Costing/ going rates for QA type work

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nielsene
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Costing/ going rates for QA type work

Post by nielsene »

I'm not looking for work, so I think this doesn't belong in the Job Hunt forum, but if I'm wrong, please whisk this thread away, mods.

I'm running out of hours in the day to continue development of planned new features, squeeze in unplanned feature requests and keep up with all the QA type tasks, such as bug hunting and cross browser testing. As I haven't had success in attracting other volunteer developers, let along QA types, I'm beginning to consider contracting some of this work out. I'm still only playing with the idea, so please don't respond with "I'll do it" because I don't have it properly scoped, etc.

What I am looking for are thoguhts from you on what rates would be reasonable and what metrics you would use to cost such a task?

Is this going to be best expressed in hourly rates with estimated number of hours? Number of web pages? Number of logic paths? Number of alternate browsers tested in? etc? Do these figures change if I provide a formal test plan or a simple listing of program paths to exercise?

Would the cost of a comprehensive report of findings be a seperate breakout item or factored into the above figures? I'm not looking for code audits, security reviews, etc. in fact I wouldn't expect the worker to need to view any php source for that matter.

Or should I just write up my requirements and post to the Job Hunt forum and see what quotes I get?

Eric
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Post by jason »

This day in age, QA is as important as development, if not more. I expect you will get charged the same amount as you would pay developers in the same area. Start at $25/hour and work your way up.

Honestly, grab a copy of "Don't Make Me Think" by Steven Krug (sp?) and use that for you initial testing, unless you really want to dish out the cash.
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