It is true that a QA team doesn't necessarily produce a product that generates revenue for your company. However, an affordable and experienced QA team coupled with your development can help save your organization thousands of dollars. Think of the amount of time it takes to address and fix a bug reported by your clients. What are the savings to you from a pure time and money perspective if those issues were found and fixed before release? Now think about the intangibles concerning customer perceptions of your product and the confidence they have in your organization when defects slip out. That is invaluable.

       In general this is true. If you consider the time spent to fix a defect during a specification phase or an alpha        phase of your project and multiply an average hourly wage against those times. You'll note that maybe it takes an        hour of a Product Manager's time, perhaps an hour of a System Architects Time, and maybe an hour for the author        of the specification to change the documentation. Even add in another hour for 5 to 6 people on a follow up        meeting.

       Now if that same defect goes through and isn't caught until after release by customers:
         That defect can potentially propagate too many other defects and reports. What's the cost to your support                       team?
         Management will spend time discussing and triaging the issue(s).
         Engineering must spend time reproducing, analyzing and fixing the issue.
         Specifications, release notes, manuals, training material will need updating.
         Your organization may need to formulate a communiqué to keep consumer confidence.
         Releasing the patch will have costs and potential site updates or downtime.

       Studies show that each major defect costs upwards to 30 times the cost than if it was addressed before release.        Minor defects also have associated costs as well. Defects not only have an immediate cost in time
       but also take away your team's from working on new products and features.

Test and QA are used very loosely and in many places interchangeably. We believe there is a difference. Quality Assurance is an engineering discipline. Testing is a one-time task. When a team applies a QA methodology, they are not just finding defects and bugs. They are measuring the quality of the product. This practice includes traceability to specification requirements, a planned and documented testing plan, documented and repeatable test cases to help measure the quality, precise and accurate bug reports, and built in process improvement.

If tests are not repeatable then one cannot baseline and determines how the quality of a product has changed.

An example of an engineered test would be in the case of crash testing automobiles. For each make and model of car, tests are run that are the same and repeatable to compare the safety and durability of the car. If for one model the test team were to increase the speed or weigh the car down or change the object of collision, the test would not be comparable between cars. This is why each car must undergo the same test(s) each time. And this is why a software product must undergo the same test(s) each time so one can compare one version versus another.

To insure repeatability the tests are documented. To insure the approach is strong, it is documented and reviewed. To insure all requirements are being met, each requirement of a specification must be covered within the test plan and test cases. This is the practice of quality assurance.

Adding new pieces to any process can add time to the project. However there are two approaches one must look at:
   Your organization is willing to make their date knowing they will need to resolve issues later causing the next       project to be delayed as well as spoiling your customer confidence.
      OR
  Adding either some or a full QA team. A few QA may be enough to at least give you a confidence % level. A       good QA group would prioritize tests based on product usage to at least give you a 40%, 50%, 60%, etc.       confidence level.

          In Silicon Valley, California, entry level QA contractors are going to start at $30/hr. Experienced and              expert-level resources can be well over $100/hr.
          At QAConcept we provide experienced QA engineers at different levels and at an overall cost that is              much more cost effective than traditional consultants. The blend of experience, knowledge,                         methodology, and cost is a value hard to beat. Contact us to inquire about our costs and package deals.