译——冠状病毒：这是全球离岸测试模型的终结吗？

 

The global offshoring model has been very successful in the past. With a market greater than $50B in India alone, there is no denying that fact.

在过去几年，全球离岸模型取得了巨大的成功。仅仅在印度就有超过500亿的市场，这是不可否认的事实。

 

However, many have noticed how recent eye-opening developments have arisen due the coronavirus which has had a negative impact on digital supply chains that as a result have been severely affected by the pandemic. Rob Mason, CTO at Applause, has had an insightful look into how it has impacted business continuity and why brands have switched to crowdtesting to maintain the release of new software and much more.

然而，许多人已经意识到由于冠状病毒对数字供应链的严重负面影响，测试行业最近已经有了让人大开眼界的发展。Rob Mason是Applause的首席技术官，他对冠状病毒如何影响商业的持续性，为什么品牌商已经转向众包测试维持新软件的发布以及更多问题有着深刻的理解。

 

Read Rob’s informative words below to discover how the pandemic has caused a panic in the offshore testing model and the ways in which it is having a disruptive effect on the software development global pipeline.

阅读下文Rob的文章，探索大流行如何导致了离岸测试模型的恐慌和它对全球渠道软件开发的破坏性的影响。

 

Reservations about offshoring were emerging even before the pandemic began. For many years offshoring offered businesses a cost-effective and scalable route to delivering large IT services projects. QA testing was no different, and software professionals came to rely on offshore teams to supplement their in-house capabilities. However, demands have changed.

甚至在大流行之前对离岸模型的疑虑就已经开始浮现了。长期以来，离岸模型在商业成本控制方面取得显著效果，并且为大型IT服务项目交付提供了可扩展的路径。在质量测试方面也一样没什么不同，软件专业人员开始用离岸团队补充他们内部的力量。然而，需求已经改变了。

 

Software testing has become more and more sophisticated. It’s no longer just a question of quality. So many aspects of the end-user experience and the customer journey need to be taken into consideration.

软件测试已经变得越来越复杂。再也不仅仅只是质量问题。如此多的终端用户体验层面以及客户体验需要纳入考虑的范围。

 

Also, speed and agility are key when it comes to testing apps, websites, and other digital properties. It remains to be seen if offshoring can provide a quick turnaround, coverage, and valuable insights that brands need from QA testing nowadays. Rising costs have also resulted in companies moving on to other offshore locations, which involves getting used to new time differences, cultures, and ways of working.

并且，在APP测试，网页测试以及其他数字产品测试的时候速度和敏捷性是关键。现今，离岸团队能否为品牌方在质量检测中为他们提供所需的一个快速的测试周期，测试全覆盖以及有价值的意见还有待观察。成本的增加也导致了公司更换其他的离岸测试团队，以至于需要习惯新的时间差，文化和工作的方式。

 

Many of these issues were compounded by the pandemic, but what quickly became apparent was that outsourcing companies and their employees lacked the infrastructure to work remotely, which negatively impacted business continuity.

许多问题因为大流行导致了恶化，但是最快凸显出来的是外包公司和他们的员工缺乏远程办公的基础设施，这对业务的持续性产生了负面的影响。

 

 

Lack of preparedness

The outbreak and the subsequent lockdown have had a devastating effect on outsourcing companies. With no effective remote working strategy in place, these companies were prevented from providing key services to their customers. While businesses in the UK and Europe struggled initially to manage large numbers of employees forced to work from home, outsourcing companies in offshore locations were simply not prepared for this type of scenario.

缺乏准备

突然爆发的疫情和紧接着的封锁对外包公司造成了极具破坏性的影响。当下没有有效的远程办公策略，这些公司无法为他们的客户提供重要服务。当英国和欧洲的企业开始努力管理大量被迫在家办公的员工，离岸测试外包公司还没有对这种工作方式做好准备。

 

Unfortunately, ‘working from home’ is not a standard practice. It’s not generally supported by outsourcing companies, many of which do not provide workers with laptops to bring home. Even if workers have the technology to work from home – including internet connections and VPN access – many firms need client permission for them to do so.

不幸的是，“在家办公”不是一个标准的实践。在外包公司通常没法实行，很多公司无法为员工提供可以带回家的电脑。哪怕员工有技术能够在家办公，包括网络连接和VPN连接，许多公司需要客户允许他们这么干。

 

These firms are desperately trying to catch up and some companies are now distributing laptops to workers’ homes, but this is taking the time. Even when they manage to get devices and laptops out to staff, companies are finding it difficult to expand their virtual private networks exponentially. This isn’t helped by poor-quality broadband infrastructure hampering the ability to work from home.

这些公司在竭力追赶，一些公司现在已经给在家办公的员工分发了电脑，但这是在浪费时间。甚至当他们给员工发了设备和电脑，公司发现要成倍地扩展他们的虚拟私人网络是很困难的。劣质的宽带连接基础设施阻碍了他们在家办公的能力，这么做是没有帮助的。

 

Regardless of the pandemic, many of these firms are also falling behind in terms of the training, management and quality control of teams, which is impacting the levels of service they can provide.

无论大流行如何，这些公司在培训，管理和团队质量把控方面也是落后的，这影响了他们能够提供的服务的水准。

 

Offshoring versus crowdtesting 

The pandemic has exposed many of the flaws in the traditional outsourcing, or offshoring, model. The most glaring issue was the inability to support business continuity and business enablement at the time it was needed most. Subsequently, the companies that once relied on offshoring found that they had to adapt, and they had to adapt quickly. Particularly as in-house testing had also become untenable. Fortunately, they didn’t have to look very far to find a viable alternative.Brands have been using crowdtesting and remote testing services for more than a decade. Crowdtesting has become a well-established model that operates in tandem with in-house teams to complement integrated QA testing.

离岸测试VS众包测试

大流行之下使得传统的外包或者离岸测试模型的缺点一览无遗。最明显的问题是在最需要的时候却不能支持业务的可持续性和业务的可实现性。接着就是公司一旦依赖离岸模型就会发现他们必须适应，并且需要快速适应，特别是当内部测试不堪一击的时候。幸运的是，他们不需要寻找长久的可选方案。品牌商们已经在超过10年的时间里使用众包测试和远程测试。众包测试已经变成一个有良好基础的模型，能够跟内部测试团队集成完成质量测试。

 

When comparing the two models, offshoring is nothing more than moving testing from one office to another, whereas crowdtesting, or distributed testing, requires having an infrastructure in place where a company manages a global community of testers who do all their work remotely. This model offers brands an embedded infrastructure that can be scaled up or down to meet requirements.

比较这两种模式的时候，离岸模型除了把一个测试从一个办公室移动到另一个办公室就没其什么了，而众包测试或者分布式测试需要一个基础架构，即要求有一个基础架构，公司能在架构上管理全球测试社区里完成远程任务的测试人员。这种模式为品牌商提供了一个能扩大或者缩小以满足需求的嵌入式基础架构。

 

What’s more, is that it gives brands access to skilled testers from a diverse set of backgrounds with a range of different skills. The comparison between offshoring and crowdtesting models is reminiscent of the trends in data centers, and how IT systems used to be kept in-office, before co-location facilities became the standard, then cloud came along and has since the norm because it is highly distributed, flexible, scalable and high performing.

更重要的是，它能使品牌商们接触各种各样一系列的不同背景和不同技术能力的测试人员。离岸和众包模式之间的对比使人想到了数据中心的趋势，以及在过去，托管服务器成为标准之前IT系统如何留在办公室，紧接着云也来了，自此规范变得高度分散，灵活，可延展和高性能。

 

The crowdtesting model allows brands to conduct testing of digital products with a community made up of people that are very close to the actual customers they’re targeting. This can be done at a local level, or it can be scaled to support bigger and bolder projects across multiple markets and regions. Each time providing a curated team of local testers that appreciate the cultural demands and expectations of customers in those markets. These are levels of expertise and insight that offshoring cannot guarantee.

众包测试允许品牌商通过一个跟他们的目标客户很相近的人群组成的社区来执行数字产品测试。这能在本地执行或者跨多个市场和地区扩大范围支持更大和更大胆的项目。每次提供一个当地的测试团队，了解目标市场客户文化和客户需求。这些专业的水平和洞察力是离岸测试无法保证的。

 

Quality control

Crowdtesting and offshoring could go head-to-head on several different factors. A lack of cultural understanding is one of them and it can have a negative impact on projects, but so can time zone differences and language barriers.

质量控制

众包测试和离岸测试在几个不同的因素上可能并驾齐驱。对文化理解的缺乏是其中一个，会对项目产生负面的影响，时区差异和语言差异也一样。

 

All of these issues and more can be eliminated by using a crowdsourced model. Despite being community-based, the leading providers of crowdtesting services provide only highly vetted testers and ensure professional oversight. Community projects are coordinated by management teams that liaise directly with customers providing them with as much, or as little, visibility and control as they want. This model ensures that it’s the customer that calls the shots, providing them with the ability to upload test cases and define the scope of work.

所有的这些问题，甚至更多的问题能通过使用众包测试来消除。鉴于需要有社区基础，众包测试的领先供应商，仅提供严格审查的测试者并且保证进行专业监督。社区项目是通过管理团队协调的，他们直接与客户联系，给他们提供客户所需的或多或少的的可视并且可控的管理。这种模式保证了客户的自主性，使他们能上传测试用例并定义他们的工作范围。

 

In today’s apps economy, testing alone isn’t enough. End-users have high expectations and the best apps extend quality past QA and to every segment of the app lifecycle. Unfortunately, traditional offshoring is no longer equipped to meet the increasing demands of app quality.

当今的APP经济，单独测试是不够的。终端用户寄予厚望，并且最好的APP的质量应该超过质量测试并且延伸到APP生命周期的每一个部分。不幸的是传统的离岸测试不再能够满足日日益增长的APP质量需求。

 

More importantly, at times like these, a highly resilient crowdtesting infrastructure ensures business continuity and business enablement…even during a pandemic. The crowdsourced model leverages a globally distributed workforce that was already working home when the crisis began. This has enabled clients to continue to release software on schedule, and the surge in interest in remote and distributed testing shows no signs of slowing down. It will continue to provide brands with advantages in terms of cost, timeframe, real-world coverage, and cultural understanding for many years to come.

更重要的是，有时，像一个高适应性的众包测试基础架构确保了商业的可持续性和商业的可实现性...甚至在大流行期间。众包测试模型在危机开始的时候利用全球的已经在家办公的劳动力。这使得客户能够持续按照计划发布软件，对远程分布式测试的兴趣的激增没有丝毫放缓的迹象。即将到来的几年内，它将继续为品牌商们在成本控制、时间表、实际工作覆盖范围、文化理解方面提供优势。

 

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来源：

https://www.softwaretestingnews.co.uk/coronavirus-is-this-the-end-of-the-global-offshore-testing-model/

作者： jason caines

时间：2020/7/22