Utest
uTest, Inc. is a venture-funded software testing marketplace based in Southborough, Massachusetts. As of October 7, 2009, the company had more than 20,000 Software Quality Assurance (SQA) professionals in 158 countries and more than 160 customers worldwide.
History
The company was incorporated in August 2007 by founders Doron Reuveni and Roy Solomon. It was backed by venture capital firms Longworth Partners and Egan Managed Capital.
Products and Services
uTest offers functional, usability and load & performance testing for web, mobile and desktop software applications.
Strategy
uTest’s business model is based on the idea that crowdsourcing is better suited to web and mobile app testing than other outsourcing models. With crowdsourced testing, the crowd reflects the diversity (e.g. multiple geographic locations, languages spoken) of the apps and users themselves. The uTest community is made up of 20,000 software testers in 158 countries who test applications across:
- Locations
- Languages
- Operating system
- Internet browsers
- Plug-ins and anti-virus programs
- Handset makers, models and wireless carriers (for mobile applications)
How it works
- Specify testing requirements (by location, OS, browser, app type, etc.)
- Upload testing scripts through a secure platform
- View bugs reported by the community
- Approve, reject or request more information from testers regarding bugs
- Pay for each completed test cycle
uTest’s platform can be integrated with bug-tracking systems such as Jira, Rally and Bugzilla. If a customer does not have an in-house QA team, one of uTest's project managers can guide them through the process. uTest customers purchase only the test cycles they need. For highly agile companies, uTest also offers monthly, quarterly and annual subscription plans.
Bug Battle
uTest holds software testing competitions each quarter, called "Bug Battles", where testers from around the world compete for cash prizes by reporting bugs in popular software applications. The company's first Bug Battle occurred in November 2008; the 1,331 software testers who participated found more than 700 bugs in Google Chrome, Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. The second Bug Battle took place in March 2009; the 1,119 software testers who participated found bugs in Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. Twitter applications were the subject of the third Bug Battle in June 2009. Search engines, including Google, Google Caffeine, Bing and Yahoo, were the subjects of the fourth Bug Battle in August 2009. Most recently, the fifth Bug Battle in December of 2009 - Battle of the E-Tailers - compared Amazon.com, Wal-Mart.com and Target.com. The study was featured in USA Today and Fast Company.
External links
- uTest
- Lessons from 10 Recession Startups, by Melanie Lindner, "Forbes", April 4, 2009.
- Crowdsourcing: What It Means for Innovation, by John Winsor, "Business Week", June 15, 2009.
- Crowdsourcing: Now With a Real Business Model!, by Jeff Howe, "Wired Magazine", December 2, 2008.
- Software Testing Blog
- The Crowd Is Wise (When It’s Focused), by Steve Lohr, "The New York Times", July 18, 2009.
- Crowdsourcing: 5 Reasons It's Not Just For Startups Any More, by Dion Hinchcliffe, "www.ebizQ.com", September 25, 2009.
- Study: Amazon Most User Friendly, by Byron Acohido, "USA Today", December 6, 2009.
- Bug Testers: Google is Clean, Bing is Buggy, by Tom Krazit, "CNET", September 15, 2009.
- Amazon Trumps Target, Wal-Mart in Bug Battle, by Kate Rockwood, "Fast Company", December 7, 2009.