Crowdsourced software testing (CST) is an emerging trend in software testing. Companies and developers assign testing tasks through CST platforms to thousands of online testers. Currently, CST platform managers are trying to find and resolve challenges in order to reach the best CST practice. Many features have been applied by CST platforms to improve CST activities, including notification emails, online chat rooms, forums and, most importantly, a CST platform dashboard to view all testing projects and tasks; these features have enabled CST to operate efficiently. Still, CST users find it difficult to stay abreast of test project updates, maintain their motivation, and avoid frustration. This aligns with the increasing studies in the literature that call for more efficient solutions to support CST process. This research aims to support CST by searching for potential process limitations and overcoming them. In order to do so, a five-stage approach is used: first, the current process of CST is investigated through reviewing 15 CST platforms. Second, the review has resulted in identifying eight possible activities to improve CST; among them six have been selected after a survey distributed to 30 domain experts in Stage 3. In Stage 4, we have designed and implemented five process models in a web-based system that can fulfill the requirements of the six activities identified earlier. In Stage 5, we have evaluated these process models through interviews with representatives of two CST platforms and an expert tester, and through making scenario-based evaluation with 20 domain experts who used the system and rated the value of the processes. The results show that the new improvements are sound and can strengthen the CST practice.

中文翻译：

---

迈向更好的众包软件测试过程

众包软件测试 (CST) 是软件测试的新兴趋势。公司和开发人员通过 CST 平台将测试任务分配给数以千计的在线测试人员。目前，CST 平台经理正在努力寻找和解决挑战，以达到最佳 CST 实践。CST 平台已应用许多功能来改进 CST 活动，包括通知电子邮件、在线聊天室、论坛，最重要的是，用于查看所有测试项目和任务的 CST 平台仪表板；这些特性使 CST 能够高效运行。尽管如此，CST 用户仍然很难跟上测试项目的更新、保持他们的积极性并避免挫败感。这与文献中越来越多的研究一致，这些研究要求更有效的解决方案来支持 CST 流程。本研究旨在通过寻找潜在的工艺限制并克服它们来支持 CST。为此，使用了五个阶段的方法：首先，通过审查 15 个 CST 平台来调查 CST 的当前流程。其次，审查确定了八项可能的改进 CST 的活动；其中六个是在第 3 阶段分发给 30 位领域专家的调查后选出的。在第 4 阶段，我们在基于 Web 的系统中设计和实施了五个流程模型，可以满足前面确定的六项活动的要求。在第 5 阶段，我们通过采访两个 CST 平台的代表和一名专家测试人员，并通过对使用该系统并评估流程价值的 20 位领域专家进行基于场景的评估，对这些流程模型进行了评估。