There are so many examples of crowdsourcing that demonstrate the effectiveness of this operating model for developing projects, solving problems, creating content and promoting innovation through collaboration with many people. In fact, crowdsourcing leverages the collective intelligence and diverse expertise of large communities, which interact remotely through digital platforms.
Applied in the field of software development and testing, the crowdsourced methodology allows your company to outsource some of its activities, pushing efficiency and creativity beyond traditional boundaries.
To really understand its potential, we have gathered in this article 4 examples of crowdsourcing in software testing, assuming that this activity, in addition to being fundamental, can prove critical to manage as it generally absorbs a lot of time and energy and often highlights the limits of internal teams.
Here, then, is how crowdsourced testing (crowdtesting) can be a solution.
Software development, particularly when based on agile methodology, requires increasingly frequent releases and, as a result, repeated bug-finding activities in order to obtain software with as few errors as possible.
However, it may be the case that development teams do not have sufficient time and resources to perform manual and automated tests on every single update. This is where crowdsourcing comes in: a community of external testers, like ours, can quickly conduct checks and perform a bug hunting activity coordinated by expert test managers through a cloud platform.
Based on the specific needs of the software to be tested, at UNGUESS for example, we activate the most suitable group of testers when necessary, which therefore does not represent a fixed cost. Bug hunters, people with heterogeneous technological and industry skills and knowledge, are often incentivized in the hunt by specific financial rewards.
Testers can work in parallel with your development team, eliminating downtime and allowing your developers to focus on software production, leading to faster software releases
Accessibility tests check whether software can be used by people with disabilities (including temporary disabilities) - for example, visual or motor limitations - to ensure that everyone can easily use digital products and services, regardless of their abilities.
Software accessibility certainly is an obligation for public administrations and for some categories of private organizations and, at the same time, it is a right of users. But if you think about it, it is in the interest of any company that aims to increase its customer base (think of a bank that launches a new app of online services), given that people are turning to digital services to break down the limitations present in the physical world.
Some automated tests, such as W3C Validation, ensure the technical quality of web pages and digital services, but do not address the real issues related to disabilities. In this sense, the crowdsourcing approach, which can provide an inclusive community, proves strategic for every brand and for the PA, like that of UNGUESS, made up of users with disabilities ready to be personally involved in the testing activity, so as to cover the widest number of potential cases.
Another example of crowdsourcing, which we believe to be particularly effective, is that in the field of device compatibility testing, to verify the compatibility of software on different combinations of operating system, browser and device. Manual verification is a real headache, but automated systems to simulate different combinations also provide inadequate answers.
When carried out with real users who are part of a globally distributed community of testers, the problem is solved: with their devices and browsers, selected from among the most popular on the market, it ensures that the software works in a real, multi-platform environment.
Testing that software has no inherent vulnerabilities is a necessity for those who want to put into practice the principle of security by design . There are undoubtedly also effective traditional penetration tests, but a crowd of ethical hackers is a whole other story. Having a team of good pirates, who hack digital systems and solutions with the consent of the owners to anticipate the actions of cybercriminals, can bring a plus: that of thinking like a hacker.
Through UNGUESS Security, we have built and made available to companies the first Italian community of ethical hackers: experienced, certified people from all over the world who can put themselves in the shoes of a cybercriminal and use the techniques they would use to access the software being examined. The crowdsourcing of ethical hackers also makes it possible to address the cyber security skills gap that many companies have by conveniently going online through our platform.
What we have seen are just a few examples of crowdsourcing in software testing. By taking advantage of this methodology you will be able to achieve better results than with traditional tools, in a shorter time and at a lower cost.