Employ Tomorrow's Customers to Staff Your Testing Team Today

Regression testing of the Vital Images' medical imaging software was a continual challenge. Poor product testability, challenging automation implementation, tester shortages, and low process discipline contributed to an environment in which regression testing was often
completed after the Beta site release. Even then, testing was incomplete and failed to cover the growing product feature scope. Alex Dietz describes how, through a stroke of inspiration, he created a new team just for regression testing. Rather than turning to outsourcing, he hired future users of his product. Alex describes the unique labor pool he used to staff the team, the costs incurred, personnel levels, metrics, and the management approach he adopted while still meeting FDA requirements for class II medical devices. Although the model Alex describes was applied to medical imaging software, it is not specific to his industry-and could be used successfully in yours.

• Benefits of employing users for regression testing
• A comparison of costs for traditional outsourcing vs. user testing
• Measurements and metrics to evaluate customers as testers