Shopping smarter for custom tech: how to compare QA

Custom technology is a big investment, and—as with anything—you get what you pay for.

But even if you come to the table perfectly willing to spend more for a top-notch final product, how can you ensure you’ll get your money’s worth?

Sites like Capterra can be helpful for evaluating off-the-shelf software or SaaS products, but of course you can’t make “apples to apples” comparisons of tools that don’t even exist yet.

So how do you do your “due diligence” when shopping for custom software solutions? Focus on your prospective tech partners and their processes.

Specifically, try to get a look “under the hood” at their approach to quality assurance (QA) by asking questions like:

• Who leads QA testing, and how experienced are they?
• What types of tests and testing methodology do they employ?
• When does QA testing occur within the development cycle?
• Which tools and frameworks are used to conduct QA testing?

You may be surprised at the variation in responses you get from tech firms all touting similar services. 

Above is a simple scorecard you can use to evaluate your options. You can adjust the percentage weights to reflect your own priorities.