Though a number of testing practices and methodologies exist in the market, there is still scope to utilize the collective potential of the testers available in the market. Well, what does that happen?

Akin to crowdfunding where people from different parts of the world contribute funds for a project, there is a possibility to use crowd-based testing. This is termed as crowdsourced (or crowd) testing where developers and companies use a group of people, predominantly testers, for testing their product features in order to locate bugs and accelerate the release velocity!

Crowd testing services offered by experienced QA vendors like KiwiQA can be leveraged to make the most out of the said testing approach. The community of users and testers bring a fresh perspective to product testing. Crowd testing is not only limited to testing mobile applications but it can also be extended to testing web applications as well.

The intent of crowd testing and beta testing is to locate bugs by providing the actual users access to the final product. But, there is a twist in the tale as there are significant differences between the two testing approaches.  By the end of this blog, you would have answer to some of the crucial questions related to crowd testing and beta testing:

• Are crowd testing and beta testing the same?
• When to choose crowd testing over beta testing & vice-versa?
• Are there any benefits if smaller projects go through numerous cycles of crowd testing?
• Can beta testing and crowd testing go hand-in-hand?

So, let’s deep dive into the integral aspects of crowd testing and beta testing…

What is Crowd Testing?

As the name indicates, crowd testing is an approach in testing where the product features are tested by a crowd of testers that may(or may not be) scattered across the globe. The intent of crowd testing is to get the product features tested from different (and fresh) perspectives.

It lets companies take advantage of the collective intelligence of the global/local testing community. Crowd testing must be considered when the product features are stable and ready to be tested by a wider QA audience.

The community of crowd testers can consist of testers from varied backgrounds and experience. This lets companies unearth bugs that are normally not spotted in the traditional testing process.

Also Read – Go-to Guide for Crowd Testing

What is Beta Testing?

Beta testing is similar to crowd testing since the intent of running beta programs is to unearth product bugs by placing the ‘near’ final product in the hands of the testers. It is also a part of the CV (Customer Validation) phase since the identified bugs are fixed on a priority basis.

So, what is the major difference between crowd testing and beta testing? In beta testing, testers are the potential users belonging to the target market. Beta testing is normally conducted after an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) is signed by the users/testers. It is normally conducted after the Alpha Testing stage.

Like crowd testing, beta testing also helps in identifying bugs before the actual users of the product identify them. All in all, both these testing practices help organizations ship a superlative product to the market.

An experienced crowd testing company having expertise with outsourced beta testing can do wonders for the organization looking to up their efforts on software product testing.

Also Read – Top 10 Beta Testing Strategies for Beginners

When to choose Crowd Testing?

Crowd testing can be chosen when the in-house QA teams want to horizontally extend the exploratory testing strategy. The reason is because the tests conducted by the crowd testers are normally not documented in the test plan! They may (or may not) follow the traditional testing rule book.

Testers have the flexibility of testing a particular feature or a slew of features, irrespective of the underlying complexity involved in them. In ideal scenarios, crowd testers are provided shorter testing windows so that they can report bugs at a faster pace.

The in-house QA team assigns bug severity to the relevant bugs, post which they are assigned to the respective developers in the team.

Also Read – Business Benefits Of Crowd Testing

When to choose Beta Testing?

Beta testing is normally chosen when you want the product/feature to be tested by your potential customers/users. Opening up beta trials not only helps in locating bugs and improving the end-user experience, but also helps in generating curiosity with the target audience.

Source

For instance, a lot of mobile app companies pre-release selective features for beta testing so that early adopters can help in testing the same. It is always recommended to beta test a product/feature before its official launch so that the intended customers get their hands on a thoroughly tested product [Source].

Depending on the complexity, the beta testing window can be kept open for close to 2-3 weeks. Beta testing also helps in creating a FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) with the other product users who are not a part of the Beta program. Organizations can also look at providing some compensation/certificate to the beta testers on the basis of issues reported by them.

Depending on the severity of bugs, the in-house QA team can also opt for Gamma Testing where the product is expected to have much better quality.

This is because bugs reported in the Beta testing phase would have been fixed in the product released in the Gamma testing phase.

Major Differences Between Crowd Testing and Beta Testing

Now that we have covered the similarities between both the testing methodologies, let’s deep dive into the differences.

Target Testers

The purpose of both crowd testing as well as beta testing is to identify bugs and make the product quality better. However, the major difference lies in the testers being selected for the mission 🙂

In beta testing, the testers are the actual users from the target market. On the other hand, crowd testers are generic testers who may not be users from the target market.

Testing Timelines

In crowd testing, the duration of test cycles lasts only a few days/weeks. On the other hand, the duration of tests in beta testing can span more than weeks/months depending on the complexity of the features under testing.

Generally, the crowd testers are paid for the testing whereas beta testers are passionate product users (or early adopters) who are inclined to make the product experience better for everyone.

Conclusion

Both beta testing and crowd testing are a part of the Customer Validation (CV) phase. Though both techniques are instrumental in improving the product quality, the differences lie in the manner in which testing duration and outcome of the tests.

It is always better to onboard an experienced QA vendor that has experience in providing crowd testing services so that you can make the most out of the two testing approaches.

Crowd testing can turn out to be super advantageous since companies can take support of the collective intelligence of the crowd testers. Many organizations also seek advice from crowd testing services company since they have the experience of working with crowd testers from across the globe.

In this blog, we deep dive into the various aspects of crowd testing and how enterprises can build a formidable crowd testing strategy. So, let’s get started with crowdsourced testing…

What is Crowd Testing?

As the name indicates, crowdsourced testing is loosely based on the principles of crowdfunding. Crowd testing (or crowdsourced testing) is a popular form of testing where the capabilities of the crowd testers (or external testers) is leveraged for testing the features and functionalities of the product.

The major advantage of crowd testing is that testers from different domains can be engaged to find bugs in the product. The testers are compensated for the effort that they put in unearthing bugs.

Using crowd testing, enterprises can leverage the capabilities offered by a diverse set of QA (or test) professionals from across the globe. Crowd testing is particularly beneficial for testing mobile applications, as testers can help in testing different aspects of the app on a range of mobile view ports. Over & above, enterprises can save huge costs since they do not have to hire testers (on a permanent payroll).

Difference between Crowd Testing & Outsourced Testing

Many companies also partner with outsourced testing vendors since it helps them test products at a faster pace. Though crowd testing and outsourced testing offer similar kind of benefits, there is a huge difference between the two approaches of testing.

Outsourced testing is an approach where enterprises engage an experienced testing vendor like KiwiQA to accelerate their testing efforts. Depending on the domain expertise of the vendor; enterprises can engage the outsourced QA team for automation testing, manual testing, security testing, and more.

Experienced outsourced testing vendors like KiwiQA also have expertise with crowdsourced testing which also means that you can reach out to a large number of crowd testers in one go! On the other hand, crowdsourced testing (or crowd testing) lets you leverage the testing knowledge of external testers who are not associated with any particular outsourced testing company.

Crowd testing can be used to a great extent in beta testing of applications, since crowdsourced testers can help in unearthing bugs thereby helping build a shippable product. Rather than engaging with individual crowd testers, it is always recommended to partner with a crowd testing company like KiwiQA so that you can reap the benefits of all the forms of testing (including crowdsourced testing).

Major Benefits of Crowd Testing

Now that we have touched upon the essentials of crowdsourced testing, let’s deep dive into the major advantages offered by crowd testing. Shown below are the salient benefits of crowdsourced testing:

1. Localization and Globalization Testing

For starters, globalization testing (or internationalization testing) is a form of testing where the product features are tested from different geolocations. This is particularly required when you are developing a product (or application) for the global market.

On the other hand, localization testing is a form of testing where the product features are tested at scale for a specific locale. For example, a global e-commerce website in India needs to test whether the content and other localized features are working as per the expectations.

Crowdsourced testing can be extremely effective for localization and globalization testing since it opens the gates to testers from across the globe. This is particularly useful for testing of mobile applications since the app can be tested from different geolocations. Crowd testing is extremely useful for testing the app for different locale(s) and geolocations.

2. Beta Testing at scale

Beta testing of applications has now become a norm for the mobile app developer community. Beta testing is an approach where the access to the mobile application is opened up for a closed group of testers.

Rather than involving the internal QA members in the beta testing process, it is recommended to involve crowdsourced testers from different geographic locations. The major benefit of this approach is that the beta testing can be performed by testers with varied skills, that too on different mobile devices (and view ports). Though the testers would have to be compensated, the ROI will be significantly higher in comparison to hiring in-house testing talent.

3. Cost-Effectiveness

Whether it is beta testing or full-fledged testing of the end-product, crowdsourced testing is always more cost effective than employing full-time testing resources. The advantages multiply when crowd testing services are availed from a popular outsourced testing services vendor like KiwiQA.

Along with crowd testing, companies can also leverage the benefits of automation testing, manual testing, stress testing, load testing, and more. Hence, the overall package can turn out to be highly cost-effective in comparison to engagement with the crowd testing community at an individual level.

4. Faster Identification of Browser & Network specific issues

Websites and applications can act differently on different browsers due to the underlying difference between the rendering engines used by the browsers. Cross browser issues can hamper the user experience and also lead to a loss in sales.

Crowd testing can be used for testing the website (or web application) on different browsers and operating systems. This strategy will be useful in unearthing cross browser bugs at an accelerated pace.

On similar lines, apps have to be tested in different network conditions. Testing the mobile application in throttling network conditions helps in building a top-quality app that performs well in different network speeds like 3G, 4G, 5G, and/or offline. Hence, network and cross browser app issues can be detected and resolved at a faster pace.

5. Reliable Usability Testing

Consider a scenario where the end-users have endless issues in using or navigating through the website (or application). This experience can be a big turn-off for the users who might end-up abandoning your product (or service).

This is where crowdsourced testing can be extremely beneficial since testers can perform usability tests at scale. This will help in faster detection and resolution of usability issues which in turn will be beneficial in accelerating the time-to-market (TTM).

We are not claiming that usability testing can only be performed by crowdsourced testers but it is more economical than hiring a pool of in-house testing talent.

Also Read: Business Benefits of Crowd Testing

Conclusion

Crowdsourced testing is a great option where enterprises (as well as startups) want to leverage the collective knowledge of the global QA community. Rather than associating with individual crowdsourced testers, it is recommended to partner with an outsourced QA services vendor like KiwiQA that has expertise in executing crowd testing projects at a large scale.

Companies can benefit significantly with the above mentioned approach since they can leverage the benefits offered by outsourced testing and crowd testing in a single go!