Who Is More Productive: Remote QA Engineer or In-House One?

The remote software development market has increased substantially in recent years. Forming an efficient virtual development team remotely has become a very commonplace term in the entire industry of software development and remote software testing.

A good virtual software development team should necessarily include a remote QA engineer along with the software developers and designers. Let’s have a deeper look at the responsibilities of SW QA engineer, market demand, average salary, and effectiveness of a remote QA tester job in a remote working environment and how the software QA outsourcing becoming popular. When evaluating the productivity of remote QA engineers versus in-house ones, it’s important to consider the benefits of hiring a full stack developer Java as well as the option to hire RoR developers, ensuring a diverse skill set and optimal team composition for efficient testing and quality assurance processes.

Remote QA Outsourcing

Testing and QA software engineers are the most gender-diverse group, with women accounting for 30% of the workforce. Test and QA software engineers may be less in-demand compared to other software engineering specialties (machine learning, data science, frontend, and mobile), there is still a large pool of experts with the necessary skills and experience to provide such services.

According to the Global State of Software Testers Report by Qualitest, two-thirds of all software QA testers are working in High Technology, followed by Manufacturing, Government, Finance, Consumer Goods, and Corporate Services. The same report also breaks down the top 10 countries with the most number of remote QA tester per capita from around the world as follows:

1. Ireland
2. USA
3. Canada
4. Israel
5. Singapore
6. United Kingdom
7. Netherlands
8. Australia
9. Poland
10. Hungary

Hiring in-house QA engineers and testing software engineers are good but can be costly. A better option would be to employ the services of remote QA software engineers. With remote QA automation engineer outsourcing, companies will have access to a definitely larger pool, global even, of such experts. Outsourced QA projects can also be more cost-efficient than in-house projects. Most of the popular countries in outsourcing come from places in Asia and Europe. Some of the popular countries for remote software QA outsourcing business tasks or projects are:

• Ukraine
• Bulgaria
• Czech Republic
• Egypt
• Hungary
• Malaysia
• Vietnam
• Philippines
• China
• Romania

QA Engineer Role – Responsibilities and Market Demand

The role of a quality assurance engineer, commonly referred as QA engineer is to maintain a high quality of the software development project starting from the software design to the implementation of the same. In the modern development methodologies like Continuous Development (CD), the importance of QA software testing has changed tremendously. Now, remote software testing is not a one-time activity or process, but it is a continuous testing from the beginning of coding to implement.

The modern software testing requires the latest outsourced QA testing tools, testing-based software development methodologies, and the continual improvement strategies. All kinds of manual testing like unit testing, module tests, integration testing, performance testing, and other testing have been transformed into the QA automation testing frameworks and tools. The major QA engineer responsibilities are listed below:

• Creation of QA plan for the entire project
• Development and maintenance of required test cases
• Implementation of the latest outsourced QA testing tools and developing the automated testing strategy
• Check the integrity, reliability, and compatibility of the code through rigorous testing
• Perform all types of testing like unit testing, integration testing, API testing, regression testing, system testing, module testing, performance testing etcetera
• Troubleshooting the problems and helping the software developers
• Generating test reporting to the concerned personnel
• Follow the industry standards and best practices of software QA engineer test

Software development is moving toward continuous testing in all modern software development methodologies like Agile, DevOps, CD/CI, and others. Numerous software development strategies are based on the remote software testing models like the time-driven development (TDD), behavior-driven development (BDD) and others. According to the Insights Dice forecast, more than 100,000 QA analyst remote and QA experts jobs are expected to be created by 2022.

The role of QA remote engineer is transitioning from traditional manual testing to automated testing with the help of modern testing tools and test case development services available in the cloud. The average QA engineer salary with test automation expertise is about 20% higher than the traditional manual testers.

According to the UpWork information, the merger of DevOps and Agile is unleashing the large-scale demand for the test automation QA engineers and QA experts in the future. So, the demand to hire Agile QA engineers and for the QA software engineer is very high and it will even increase substantially in the coming years.

Why Is Software QA Engineer Required for Successful Web Development?

Gone are the days when a software tester would test the software after 6 months of the project started when the coding was completed and sent to the testbed. In modern software development methodologies like Agile, DevOps, and CD/CI, the development cycle is not more than a few weeks, and the release cycle is even less than that. Nowadays companies need to hire a QA Engineer to make the process faster.

A remote manual QA engineer has become an integral part of the development process from the beginning of the coding to the implementation of the same. In some methods of Agile development like TDD and BDD, software development starts after the first test case is developed. This is also known as the continuous testing in the modern software testing environment, where the demand for a qualified remote QA tester is very high.

A qualified remote software QA engineer is required due to the following reasons, as far as web development is concerned.

However, there is one more thing that you might want to consider as an addition to your already existing business strategy alongside hiring a QA engineer. We are talking about employing a QA consultant. Who he is and what he does? Most people believe that this is just an adviser who will give you hints on how to do your QA tasks better. Well, in reality, things are a bit more complicated than just that. Such a specialist will try to connect your QA team with other departments so that your company’s workflow will be as smooth as possible.

So as you see, hiring a software QA consultant is not just giving a job to another guy who will only give you pointless advice, think of it as of an investment into your company’s future success.

Can a Quality Assurance Engineer Work Remotely with Full Efficiency?

A simple answer to this question is yes! According to the Gallop Research, more than 58% of the people believe the remote workers are as effective as the on-premises workers. The Martin Fowler finds in his research work that all roles of a remote team, including QA engineers, are more productive than the on-premises workers. In modern software development environments, the remote QA software engineer feels stress-free and effective in performing his/her responsibilities more efficiently.

QA analyst remote workers are more satisfied and happy with their working environment, which can lead to better efficiency and motivation to do great in the projects that they are working on. Working with a remote team or worker for outsourced QA testing projects brings a number of benefits to a company;

• An around-the-clock team working on your project
• Skills and experience diversity
• Lower operational and development costs, and
• The more efficient working environment
• Access to a global pool of expert QA software engineers

Remote manual QA outsource jobs can be a challenge in the beginning. However, with planning, collaboration, and constant communication working with remote QA software engineers on outsourced QA projects will be advantageous in the long run.

There are many collaboration, communication, and coordination tools that make a great virtual workplace to produce the desired productivity. In many cases, it has been found that away from office stress and traveling problems, the remote workers produce much better results as compared to working in the office.

Average Salary of QA Engineer in Different Countries

How much does a QA engineer make in a particular country depends upon many factors like living cost, market type, state of the software industry and etc. So, the QA software engineer salary varies in different countries significantly. If you are looking to hire a QA engineer or to find software developers – let’s have a look at the average rates of a QA engineer in different countries. And the difference in cost of hiring QA team Ukraine and worldwide.

Due to the shortage of test automation skills in the marketplace, the entry-level QA engineer salary with test automation skills is comparatively higher than the manual QA engineer in all major markets across the globe. So, it is a great idea for the remote QA automation engineer to position them for the test automation skillsets for starting a successful career in the test automation field.

QA Engineers – an Integral Part of Mobilunity Remote Teams

The formation of the Mobilunity software development team goes through a highly professional and thoughtful process based on the type of project, the requirements of the project and many other factors. The quality of the software is the most fundamental factor considered in the remote team development process.

To maintain a high quality and robust security of the software Mobilunity always includes a highly qualified QA engineer expert with the modern QA tools and automation processes in the remote development teams.

The major standard roles of a Mobilunity software development team are listed below:

• Product Manager
• UI/UX Designers
• Software Developers
• Data Scientist / Data Analyst
• QA Engineer / QA Tester

The remote teams can also be customized based upon either client requirements or the project requirements. The development methodology based roles are also added if required for creating a high-quality software product with great user experience.

How Can Mobilunity Help You with Professional QA Engineer Services?

Mobilunity, a Ukrainian based provider of highly professional level software development services, powered by the great quality of each SW QA engineer’s performance and robust security features. The company supports the customers with the help of highly qualified and experienced QA team Ukraine and QA engineer services, as mentioned below:

• Provides 100% software testing coverage
• Creates high quality of the software product
• Maintains strong security and reliability
• Creates a great user experience
• Offers 100% reliability and peace of mind
• All these benefits at competitive prices!

Contact us and hire a QA Engineer in Ukraine!

Written by:

Anastasia Stefanuk

Market Researcher

Disclaimer: All salaries and prices mentioned within the article are approximate NET numbers based on the research done by our in-house Recruitment Team. Please use these numbers as a guide for comparison purposes only and feel free to use the contact form to inquire on the specific cost of the talent according to your vacancy requirements and chosen model of engagement.