a1qa

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a software development company. We also build our own products, because of new technologies we want to learn, and for their commercial potential.

I joined the company eight years ago, managing deployment for customers and making sure they’re happy with the deliverables. I’m currently the president of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with A1QA?

We needed QA services for several projects. For example, we had a product capable of recording video conferences on most existing platforms and were adding editing capabilities for its users to edit and splice video and audio. We also added an integration with Watson Speech to Text, allowing users to transcribe their videos and do searches within that text.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

It depends on the project; the way they work depends on the customer. For a customer who didn’t have any QA in place before, and who wanted to understand what they were missing, a tech lead would come in and do a survey of everything they had and come up with a plan. That plan would usually include writing test cases, selecting from a subset that made sense to automate. In the end, if it made sense, A1QA would propose penetration and load tests.

For some customers, they’ve done full security audits and testing: load testing, security penetration testing, and regression testing. In other cases, they provided manual testers, who wrote the test cases and tried to cover current issues. That is complementary to the unit testing written by the developers. With the customer, they decide which of the manual tests need automating and write those scripts. This allows customers to run both unit tests and automation tests, and it’s a good move toward CI/CD (continuous integration/continuous delivery).

What is the team composition?

The team fluctuates depending on the project. There’s usually a project manager who oversees all the activity and to whom things get escalated if there’s a need. There’s also a QA tech lead, who supervises the process.

How did you come to work with A1QA?

They’re well-known as a developer and they’re based in Minsk, where our main development team is also located.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost since the beginning has been over $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them around 2012. We’re still in touch regularly—they’re quite professional and helpful.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The impact is great. The fact that we provide quality work is, in large part, due to their testing. Despite the movement to CI/CD, and every developer doing thorough tests, we’re not there yet. Without A1QA’s testing, we wouldn’t have our reputation for building quality products.

How did A1QA perform from a project management standpoint?

It all depends on the project, as different projects require different levels of documentation, but there’ve been no problems with their test cases. The personnel can change, but, if the test cases are still there, any new person can pick up on the project. Without those test cases, there would be no automation.

They’re very good in terms of communication. We’ve worked with customers and with them to perform the QA.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I think they’re very professional. They have a very thoughtful process of onboarding; an internal academy where all new people go through training on their processes and methodology. I think this makes for very good testers.

A1QA has good processes, and I think their management is professional. In terms of customer communication, I haven't had complaints from anyone about issues from them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They should be hiring more people because there’s obviously demand for their services. I know that it’s hard to hire in Minsk.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

No.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Cleeng is a platform that helps other people sell video content. I’m a QA specialist for the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with A1QA?

Historically, we’ve always had external companies provide testing services to us. Our contract with our last company was terminated, so we had to find someone new.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provided automated and manual testing services to us. Right now, we’re working together on the security testing of our platform.

They’re able to run web and mobile testing, but we only need web testing on both mobile and desktop devices, not mobile app testing.

What is the team composition?

We have one team lead, one manual tester, one automation tester, and two security testers—five people in total.

I work with their manual tester on a daily basis, and we have a weekly catch up with their team lead in which we discuss what they’ve done, what plans they have for next week, and any problems or organizational issues.

How did you come to work with A1QA?

We sent an RFP to six companies, among which A1QA was one of the most professional. I had found them online, contacted them, and liked all their questions. They also had a lower price for their services.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $18,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in May 2018, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Testing work is about quality, not about use cases or anything like that. I’m completely satisfied with the collaboration with them. They work professionally and provide great services.

Using them as a tester definitely makes us more confident about our software, especially in terms of security. It’s not a very good domain in our company, but we’re going to change it. They really help us.

How did A1QA perform from a project management standpoint?

I’m completely satisfied. If I have any questions, I can Skype the team leader or any other member I’m working with. I’ll usually have a response within a couple of minutes; if not, they’ll text us about it.

We don’t have any problems with the communication with them. They have a registered inbox in our Jira, for the security testing. They report to me and our CTO what work they’ve done on a weekly basis.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very proactive, and they suggest good solutions that I don’t think of myself. They provide very good answers for different situations, especially for security testing. I’m not too familiar with this area, but I consider them professional and confident. They know what they’re doing.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s hard to say what they should improve.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

If the client isn’t satisfied with something, they just need to say it. A1QA is always open to dialogue and will change their approach if the client isn’t satisfied.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a delivery director for a development company that provides digital transformation strategy consulting services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with A1QA?

We hired A1QA to fulfill QA staffing needs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

A1QA provides QA staffing for a range of projects, including three to four scrum teams. In addition to testing the features of our platforms, they also lead much of the QA test planning and work on some web redesign projects, integrating features as needed.

What is the team composition?

I work with a project lead, who coordinates resourcing and is available for any questions I have. There's also a QA lead on each of the few scrum teams we work with, who oversees coordination on testing, sending out reports, etc.

How did you come to work with A1QA?

We reached out to them, because they were well established in Eastern Europe, where we work, and their reputation preceded them.

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested between $1–$5 million thus far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with them since April 2014.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

A1QA has made my job much easier and our decade's-long engagement with our account much more stable overall. There are no weak links on their team—I can come to them with any issue without having to micromanage the process.

How did A1QA perform from a project management standpoint?

They communicate very well, especially considering they're offshore and that English is not their first language. Their QA staff are critical in guiding process improvements, working collaboratively with our team to drive the company in a positive direction.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I'm most impressed by their level of continuity; even when we increase staff from their team, they do it seamlessly, proactively shifting people in a way that's least disruptive to the team.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Our company has been around for 22 years. We provide a pharmaceutical analytics solution to our clients. We have analytical suites that we provide our clients so they can monitor their performance compared to competitors or just monitor their products around the world. Where we're different is we actually manage this on an ongoing basis. When a client engages with us, it's not through a one-off product that we deliver and walk away from. The bespoke development of the product is only the first stage and then, after that, we manage the product for 10 to 20 years. Some clients have been with us from day one. We update it with new data and features fairly regularly. 

What is your position?

I'm the operations manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with A1QA?

We already deal with their sister company, Itransition. Now, all of our developers are based full-time in Minsk. I have within my operational team a separate quality assurance team. One day, we just had so much work – we were really struggling to match resources with demand. One of my colleagues recommended that we have a quick word with the sister company. At the time of this original work, A1QA was still housed within Itransition, but it was an independent division. They said maybe they could help. We got one person involved and this was about four years ago. The relationship has expanded ever since. They've become an integral part of my operations team not just in QA but other disciplines now, too.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

They're now fully integrated into our development process. To be fair to them, they actually drive it to a certain degree. We go to them for strategic advice. One thing that I really like about them is that they have their own QA academy. We have full-time people on our team from A1QA. We've been with them four years. We have members in the team from day one, and they've slowly grown and become more familiar with our processes and practices. They know our product like the back of their hands. They put together the QA scopes with us and help design our whole testing environment. They usually drive the scope themselves. We review it and agree and, usually, they're better than our original plans. They are incredibly professional. I give them full responsibility for selecting candidates that work on our QA. I have the telecoms and web QA boss run my team and, under her, there's a QA manager who oversees the daily operations. She's excellent. I give her full responsibility and trust her judgment. She keeps me fully informed. I have only changed one person in the past but to put them on a different project, not to remove them altogether. I'm kept fully informed of their experiences inside and outside of A1QA so their education or things that are relevant to Belarus.

How did you come to work with A1QA?

We were already working successfully with Itransition, and when we knew we needed additional QA resources, we approached them.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

It's hard to say because they're involved in both development QA and ongoing in-house QA. I would venture to say around $150,000 a year.

What is the status of this engagement?

This is still an ongoing engagement.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Their role is looking at the development side of a product. When we get new projects for a client, they're usually involved from the beginning in requirements gathering and discovery phase, defining the QA process, then following that through. The way I would gauge the quality of their work would be going forward on the project. Once the project goes live, we would see whether or not we had any issues reported. I don't remember the last time we had an issue that got past them within the scope we've all agreed upon at the beginning of a project. Our sites are hugely complicated yet very reliable. Some pages have 20,000 to 30,000 possible combinations of links in them because it's all analytics – data driven. We define a tight overall spec, but within the actual QA they're doing I can say they just pick it up naturally. The last time I had an issue get past them was 11 months ago. They're extremely meticulous and methodical.

How did A1QA perform from a project management standpoint?

I get feedback from them and twice a year I go over and see them and do a review with each member of the team. That includes feedback from everyone involved with them from our company. I treat them exactly the same as one of our own staff. We have a whole series of questions. They always rate very highly considering they're based in Minsk. You would think there would be language barriers, but there just aren't. They're brilliant. It's the only outsourcing company I've ever had this much respect for. When I sit down with them we go over the last six months, is there any feedback? What's the communication been like between the teams? Have they been misunderstood? We're always trying to hone and improve our collaboration practices.

What distinguishes A1QA from other providers?

The one thing I'm impressed with is really the training they give their staff. Their QA academy is excellent. I know they have many people that come directly from a university. One of my team is at the university at the moment, but she works full-time on our project. Everybody we've had on our team has been first class. They're trained well, and it's always ongoing. I'm impressed with how that's managed. They're incredibly professional.

Is there anything A1QA could have improved or done differently?

One of our team managers was taking on too much work. He understands our product better than most of us here. We sat down and said we don't want to lose your service, but we need to relook at the structure of the engagement. They were brilliant and very accommodating. I put my thoughts forward and they jumped on it immediately. We had a slight change in the management structure of the team. It was professionally handled and, because of that, they do more services for us.

Do you have any advice to share with their future clients?

Because they were linked to the development side, it's always a bit of a risk. One part of the company is developing the product and another part is responsible for quality assurance. You always think that's a risk because you're putting faith in their honesty and transparency. I found early on that they are brutally honest about their sister company. They definitely act as if they're a separate company and, at this point, they are separate companies. The biggest thing was developing that trusting relationship. They have proved time and again that I could trust them. I have a lot of experience with outsourcing companies. They're good people to work with. They deliver what they say they're going to deliver. They deliver to schedule and to price. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I work for a national economic research institute that conducts research and analysis on economic performance and makes strategic recommendations around ways to improve competitiveness in the global marketplace.

What is your position?

I am a deputy executive director.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with A1QA?

We have what we call a case management system for one of our own customers, and they would perform the quality assurance for the finished product. We sometimes deal with quality assurance ourselves but, in this particular case, we were tight on time and resources, so we decided to find a partner with the skill set to do it for us.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

They integrated themselves directly into the development team that was working on the application. Depending on our needs, we had between five and ten testers included in our development team because we had more than one project going on with them. We wanted to be sure that we had folks that had prior experience testing a case management system.

As we explored different areas, we also moved toward mobile development as well. We needed folks that had experience testing mobile applications, and then folks that could also do automated testing on their part. They tested both on Android and iOS devices. We also expanded the scope of their involvement to include technical writing, which has worked out well so far.

How did you come to work with A1QA?

When we realized we had a need, our procurement rules were a little bit different than they are today, so we just went online and searched for several firms that could do quality assurance testing for us. A1QA came out of the search engine that we used back then. What really helped us is that, when trying to establish the scope of work and getting the quotes from other vendors took forever, A1QA was very responsive to get something back to us. They not only provided a reasonable quote, but they also gave us a sense of how they would approach working with us. They really made a good argument and were very responsive, which made it easy for us to make a decision and to go with them.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The only number I'd be comfortable to say is that, on a yearly basis, we spent more than $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked about 12 months on the application before it was prepared to go live. We are utilizing their resources more.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

That would be hard because what we provide right now is kind of a turnkey solution for our customers. Our customers are not really ever exposed to the QA [quality assurance] aspect of what we're doing, they're more like embedded as part of our group, and I don't have anything right now. That is something that we are considering as we're utilizing more of their resources so that we can make a good argument that we do have something that's worth spending money on. Right now, I do not have anything like that.

Having incorporated A1QA testers, they were more focused on developing value-added code than doing the rework of bugs that needed to be fixed. There's also a certain confidence that we have, that we have some good QA testers that are working with us. If the developers are missing something early on, everybody is feeling confident that there is a good chance it will be caught in the QA phase, which makes our product better and makes everybody feel better about what we're doing.

How did A1QA perform from a project management standpoint?

For project management, we are using the Atlassian Suite product that they have. That's one nice thing that A1QA has been able to do. They can plug-in into whatever we're using without us having to change any of our business processes.

What distinguishes A1QA from other providers?

One of the big strengths that we've seen with them is that we're working with them on a time and material basis. Whenever we had some projects that came last minute to us, and suddenly we had to scale up, A1QA been able to match and scale up their resources as well. We don't have to worry about whether the QA team can handle the workload if we find enough developers and the resources to do the work here. That has been something really nice. Some of the other vendors that we've worked with in the past required a substantial amount of notice before we could scale up our engagement with them. With A1QA, they've been able to match us on pretty much all the needs that we've ever had.

Is there anything A1QA could have improved or done differently?

I would say nothing that comes to mind right now. Being more competitive from the pricing point of view would be nice, but I would not say that they are the most expensive people out there.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the QA Lead of Bally's Interactive

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

A1QA provide great testers (Manual & Automation) to suit your companys needs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire a1qa to accomplish?

• Release on time
• Find high priority bugs

SOLUTION

How did you find a1qa?

Referral

Why did you select a1qa over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from a1qa were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

• Feature acceptance testing
• Writing & maintaining test cases
• Sanity & Regression testing
• Automation framework for Web & native apps
• Defect reporting & retesting

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Project(s) delivered on time 
• High priority defects found & resolved before launch & regulator approval
• Great communication whether in virtual calls or messaging/email
• Worked with internal team without any issues

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

• Worked alongside internal teams to ensure we tested the priority each Day & Week of the project
• Issues raised communicated out so any blockers were prioritised appropriately
• Provided Holiday cover so we had enough resource at all times

What was your primary form of communication with a1qa?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

• Their work ethic was great.
• Felt like & were part of the team rather than "outside" help
• Clear communication 

Are there any areas for improvement or something a1qa could have done differently?

N/A

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Head of the QA department of an education and research platform.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Our platform is built to cater to the needs of schools, higher education, corporate training, alternative credentials, and sports teams, offering solutions for teaching and administration, learning and research. 

From infrastructure to applications, our platform elevates learning experiences, empowers educators, and drives research breakthroughs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire a1qa to accomplish?

• all-in-one platform for education and research. With expertise in machine intelligence and data science

SOLUTION

How did you find a1qa?

Referral

Why did you select a1qa over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me

How many teammates from a1qa were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Complex system(s) quality, usability and reliability assurance.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

With a1qa’s support we managed to:

• Ensure failsafe software operation by ironing out issues that could negatively affect user experience.
• Meet tight deadlines despite the increased workload.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

We manage the project ourselves, but I can vouch that a1qa’s communication, problem-solving, and risk management skills contributed to ensuring streamlined workflows and avoiding any disruptions in project delivery.

What was your primary form of communication with a1qa?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

• Swift communication to quickly solve any arising questions.
• Fast onboarding (approximately 2 weeks) on each subproject to ensure efficient investigation into our IT products functionality.
• Swift provision of QA activities and seamless switching of QA engineers between diverse software solutions to always meet set timeframes. 

Are there any areas for improvement or something a1qa could have done differently?

No, we are happy with the level of service provided by a1qa and continue cooperating with them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Kandasoft provides the full cycle of custom software development services

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire a1qa?

On many project QA is involved from the start. A1QA has been a partner in providing these services on many projects

What were your goals for this project?

We strive to help our customers achieve their goals by providing first-rate software product development and testing.

SOLUTION

How did you select a1qa?

A1QA is known in the industry as one of the best organizations in software testing, with an internal academy to train its engineers, with well defined and organized processes.

Describe the project in detail.

The projects involve, as a rule, creation of test plans, manual testing, defining and writing scripts for automated testing.

What was the team composition?

The team composition varies from a couple of engineers to a team of 4-6 QA engineers, usually managed by a QA Lead engineer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We could always rely on A1QA to deliver professional work. They are reliable and know their art.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We have established a well-defined communication and workflow, adapting it to the needs of each project

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The professionalism and the expertise in the latest trends and technologies in QA.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Hard to think of areas where the performance of the team was lacking.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a leading global real estate services and investment management company. As a Senior PM and Consultant, I manage software projects with a focus on improving Usability and Efficiency of mission critical systems.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire A1QA?

We hired A1QA to perform manual testing and test automation of one of our public-facing websites. 

What were your goals for this project?

Regular, stable, and high quality releases

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Referral

Describe the project in detail.

A1QA performed manual testing and test automation of a public-facing website. They helped our internal team with test documentation, helped define the scope of test automation, and created a test automation solution, with the help of which our internal team did not have to depend on a QA provider. Since then A1QA team have been maintaining the scripts and expanding the coverage of the system. 

What was the team composition?

It varied from year to year, depending on our needs. A1QA is flexible with resources.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

They fit well into our Agile processes and help release new portal versions on time and of proven quality.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Proactive, flexible.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No