We are looking for additional US located testers to perform a 15 min video application evaluation.
Review videos at leading video providers such as YouTube, NBC.com and report your user experience.
To complete the survey please click on the following link: http://www.utest.com/survey5.php
Once completing the survey you will receive a token and a link to login to the uTest platform. The token can be submitted on the uTest platform to receive your compensation.
Happy testing,
The uTest Team
We would like to announce the latest string of companies that have joined our portfolio of growing customers. We are glad to have them on board and are looking forward to providing them with the highest level of application testing services.
Stay tuned for more new customer announcements soon
Roy Solomon and the uTest Team
Well, we have come to a decision. We have received some very good feedback and choosing the top slogan was not easy. Unfortunately there can be only 1 winner. The process of choosing the wining slogan including arguing / shouting and hand waving by the uTest management team but we finally come to an agreement.
And the winner is :
Comment #121 (Kash) - “Release with Confidence”
The ad will start running next week in Techcrunch and Venture Beat. We will also post it on our blog once our designer has completed.
We would like to thank everyone who submitted the slogan.
Stay tuned as we will have additional competitions of this nature in the near future.
Kash – we will reach out to you to send you your iPod. Enjoy it – its well deserved.
Roy and the uTest Team
 
We are looking for a new slogan that will run in our new ad campaign in various technology blogs and sites.
The Slogan is targeting for software companies looking for testing services.
Slogan needs to be maximum of 6 words.
Examples to get you started:
Zero Bugs ? Try uTest
You Develop it, We Test It
There will be only 1 winner.
Winner will be announced on April 10. The prize will be a cool 4GB iPod nano.
Please post your suggestions as comments to this blog post.
Happy copywriting!
Roy and the uTest Team
We are excited to have a new testing assignment this week from a new customer - Xobni. Xobni is an Outlook plug-in that saves users time by finding email conversations, contacts, and attachments. Xobni exposes the hidden social network in your email system.
There is a tremendous amount of media coverage around Xobni’s new functionality and features, some people refer to Xobni’s product as the new Google for email search. I have played with it myself and the functionality is really nice.
Xobni is using uTest testing community in order to test their latest version. This is a perfect example of how being a part of the community is not only about get paid for finding bugs, it’s also the opportunity to get early exposure to the latest technologies and coolest applications.
Happy testing,
Roy and the uTest team
Hello all,
We at uTest wanted to take a few moments to discuss how the uTest services are especially useful for those engaged in agile development. For those unfamiliar with the term, agile development is a software development process which emphasizes face to face communication, short work cycles, an absence of written documentation, and quick releases of software. Typically, agile development also has a strong focus of working closely with customers and business people when planning and developing software – with very frequent re-evaluations.
uTest feels that their testing services compliment companies who use agile development exceptionally well. In many ways, the uTest model reflects the agile development model, in that testing is usually done in quick spurts. uTest is able to take applications from agile developers, test them, and return feedback at a pace far faster than traditional QA methods. Arguably, uTest might be one of the only QA services companies which can provide the turnaround time that agile developers are seeking. Furthermore, the cost of testing is far less than that of traditional QA firms, so agile developers don’t have to worry about budgetary constraints.
If you are an agile developer, or know of a firm who is, we at uTest encourage you to try out our software testing services. Thank you and we look forward to working with you soon.
Best Regards,
Jonathan and the uTest Team.
This week we have more exciting testing assignments being offered to the community by various companies. We have a gaming application (earn money while playing, dream work ha…) and a cool Outlook plug in with many features.
QAZone, the largest online community dedicated to fostering communication and collaboration among QA & IT professionals has released an interview with uTest founders and management team. You can view the QAZone post here:
We are working with QAZone on future collaboration between the uTest and QAZone community and sites. New announcements are soon to follow. Marina Gil-Santamaria from QAZone described it best: “QAZone is the community that can support you while you learn about testing/QA methodologies and best practices, and uTest is the community where you can apply your knowledge hands-on and get paid for bugs that you find!”
For your ease of reading the interview in its entirety is posted below:
QAZone Interview with Doron Reuveni, Roy Solomon &
Marc Weinstein
-March 2008
Q1- Doron, Marc, Roy, you started a new company, uTest, built on the philosophy of building a testing community and offering QA as a service….Do you want to start by talking about uTest, and giving a high level overview of your company & business model for our QAZone members & visitors?
A1- (Marc) Marina, first and foremost than you for this opportunity to introduce uTest via QAZone. uTest has introduced the first global marketplace of QA software testing coupled with a Pay Per Bug business model. Companies in need of software QA testing are able to access a Global Community of professional software testers - on-demand - for the purpose of quality assuring and testing software releases prior to market launch.
The uTestTM testing platform is all Web-based - accessible anywhere, anytime, from any computer screen by customers and testers. It enables application vendors to load/publish their application, test scripts and testing information to the secure uTestTM Testing Platform. The interface is easy to use and allows companies to self manage QA cycles, projects and processes.
The pay per bug business model introduced by uTest is unique in the QA testing world, but is used very successfully in other industries and in other aspects of technology including software development. We believe this model is highly suitable for QA software testing based on the feedback from our customers and testers during our pilot program.
Q2- Who came up with the idea? Was uTest the answer to some industry trend that you noticed, were you trying to find yourself qualified QA engineers yourself?
A2- (Marc) Marina, great question! Roy would you briefly summarize the uTest story….
(Roy) “Yes, thank you Marc. The uTest idea was first conceived by me (Roy). I managed several large QA teams testing applications geared for consumer markets utilizing both in house and outsource QA resources. Significant testing hours were invested prior to market release only to find many new bugs on a post-release basis by customers. What materialized was the fact that true end-user environments and real-world user-scenarios could never be sufficiently tested prior to market release due to time-to-market and budget constraints.
I tried to solve this problem by running extended beta programs, but as with other beta programs, feedback often remained insufficient, unreliable, lacked real-world behavior, and further delayed product launch. It didn’t take too long to realize that this problem could be effectively and efficiently solved with a diverse global community of professional testers available on-demand”.
Q3- Let’s focus now on the tester’s side of uTest…What are some of the skills/characteristics that you are looking for? Are there any conditions (like lack of experience, lack of automation skills, etc) that will “block” a tester from joining uTest?
A3- (Doron) “As Marc noted earlier, we currently have a global community of professional software testers that is in excess of 5,000 and growing daily! Their experience ranges from Novice to expert QA testers (with 10+ years experience). We offer an open sign-up to participate in uTest projects.
Most customers require a blend of both experience and novice testers. There are often customers and projects which require unique configurations and tester experience, this provides a tremendous opportunity for novice testers to participate and improve their testing skills and experience”.
Q4- How many uTest members do you typically assign to work on the same project? Are they all working on the same area, do you divide an application in sub-areas?
A4- (Doron) “We currently assign 30-50 testers per project to view and test all parts of the application. However, our testing platform will soon be enhanced to send real-time indicators of testing coverage that will alert and direct testers to different areas of the application”.
Q5- You are paying using a per bug model, so how do you handle when more than one tester reports the same issue? Do they have visibility into each other’s bugs?
A5- (Doron) Marc, would you provide some highlights of the uTest Platform…
(Marc) “The uTest platform has a built-in duplication alert mechanism. Prior to posting a known or duplicate bug, the uTest system will alert the tester of potential duplicates and advise the tester not to report them and/or provide additional information. The tester community does have access to all known bugs per release, unless the company specifically decides not to share this information”.
Q5- I know that coming up with a compensation number might be hard as there are multiple factors to consider, but let’s say that we define “active” as dedicating 20 hours/week to uTest. What could be a typical compensation range in this scenario?
A6- (Marc) “The tester bug rate is determined by tester grading, tester profile, type of test release, number of testers assigned to a release, and other testing criteria defined by the company. On average, 20 hours a week would earn a tester between $200-$500 a week. However, more experienced testers can earn significantly more. We believe, and our market research has shown, that the income potential coupled w/flexible work hours and the opportunity to work on multiple and new/exciting products will exponentially grow our tester community. We also facilitate special bonuses and additional incentives to top testers participating in a QA project based on amount of bugs or importance of bugs found”.
Q6- Do you provide documentation & resources around testing methodologies/best practices for your members? Are your uTest testers able to interact with other for guidance, discussions and peer to peer support?
A6- (Marc) Doron, would you more fully address this matter…
(Doron) “Best practices and resources focused on testing methodologies are available via the uTest Blog and FAQ section of the uTest platform. uTest, as well as its testers, are using QAZone as a great resource center for methodologies and best practices around QA and testing. As part of the uTest platform, we also provide a messaging component that enables testers and companies to communicate. We also plan to introduce a “forum system“ that will allow testers to communicate amongst themselves along with the company Testing Manager”.
Q7-I am glad that you mentioned QAZone! J. Now if we focus on the companies that will benefit from signing up for your uTest services…What do you think is the ideal company/application profile?
A7- (Doron) “We truly believe that any company that develops a product targeted for consumers can significantly benefit from the uTest services. We are currently focusing on Web and desktop application providers, but we are also developing components that will support smart phone and PDA-type applications and companies that provide packaged hardware and software products to the consumer (i.e. music, enhanced digital devices, etc.)”.
Q8- In your opinion, what is the major driver for companies that are signing up for your testing services? Do you think that they are looking to reduce headcount on their existing QA teams on the longer term?
A8- (Marc) Marina, again great question…”Companies drawn to uTest recognize the tremendous business value in leveraging an unlimited, diverse, and experienced community of professional software testers on-demand. Unlimited not only by the number and diversity of testers, but by the variety of testing characteristics; Environment, OS, Browsers, Extensions, Anti-virus, Firewall, etc. uTest is a “true” complement to a company’s existing QA efforts who turn to uTest for an out-of the-box QA experience, access to testing environments not available in-house, testing across the end user food-chain - from Novice to Expert - during peak periods, and to better manage time-to-market expectations”.
Q9- Is there any type of project that is better suited for uTest? (E.g. functional testing, Beta testing, Performance testing, new applications, Beta cycles, etc)
A9- (Roy) “Initially we are focusing on functional, beta, acceptance, and exploratory testing. We fully anticipate introducing load testing and usability testing as well”.
Q10- Roy, Doron and Marc, thank you very much for your time! It was truly a pleasure speaking with you today. I would like to wrap-up this interview with a last question…. In your opinion, what is the future of Testing/QA as a service?
A10- (Doron) “We believe the trend that we see in QA software testing will be similar to what we see in other technology segments. We will see more and more SaaS-type solutions being offered on an on demand basis. We also believe that the pay per performance model will provide tremendous business value to both companies and testers”.
We are proud to say that the concept is working very well. Testers around the globe provide quality feedback to companies, while getting paid for their services.
We will continue updating on our progress through our blog.
Hello All,
This week, I wanted to take some time to write about the benefits of community QA testing and compare it with other, traditional models of QA. Three traditional methods of QA testing are: in-house, outsourced (typically professional firms), or Beta testing.
In-House:
In house testing does have some very positive benefits which include: rigorous testing, fully managed teams, and QA personnel being fully knowledgeable about the product. Unfortunately, the team is generally excessively under-or-over utilized given the exceptionally cyclical nature of the QA environment. In other words, when a release comes out, the team is expected to work at maximum capacity and they are always under extreme pressure to either get the product back to engineering, or to release it to market. Conversely, in-between released, the team is highly under-utilized. Clearly, this kind of cyclical work flow incurs a high amount of cost, and relatively low efficiency for the money being put into it.
Outsourced:
Outsourcing QA to professional QA firms does solve the “peak workflow” issue to some degree. Unfortunately, they usually incur an even higher annual cost than maintaining one’s own QA department. They do tend to be highly skilled, yet generally they lack familiarity with one’s product, are very expensive, and will not have as much incentive to find bugs as the community testing model.
Beta Testing:
Beta Testing is by far the cheapest of the above mentioned techniques. Companies can typically receive extremely useful feedback since it is being tested by those who will be using it. Unfortunately, therein lies the problem in that beta testing requires using one’s own consumer base to test its product. If it is exceptionally buggy, many users might become upset with the product quickly, subsequently generating bad PR for the firm. The testers are also not controlled or managed very effectively. There are a number of ways to organize a beta testing environment, but unfortunately none of them are as well organized as either having one’s own QA department or outsourcing it.
uTest Community Testing:
The reason why we are so excited about our community testing model (as one uTest supporter recently called it – a “team testing model”), is that it seems to offer the best solution by far to all of the aforementioned problems. It is extremely easy to manage one’s cyclical work flow because the company can scale up to as much labor as they need, when they need it, subsequently reducing their time to market by a large factor. It is much less expensive than an in-house or outsourced QA team, but still offers the ability to be just as tightly managed. It offers the inexpensive means of beta testing without using one’s consumers as test subjects, and the ability to not run over budget.
We appreciate all of your continued enthusiasm and support throughout our release and we look forward as always to hearing your input. If you know of any companies that might be able to benefit from our service (and therefore provide more work opportunities for our testers), please let us know at sales@utest.com. Thank you very much and we look forward to writing more soon.
Best,
Jonathan and the uTest Team.
