More and more often, competencies like testing or development are outsourced in part or completely. Sometimes even the entire IT department is eliminated, and all IT operations are outsourced because the organisation wishes to focus on its core activities. When the entire outsourced operations chain is seen as one single unit, we do not recommend implementing the products of these activities in the organisation without due consideration. The risk that certain functional and non-functional properties are not realised or realised only in part, is great. Another risk is that what has been built does not comply with the required quality level. Outsourcing works only when a close collaboration exists between the outsourcing organisation (demand organisation) and the supplier (supply organisation).

The permanent test organisation plays an important part in this collaboration. Because however good the processes or intermediary products may be, the end products (such as the system, but also e.g. the procedures) must always be tested by the outsourcing organisation. Only then can the delivered system be taken into production on the basis of a thorough advice on the quality and risks. If the supplier does not provide adequate testing, an excessive number of defects will be detected at a late stage (acceptance test or production) resulting in project delays or other damage.

To be certain that no duplicate testing occurs and no parts are forgotten, it is vital to align and monitor the various test levels of the demand and supply organisations. This can be done by a test professional with the role “overall test coordinator”. The task of the OTC involves coordinating the various tests, specifying and monitoring the test method, and informing and advising the project management on test progress and the quality of the tested system. The permanent test organisation is in the perfect position to host this role. The level of verification and management depends heavily on the type of outsourcing. This can be organised in a service, such as monitoring.

One tool for the OTC is creating a master test plan covering all test levels. By default, the master test plan applies to one project. However, outsourcing generally goes beyond one single project. The initial investment does not usually begin to yield a return until subsequent releases of the system, i.e. during maintenance. To prevent new agreements on the what and how of testing having to be made for every release, so-called Generic Test Agreements (GTA) are created. GTA’s resemble a master test plan and sometimes even replace it. The GTA’s contain the general agreements on e.g. the test process, estimating method, procedures, communication, documentation, etc. In fact, GTA’s are a kind of contract specifying service levels between the demand and supply organisations. This in turn is a part of the contract, also containing e.g. agreements on timely delivery of capacity, response times, training new people,  pricing, etc.

If only the test process is outsourced, the collaboration involves highly specific challenges. One of these is the manner in which the test effort will be financially settled. How will this be established? Aspects like the availability of domain expertise, the responsibility for the test environments, the available tools for testing (and licences), and sometimes legally required function separations require attention as well.