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Why are there not more freelance testers out there?

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Re: Why are there not more freelance testers out there?

#11

Post by manaskarekar »

jot wrote: post #10

There's less demand for freelance testers because having a one is a nice to have rather than a must have. Clients rarely understand the value of testers, they appear to simply be an optional additional cost. Freelance developers have little incentive to recommend them since it inevitably leads a smaller slice of client budget for them. When an organisation gets to the stage at which it understands the value of, and d…

How about 'Disaster Management/Save Face' freelancers?

To cater to the companies that thought testing was an additional expense and didn't go for it.

Re: Why are there not more freelance testers out there?

#12

Post by darkmethod »

cantlin wrote: post #4

We've needed a crowd-sourced human testing platform for software products for some time. It would need granularity: as a developer I should be able to purchase N minutes of time from N people, potentially in such and such a demographic. It would need an API: I should be able to build human testing into my deployment infrastructure. It would need accountability: at minimum I want webcam footage of the tester using my…

If https://www.usertesting.com had an API, I think it would handle the majority of the points you listed.

UserTesting may already have one, however my brief two minutes of poking around didn't reveal that they do.

Re: Why are there not more freelance testers out there?

#13

Post by bdcravens »

Testing tends to be an intermittent need. Most apps that are to be tested tend to be off of the public Internet. I think that most orgs are unwilling to take the time to provide testers access they need (VPN access, etc) given the ephemeral nature of the relationship.

Re: Why are there not more freelance testers out there?

#14

Post by jot »

manaskarekar wrote: post #11
jot wrote: post #10

There's less demand for freelance testers because having a one is a nice to have rather than a must have. Clients rarely understand the value of testers, they appear to simply be an optional additional cost. Freelance developers have little incentive to recommend them since it inevitably leads a smaller slice of client budget for them. When an organisation gets to the stage at which it understands the value of, and d…

How about 'Disaster Management/Save Face' freelancers? To cater to the companies that thought testing was an additional expense and didn't go for it.

They could probably charge more with a title like that too. :)

Re: Why are there not more freelance testers out there?

#15

Post by anandkulkarni »

cantlin wrote: post #4

We've needed a crowd-sourced human testing platform for software products for some time. It would need granularity: as a developer I should be able to purchase N minutes of time from N people, potentially in such and such a demographic. It would need an API: I should be able to build human testing into my deployment infrastructure. It would need accountability: at minimum I want webcam footage of the tester using my…

We actually do this at MobileWorks (mobileworks.com). There's an API that lets you get N minutes from N people filtered by demographic. Some folks use our Premier product for on-demand testing set up by email -- they send test requests to premier@mobileworks.com.

If you're looking for this more as a formal end-to-end service, you can take a look at our buddies at Rainforest (https://www.rainforestqa.com/). You can also look at services like uTest, though they're real pricey.

Re: Why are there not more freelance testers out there?

#17

Post by cantlin »

anandkulkarni wrote: post #15
cantlin wrote: post #4

We've needed a crowd-sourced human testing platform for software products for some time. It would need granularity: as a developer I should be able to purchase N minutes of time from N people, potentially in such and such a demographic. It would need an API: I should be able to build human testing into my deployment infrastructure. It would need accountability: at minimum I want webcam footage of the tester using my…

We actually do this at MobileWorks (mobileworks.com). There's an API that lets you get N minutes from N people filtered by demographic. Some folks use our Premier product for on-demand testing set up by email -- they send test requests to premier@mobileworks.com. If you're looking for this more as a formal end-to-end service, you can take a look at our buddies at Rainforest ( https://www.rainforestqa.com/ ). You can…

Thanks for that - Rainforest look very interesting (what I can see of it). "QA as a service" sums it up nicely.

Re: Why are there not more freelance testers out there?

#18

Post by scott_w »

From my personal experience, I wouldn't use a freelance tester because they won't understand the system well enough to provide value for money.

The most valuable testing is that which exposes your lack of understanding of what the system should do. These also usually require the most extensive rewrites, so you definitely want them as early as possible. Unfortunately, they also require the most extensive understanding of the system as well as an ability to detail their thinking at a level that can be understood by the development team(s).

That's why I don't see the value of freelance testers, and I'd much rather have somebody employed on a more permanent basis, either part-time or full-time.

Re: Why are there not more freelance testers out there?

#19

Post by bengl3rt »

cantlin wrote: post #4

We've needed a crowd-sourced human testing platform for software products for some time. It would need granularity: as a developer I should be able to purchase N minutes of time from N people, potentially in such and such a demographic. It would need an API: I should be able to build human testing into my deployment infrastructure. It would need accountability: at minimum I want webcam footage of the tester using my…

Some friends of mine have actually made a business out of this over at http://testloft.com

From what I understand the phone won't stop ringing so clearly there is strong demand for something like this out there.

Re: Why are there not more freelance testers out there?

#20

Post by andybak »

cantlin wrote: post #9
beezee wrote: post #8

The time it takes to walk someone through all the use cases that need to be tested is not trivial. The reason for having a dedicated tester is so that knowledge of the system accumulates. I can't imagine how having to re-introduce your system to a new tester for every upcoming deployment could possibly be a realistic approach. In order for this to make sense I'd have to build a relationship with a freelance tester so…

In some circumstances "accumulation of knowledge" in a tester is exactly what you're trying to avoid. Fresh eyes can be very valuable. Amongst other reasons, this is why we don't give developers sole responsibility for testing their own work.

That's an interesting point but I think it highlights that there are different types of testing - even above the obvious UX vs QA distinction.

I find that really good QA testing often needs someone quite technical and even someone who has some insight into the way the code works. You have to actively think about ways the system could break. It's probably closer to the mentality of a penetration test than it is to usability testing.

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