Software Testing Blog

I read a great article in ebizQ last week outlining why crowdsourcing is no longer just for startups. Dion Hinchcliffe (@dhinchcliffe) writes:

“While Internet startups have had considerable success with crowdsourcing, it’s only recently that they’ve focused on creating the tools and communities that can be readily consumed by enterprises.”

Crowdsourcing enables companies – from bootstrapped startups to global enterprises – to tap into the creativity and diversity of a global community of skilled professionals. Sounds great, so why is it better suited to some businesses and not others?

Well, with crowdsourced software testing for example, the crowd reflects the diversity (e.g. locations, languages spoken, hardware, software, etc.) of  the apps and the end users themselves. In the case of global software testing, the crowd is better suited than perhaps an outsourcing company without adequate testing coverage. This shift has empowered app companies to make the best decisions, on an on-demand basis, without sacrificing control, costs or quality.

Hinchcliffe goes on to discuss the various reasons a business would choose crowdsourcing, including “to offload peak demand, have access to cheaper business inputs, generate better results, and tackle problems that would have been too difficult to do otherwise.”

His five functional business areas that are suitable for crowdsourcing are:

1. Problem Solving
2. Design
3. Work
4. Testing
5. Support

Communities of skilled professionals who care about their online reputations are bringing fresh eyes and ideas and being used to complement in-house resources or act as virtual teams, including graphic design, development, R&D and testing and launching world-class web, desktop and mobile apps (crowdsourcing whitepaper).

Which industries or businesses do you think are best suited to the crowdsourcing business model?