Test-Driven Outsourced Software Development? Now there's a thought...

[textile]I attended the "Test Management Forum":http://www.evolutif.co.uk/tmforum/ yesterday in which there was an interesting discussion about the future of Testing Services companies. In this discussion, one attendee asked...

why should would I outsource the development **AND** testing under two separate contracts?

There is the obvious repsonse of independence facilitates objectivity of information... etc... but I didn't want to say that because that doesn't address the key objection, which seemed to be that many won't want the hassle of negotiating two contracts... often development is outsourced to a software house which in turn may do the testing themselves, leave it to the customer (by not testing enough) or they may subcontract the testing to a testing services company... So, I was thinking to myself... the emphasis is on getting what you want **and** having that demonstrated with one contract? The solution seemed obvious... so I blurted out...

why not outsource building the solution to a testing services company that develops the tests and subcontracts the writing of the code (that satisfies those tests) to a software house?

I actually think that with a partnership between a testing services company and software house, both with the right philosophy and skills, that this is more likely to be a successful project than if the development company is the primary contractor... I wonder if anyone is already taking this approach? Perhaps "my company":http://www.etest-associates.com should start doing this? Whatever approach a company chooses to take in outsourcing development, they should always make sure that the software house has a plausible mechanism to demonstrably deliver on their promises... if they happen to achieve that through subcontracting the testing, then fine... if they have their own testers... also fine... find the way that works for you. If you are brave enough to try having the testing company as the prime contractor, ensure that a good-enough philosophy is evident in their proposal... Whatever you do, **avoid** those with a perfectionist philosophy... [/textile]

...distinguish the Good Enough approach from the approach that says we should do every kind of test we can think of and fix every bug we find and that I should keep testing until Management pries the product from my cold, dead fingers - A Framework for Good Enough Testing by James Bach