What are the pros and cons of outsourcing development and testing to two different companies?

Question

What are the pros and cons of outsourcing development and testing to two different companies?

EDIT: Why do you prefer outsourcing development and testing to different companies or to the same company?

Answer 1

Pros:

1. The two teams are independent (and rivals) so there is no posibility of the testing team colluding with the development team or being "influenced" by the developers.
2. If your testing requires some specialized testing requirements that the development company does not have, a specialized testing company can do that.

Cons:

1. Communication gap due to isolation of both teams.
2. Greater time lag due to the distance between the testing and development teams
3. If there is a misunderstanding between the two teams over interpretation of a requirement or acceptance criteria, things are difficult to reslove

Answer 2

Pros:

• You will get honest output from both the parties as both of them will try to prove their worth (provided they both are competent)

Cons:

• You will have to give understanding of the system to both the parties.
• Additional overhead of communication through out the life cycle of project.
• More cost as the whole project is not with one company

Answer 3

Pros:

pretty obvious

Cons:

Time : Unless you lay down the ground rules right at the start, things have a very high possibility of getting out of hand and very much delayed

Management : You will have to finally make the trade off between time/feature and bug fixing To keep the project on schedule.

Imagine having to deal with 2 perfectionists on the opposite ends

Answer 4

Add to the good input above

Pro/Con When it all turns to custurd you have 2 parties to sue.

Cons Requirements changes need to be communicated and agreed by 2 parties simultaniously.