crowdsource testing presented by utest
TRANSCRIPT
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Crowdsourced Testing Idea to implementation, complete with stories John Montgomery | uTest VP of Product Delivery | [email protected] | September, 2013
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Agenda
• Intro
• What is Crowdsourcing?
• Why do we need it for testing?
• Which Crowdsourced testing approach is
for you?
• Myths
• Our Approach
• Q&A
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The Challenge
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uTest
Who we are, what we do
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Who We Are
uTest is the world’s largest provider of
in-the-wild testing services
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Types of Testing Services
Scalable, on-demand access to professional testers with the geographies and real-world infrastructure used by your customers and end users
On-demand test subjects and usability experts to provide comprehensive UX and user interaction testing services across most demographics and configs
Live and synthetic load and performance testing and analysis
White hat security experts providing automated and manual penetration testing from anywhere in the world
Real-world localization validation using native speakers from over 190 countries
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Since Our 2008 Launch
1,500+
customers
100,000+ testers from 200 countries
& territories
Enterprises, SMBs & universities
Functional, load,
usability, L10N &
security
Web, mobile
& desktop apps
30,000+
test cycles
The Challenge
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Crowdsourcing
A Primer
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Crowdsourcing Defined
“Taking a service traditionally performed by
a person or team and sourcing it to a large
online group of people as an open project”
- Jeff Howe
Wired journalist & author of Crowdsourcing
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Who Offers Crowdsourcing?
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Myriad Potential Benefits:
• Specialized skill sets
• Scale capacity to meet variable demand
• Increases fluidity of workforce
• Keeps fixed cost off balance sheet
What’s The Upside? And Why Wouldn’t They?
The Challenge
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In-the-Wild
Why Crowdsource Testing
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Users Do Not Live In Labs
Your Test Lab Is Here
Your Users Are Here
Testing inside the lab is vital. But your customers and their
challenges do not necessarily live there.
Does this look familiar?
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Test Matrix Are More Complex
• This is Android devices only
• Doesn’t account for OS versions, carriers or locations
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A Lot More Complex
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• Android alone (and that’s only by OS version)
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Users Are More Vocal
• Users less tolerant of
spotty quality
• Social & app stores
give every user a
megaphone
• Switching costs
vanishing to zero
• Cost of poor app
quality has spiked
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• Thousands of companies have moved a portion of testing
closer to where users work, live and play. Why?
1. Apps consumed under endless range of environments
- Exponential spike in devices, OSes & browsers
- Imperfect connectivity
- Infinite number of locations
2. Users have less patience than ever for buggy apps
- Switching costs lower
- App quality issues carry higher costs
3. In-the-lab testing alone cannot meet the demands of modern apps
Crowdsource Testing Can Help
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Crowdsourcing Is In-the-Wild
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In-House
Manual
Testing
Outsourced
Manual
Testing
In-House
Test
Automation
Outsourced
Test
Automation
In-The-Lab
Testing
The Challenge
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Crowdsourced Testing
Which is best for you?
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How Do You Get From This
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Crowds often look (and act) like unruly mobs
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To This
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Delivering a skilled service predictably requires a community capable of producing desired results
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Choose Your Weapon
uTest Lives Here
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Know Thy Task
• Automation
• Performance
• Usability
• Management
• Architecture
• Functional
• Localization
• Security
• Combination
of Group &
Specialist
• User panels
• Beta testing
• Data validation
• Ad quality
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• What are your competitors doing to differentiate?
• What is your risk profile for quality?
• How do you compare against your competition?
Know Thy Competition
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• Is your culture highly cautious & risk-averse?
• Are you in a highly regulated industry?
– Defense industry
– Pharma
– Banking
• Do you have an appetite for innovation?
• Do you have the budget to do it correctly?
Know Thyself
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Which One Is Best?
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Self managed White glove
Skills may vary
Any participant
Results may vary Exact results
Exact skills
Vetted
participant
The Challenge
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Lessons Learned
Myths, Misconceptions
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Less In-House Staff = Less Overhead
TRUTH:
• Complement & scale “as needed”…not replace
• Only employees will fully understand strategy,
company position, internal processes
BEST PRACTICES:
• Build strengths around employees’ core competencies
• Where does the crowd ‘fit’ into your team?
– Fresh eyes, fresh perspectives, and fresh ideas
– Rote or repetitive tasks
– Outside of the lab
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TRUTH:
• Intellectual property (IP) is a legit issue, esp. for the new &
innovative
– Copywriting
– Design
– Animation
– Code writing
• IP policies vary within crowdsourcing orgs
BEST PRACTICES:
• Establish the ground rules: What’s their IP policy?
– How is it communicated to the crowd?
– How is it enforced?
But we need to own the results
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Tell the crowd? But we’re in stealth
mode!
TRUTH:
• Confidentiality is a serious matter with material consequence.
• Crowdsourcing is often used for pre-launch products
BEST PRACTICES:
• Ask upfront about preventative measures
– Precautions… NDAs? What else?
– Is the policy all-inclusive? e.g. incl. social media, message boards,
etc.
– What are the consequences for breaches?
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Selection criteria are vital:
• Referenceable customer successes
– By company size
– By industry
• Ability to adapt to your legacy systems and processes
• Ability to satisfy legal requirements
– IP protection
– NDA
• Ability to do the job
– Consistent
– Predictable
– Professional
All Vendors Are Equal
The Challenge
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uTest & the Crowd:
Testing In-the-Wild
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Focus On Your Needs
1. Community profiling – Technical: OS, browser, mobile devices, carriers
– Geographic: City, country, languages
– Demographic: Age, gender, education, hobbies
2. Community ratings & micro-ratings – By testing type
– By industry
3. Precise matching – Between each project & each tester
4. Services layer for clients – Onboarding
– Maximize throughput
– Minimize overhead
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Not Restricted By Location
Diverse Community
Trained Community
Dedicated Offsite
Dedicated Onsite
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• Expertise On Demand
– Who you need
– When you want
– Where you need
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How It Works
Customers
uTest pays testers
Specify testing needs - OS, Browser, Carrier, Device - Location, Language & Industry
Customer approves testing results
Selected testers invited to project
Testers report in real-time
Testing Community
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• Top c-sourcing firms use two forms of compensation
– Monetary
– Reputation
• Performance-based ratings based upon a dozen factors:
– Participation Level:
- Lifetime & recent participation: # active test cycles, # reported issues
– Quality of Participation
- Approval percentage for bugs, test cases and usability surveys
- Accuracy of bug type & severity classifications
- Ability to write test cases & create automated test scripts
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Rating & Reputation System
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• Better Applications
– In-the-wild testing – live testers, real devices, real-world conditions
– Unmatched coverage across large matrix of OS/browser/location
– Testers rated by customers
• Faster Time to Market
– Test cycles created in minutes; underway in hours; completed in days
– Test cycle can be executed overnight or during weekends
• Lower Total Cost of Testing
– Subscription based and project based contracts
– Lower total cost of testing than near-shore boutiques or offshore shops
• Scalability
– 100K + professional testers from around the world
– Scale size of test team up or down at will
How Our Customers Benefit
The Challenge
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Questions?
Answers