Quality Assurance Checklist for Outsourced Projects

Management and Supervision

To be successful, the project needs to be thoroughly planned. Consequently, the team working on it has to follow every step to guarantee the expected result. Managing and controlling a project in-house can be difficult enough, but what happens when you outsource? It’s a more complicated case, but one has to somehow monitor and supervise the progress of the outsourced project to ensure all commitments are met. Qubit Labs knows for sure: one really valuable thing that helps doing exactly this is a quality assurance checklist.

What is a Quality Assurance Checklist?

A quality assurance checklist for outsourced projects is usually designed to help you keep up with milestones and deadlines, as well as retain a day-to-day involvement in project management responsibilities. The quality assurance checklist helps designated reviewers determine whether specifications meet criteria. Depending on the nature of the software development work that is outsourced, there will be different aspects you need to take into account. But let’s talk about some of the universal things that will get you started with the checklist for IT outsourcing.

• Describe the purpose and the scope of the checklist. Make sure every contingency is covered.
• Provide a brief overview as a point of reference, including the responsible organization, system name, system code, system category, operational status, and system environment and special conditions.
• Provide points of organizational contact that may be needed by the document user for informational and troubleshooting purposes.
• Compile a list of organizations that need coordination between the project and its specific support function (like security or installation coordination). An activities coordination schedule should be provided as well.
• Identify standards and guidelines for the team to follow.
• Evaluate software tools and facilities.
• Evaluate the software products review process, as well as the code and unit testing process – you need to know that the work is supervised appropriately.
• Make a list and briefly describe the documentation expected to be produced during this project (project plan, needs statement, cost/benefit analysis, risk analysis, etc.)
• Describe the quality assurance tools, as well as the methodology used to implement usage of those tools.

For some people, quality assurance sounds exactly like quality control. But the truth is, those are two different types of making sure the product is delivered within expectations. Want to compare? Check this chart!

Final Touches to the Quality Assurance Checklist

Of course, having a checklist that helps you oversee the team’s work is a great help. But to help you further, Qubit Labs would love to give you some more advice for your to have more control over the outsourced project:

• When putting together the contract, be sure to request frequent reports on the development status
• Specify when you should be notified if things go awry or if there are any deviations from the work plan
• Correspondingly, progress can be validated at scheduled times or at previously agreed-upon project milestones

Taking into account all the above, we think that you’re all set to go. But if you still think you need help with outsourcing Quality Assurance, Qubit Labs will gladly help with any kind of project you have in mind. We will not only put together a team of high-level experts and a thought through quality assurance checklist to ensure high-quality results, but also make sure that quality assurance is performed according to highest standards.