Crowdtesting

DEFINITION

Crowdtesting is a manner of managing a test. The crowd is used to test a software, a product, an application, etc. It has appeared as an opposing option to the well-known test team usually trained to that purpose. Crowdtesting achieves results that are generally much less focused that a test team. Always depending on the project, such an approach can be extremely useful. A crowd can cover much more development scenari and patterns of use.

PEOPLE INVOLVED

All this process is realized to satisfy the client who will in the end use the product. In order to solve every possible problems that the product might have, the producer hires someone who organizes a test (organizer). After that the crowd has to play its role by using the product and giving feedbacks. In the end, the results have to be analyzed and the product corrected in order to be as optimal as possible.

PROCESS

The first step consists of the definition of the project, and its analysis, so that it is clear that crowdtesting is better adapted than a classical test team. After that, it is necessary to define the questions that will lead to the discovery of the possible bugs of the product. The test is ready and the crowd enters the process by using the product. People have to document their use, so that when a problem is found, it is possible to know exactly how to reproduce it and solve it. The documentation (texts, images, screanshots, etc.) is extremely important since the testers are not taking the test under the surveillance of the organizer, but at home or in the train or anywhere else. After that, all the results have to be collected and analyzed. The last step is to solve all the problems found.

Each project implies a different way of managing each step, since the product can have variable purposes.

Once the product is on the market, it is almost impossible to correct the problems and still be successful!

MONEY

There are different option in managing the money :

• “Pay-per-bug” is the most used option and the person taking the test only gets money if founding a significant problem and proving that it exists.
• Another option is to be paid a certain amount of money for taking the test and in addition to that be paid again if finding a significant problem.
• The last option is to be paid per hour spent taking the test and in addition to that be paid again if finding a significant problem.

MOTIVATIONS

The main motivation in participating in a crowdtesting is the money. There are other influent factors, but they are far less mentioned than money : competence, altruism, fun, challenge oneself, etc.

EXAMPLES

Ebay, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, etc.