Crowdsource testing is an emerging trend in software testing

Software testing

Software testing is an investigation conducted to provide stakeholders with information about the quality of the product or service under test. Software testing can also provide an objective, independent view of the software to allow the business to appreciate and understand the risks of software...

 which exploits the benefits, effectiveness, and efficiency of crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing is the act of sourcing tasks traditionally performed by specific individuals to a group of people or community through an open call....

 and the cloud platform

Cloud computing

Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network ....

. It differs from traditional testing methods in that the testing is carried out by a number of different testers from different places, and not by hired consultants and professionals. The software is put to test under diverse realistic platforms which makes it more reliable, cost-effective, fast, and bug-free.

This method of testing is considered when the software is more user-centric: i.e., software whose success is determined by its user feedback and which has a diverse user space. It is frequently implemented with gaming, mobile applications, when experts who may be difficult to find in one place are required for specific testing, or when the company lacks the resources or time to carry out the testing internally.

System

Crowdsource testing companies provide the platform for the testing cycles, generally free of charge to the companies whose products are being tested. They then crowdsource the product to a community of testers, who register for testing the software voluntarily. These testers are generally paid per bug

Software bug

A software bug is the common term used to describe an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program or system that produces an incorrect or unexpected result, or causes it to behave in unintended ways. Most bugs arise from mistakes and errors made by people in either a program's...

, depending upon the type of bug and its market price. The crowdsource testing team is usually in addition to the in-house quality assurance

Quality Assurance

Quality assurance, or QA for short, is the systematic monitoring and evaluation of the various aspects of a project, service or facility to maximize the probability that minimum standards of quality are being attained by the production process...

 team, not a replacement.

Advantages of crowdsource testing

There are several advantages to crowdsource testing:

• The core testing team may not have all the resources to test the software in different environments and in different situations (e.g. different Internet bandwidths, devices, etc.), as it may not be possible to have all the resources to create different environments in which the software should be tested.
• It is cost effective, as the product company pays only for the valid bugs reported. Usually time to test the software is comparably lesser, so it leads to better productivity and thus is cheaper than hiring engineers, designers, and specialists.
• Testers performing this form of testing are unbiased towards the internal concerns of the company.
• The pool of testers is diverse with variations in languages as well as locales. This helps in testing applications which are based on localization.
• As there are large number of testers testing a software simultaneously, testing can be done quickly, giving more time to market.

Crowdsource testing vs. outsource testing

The main difference between crowdsource testing and outsource testing is that, in crowdsource testing, testers may belong to different workplaces. In outsource testing, the testers are from the same company or workplace that is responsible for outsourcing. In crowdsource testing, people voluntarily test a software with the possibility of not being paid (if no bugs are discovered). Outsource testers always get paid for their work.