Crowd Testing Tools—also called crowdsourced testing—allows companies to test software, websites, and applications through a large network of individual users. Crowd testing software connects a company to this network of test users, providing these users with access to the software or application(s) in question and enabling them to test on their own devices. Crowdtesting is extremely valuable in the digital age due to its natural tendency to create highly diverse testing, since a crowd of users likely tests across multiple device types and settings.
DevOps teams find the greatest use from crowdsourced testing software. It allows developers to get feedback about software, websites, applications, and their target endpoints directly from users before publicly releasing the product itself. Furthermore, if the crowdsourced testing solution captures logging as well, then developers can evaluate those logs should any errors occur during the testing process. This user testing can be performed alongside test automation software and other software testing tools. Crowdsourced testing can also be thought of, in a way, as an external version of peer code review software, as it involves human review as opposed to automated checks.
To qualify for inclusion in the Crowd Testing Tools category, a product must:
Provide a platform for testers to download and test software and applications
Set test requirements and scope
Consolidate user feedback with reports and analytics