How can large IT organizations ride the weekend testing bandwagon?

Although there are few demerits of weekend testing, the power of weekend testers can still be leveraged tremendously. Some IT service providers have formed an alliance with crowd platform providers, such as Applause, as part of its Liquid Workforce Strategy. It features more than 250,000 experienced QA testers from around the world. Applause complements in-house testing professionals to provide a range of testing services and geographic coverage to their customers, especially in the areas of mobile devices, desktops, kiosks, smart TVs, wearables, and IoT testing.

A formal governance model can help integrate weekend testing teams with the test engagement teams of IT service providers. Weekend testing teams could report to meeting facilitators who typically consist of test leads or managers of test engagement. Such governance could include monitoring and reviewing of daily project activities, including weekly work schedule, progress made, and any course corrections required to meet the quality and schedule of the transition. Open issues should be highlighted and actions taken to resolve them. However, work distribution across locations, quality level, and SLA performance need to be verified. Staffing matters, such as team ramp-up and colocation, could also be discussed through formal governance.