers or mobile phones to inspect it for defects and areas for potential improvement.
Crowdtesting professionals do not need specific scripts. These professionals are asked to evaluate sections or features of the application using their experience and best judgment. The objective is to identify problems and access distributed problem solving.
The distinctive characteristic of crowdtesting is the vast pools of testers. This group is usually comprised of people with different skills, inclinations, experiences, and devices. Crowd testing brings different skills and qualities that in-house QA teams often do not have. This leads to a more varied testing process.
A crowd testing team brings together people from different places, backgrounds, skills, and experiences to test products. Having diverse group of testers evaluate a project, allows the QA team to feel confident that their software has been thoroughly assessed by people who did not create it.
What are the 10 main benefits of crowd testing?
Crowd testing benefits, such as flexibility and cost-effectiveness, arise from the fact that this testing solution brings together a truly diverse group of people. These group is compiled to test solutions in real-world conditions. Crowd testing can cover nearly every testing discipline. It uses crowds of people who perfectly match your chosen demographic to deliver fast and unbiased results.
Speed: As crowd testing employs a large number of testers available 24/7. As such, it hastens the testing process and overcomes the limitation of waiting for in-house teams.
Tester Diversity: Crowd testing allows users from different parts of the world with different realities and backgrounds to participate in the testing process. This is an advantage for testing multilingual applications, for example, as it makes it easier to test the application in different languages.
Quality Assurance: Crowdtesters provide an unbiased opinion of the product being tested. This increases the chances of identifying problems that may have been overlooked by the in-house team.
Device Coverage: Testers can provide tested configurations specific to their devices, operating systems, browsers, etc., which limits developers from creating applications that are not easily configured across all devices.
Cost-effectiveness: Crowdsourcing is more cost-effective than recruiting experts to review every project product. Hiring a crowd testing partner allows clients to reduce their in-house team investment, as testing is often not a constant necessity.
Flexibility and Scalibility: Crowdtesting can deliver actionable results and testing data within hours. Having testers in different time-zones and locations facilitates across all time zones. Furthermore, having an IT partner in the crowd testing journey facilitates team scalability as the project flows along.
Real-world Testing: Crowdsourced testers embody genuine users, offering valuable feedback rooted in their real-world experiences and usage habits.
Enhanced Test Coverage: Engaging a varied pool of testers aids in uncovering issues specific to certain platforms or environments, thereby enhancing the overall user experience.
Integrating real users: Crowdtesting allows integrating users into the entire development process and receiving unbiased feedback that can be used to improve the product anytime, anywhere.
How to choose a crowd testing partner?
When choosing a crowd testing partner, consider the following key criteria:
Expertise: Ensure the company has relevant experience in testing the type of solution you’re developing and the industry you’re working in. They should have in-depth knowledge of the tests you need and the technologies involved.
Reliability: Look for a crowdtesting platform with a proven track record of dealing with a wide variety of organizations and tests at all levels. They should be able to test rapidly, comprehensively, on time, and to your satisfaction consistently.
Solutions-Oriented: Choose a partner that can quickly find solutions and identify positive outcomes to complex issues. They should be experienced and reliable, working with you to bring your products to market efficiently.
Security and Quality: Prioritize partners with good clients, comprehensive case studies, testimonials, and provable results to ensure they can provide the quality and security your solutions demand, keeping your data safe and your product secure.
Flexibility: Ensure your crowdtesting partner can adapt swiftly to changes in your functional testing requirements, providing additional testers, different levels of experience, new locations, devices, operating systems, and browsers as needed. They should offer a fully Managed Service to adjust to your evolving needs.
Fast and Scalable: Look for a partner that can provide 24/7 on-demand testing support that can easily scale with your requirements. Crowdtesting allows for multiple testers to work on a project simultaneously, resulting in quicker test execution and faster development times.
Unbiased and Actionable Results: Crowdtesting offers access to testers with diverse experiences and expectations, providing honest and unbiased feedback that can lead to fast and actionable results. This feedback is crucial for optimizing your solution based on real user perspectives.
By considering these criteria, you can select a crowd testing partner that aligns with your specific testing needs. Thus, ensuring efficient and effective testing processes that enhance the quality and security of your digital products.
Why is InnoTech the ultimate crowd testing partner?
In collaboration with Clariter, InnoTech offers a compelling solution bridging the gap between your QA team’s resources and the complexities of real-world scenarios. Through our participatory culture we ensure a thorough grasp of your product’s performance.
Tech Testing: Our testing methods and approach applied in Technical Quality serve as a valuable complement to your QA teams. Access our methodology, InLab capability, and OutLab for team extension when needed, with the right skills.
UX Testing: Our commitment to Technical Quality extends to User Experience Testing. Optimized UX is a benefit in development, as such it should be a priority in mobile app testing. Similarly, access our methodology, InLab capability, and elastic team extension through OutLab to ensure optimal user experience across various devices and platforms.
Solution quality assured by a worldwide community: With over 10,000 registered users in Portugal alone, and a growing global community, we provide unparalleled flexibility and scalability.
Flexibility and Scalibility: Our services are available round-the-clock for all relevant device/OS combinations, ensuring comprehensive coverage and adaptability.
25X cheaper to fix bugs before production: Early bug detection translates to significant cost savings, making our approach highly cost-effective.
Global Coverage: Our diverse pool of testers ensures that your product’s usability and performance are tested across various geographies, minimizing localization issues.
Effectiveness Increase: By emulating real user behavior, our user testing process decreases Time to Market, with a large pool of testers available when you need them.
Expertise: Our crowd consists of highly-qualified and experienced individuals who provide valuable insights and recommendations, effectively turning users into product promoters.
Partnering with InnoTech’s Crowd Testing Services grants you invaluable insights into your customers’ real-life experiences. Our approach offers enhanced defect detection, usability recommendations, faster time-to-market, and cost-effective solutions. This allows you to take in a customer-centric focus. Contact us today to leverage the power of crowd wisdom and elevate the quality and user experience of your products and services.
Case Studies: InnoTech’s testing strategies and success stories:
Cleanwatts’ efforts towards user-centric design:
Cleanwatts is a company dedicated to empowering individuals in the energy transition. InnoTech and Clariter partnered with Cleanwatts to enhance their Kiome application. Their approach was to apply comprehensive crowd testing and design thinking.
InnoTech and Clariter assembled a diverse panel of 120 real users. This facilitated direct user involvement, which was crucial for refining the app’s user experience. This collaboration enabled Cleanwatts to gain valuable insights from actual users. These users were integrated into the design process through workshops, feedback sessions, and iterative testing.
The cross-functional team from InnoTech and Clariter was composed of approximately ten professionals, They worked closely with users to identify and address common issues. This lead to significant improvements in the app’s interface and functionality.The user-centric approach adopted by InnoTech and Clariter resulted in a more intuitive and engaging Kiome application. The new application features real-time energy visualization, personalized insights, and gamified elements.
Utilizing Figma for prototype development, the team ensured rigorous testing and refinement based on user feedback. This process not only enhanced the ease of use and intuitiveness of the app but also ensured that it met both the objective and subjective needs of its users.
As a result, Cleanwatts succeeded in creating a tool that democratizes energy management. Thus, allowing users to seamlessly optimize their home energy consumption and actively participate in renewable energy communities. The partnership with InnoTech and Clariter exemplifies the power of crowd testing and user-focused design in developing innovative and impactful technology solutions.
Fidelidade’s digital tranformation journey:
InnoTech was selected by Fidelidade to execute a groundbreaking Crowd Testing project for the Fidelidade Drive app. This project aimed to enhance the app’s services, technical quality, performance, and user experience over two years.
The Fidelidade Drive app was designed to monitor and improve driving habits through telematics and gamification. It provides valuable feedback and rewards to users by tracking the users action on their mobile devices. InnoTech partnered with Clariter to leverage their expertise in Crowd Testing, involving large groups of real users to gather actionable data and insights. This collaboration enables continuous testing across various devices, operating systems, and driving conditions, ensuring the app meets high standards of functionality and user satisfaction.
InnoTech’s responsiveness and capability to handle the app’s technical complexities, was highlighted during the project’s course, which involved multiple integrations and components. The Crowd Testing methodology employed by InnoTech and Clariter introduces co-creation techniques between the business and end users, facilitating iterative improvements and rapid feature validation.
The benefits of this approach include accelerated improvement launches and risk reduction. Both being crucial in the competitive and dynamic insurance market. This project not only underscores InnoTech’s commitment to delivering exceptional and differentiating services, but also positions Crowd Testing as a vital component in the digital transformation of companies across various sectors.
