Disadvantages

While weekend testing is an interesting and evolving phenomenon, there are concerns, including the following:

• Inadequate security: Weekend testing does not undertake adequate measures to secure customer IPs, secure an ODC, sign NDAs, and so on, which is generally practiced by customers dealing with offshore service providers. Testing is usually done in an informal and relaxed environment; this could make clients feel skeptical about sharing their IP.
• Inadequate alignment with business: Weekend tester forums may not be able to swiftly respond to changes in strategy taken by customers during the project. Lack of a proper governance model and transition methodology hinders weekend testing projects from responding to changing customer needs. It may therefore pose a risk to project delivery, particularly to brand new implementations.
• Inability to adopt DevOps: Weekend testing relies more on open source tools and manual testing and therefore does not align well with DevOps delivery models, which promote quicker testing and integration of development test operations.
• Governance issues: Weekend testers often abandon tough testing sessions, leaving testing assignments incomplete for several days, thereby disrupting test continuity. Sometimes, core testers have busy weekend schedules and cannot give adequate time and commitment to their testing assignment. This greatly impacts project timelines. Lack of weekend facilitators or moderators leaves testing directionless and without any structure.