QA Mentor, Inc.

Please describe your company and your position there.

ALICE is a hospitality technology company based in New York City. Guests can use both the ALICE app and SMS on their smartphones to request services such as restaurant reservations, taxi accommodations, room service, maintenance work, and other items and services. Staff can use the ALICE app or web to service those requests. Shelley Rueger is Vice President of Quality at ALICE.

For what projects/services did your company hire QA Mentor, Inc.?

ALICE retained QA Mentor for execution of manual software regression tests.

What were your goals for this project?

Reduce the burden of execution of manual software regression tests on internal staff. Maintain quality of software releases.

How did you select this vendor?

Several vendors were considered. QA Mentor was selected based on cost, quality of staff, and ability to provide a flexible staffing, pay as you use model.

Describe the project in detail.

Once QA Mentor was selected, ALICE and QA Mentor staff worked together to ensure that QA Mentor staff understood the tests as well as the product. During the first cycle, staff worked closely together. In subsequent cycles, QA Mentor has been mostly independent. When new test suites are added, a similar process occurs.

What was the team composition?

QA Mentor is able to provide a team that can accomplish the test cycle in our required time frame. Currently that is a team of 10.

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

We have been able to reassign 4 internal staff to other work. Quality of releases has been maintained. There have been no instances where a production bug could be traced back to a failure by the QA Mentor team.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We have set up a shared Slack channel that allows for real time communication during execution. QA Mentor is always responsive in both that channel as well as to emails. We now have a QA Manager who is located in-country and she has been able to also meet with QA Mentor on site.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their flexible staffing model has been most valuable to us. Since we do not need staffing except during regression cycles, this works extremely well for us.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We are completely satisfied with our engagement with QA Mentor.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Software Engineer at a music data analytics startup.

For what projects/services did your company hire QA Mentor, Inc.?

Testing the web application

What were your goals for this project?

Regression testing of existing features and testing new features to catch bugs before customers see them; alleviate responsibilities on the dev team.

How did you select this vendor?

Connected through LinkedIn, had a call about the process and contract terms.

Describe the project in detail.

Product updates made known through emails and Slack. Using Trello for task management and bug tracking and triaging them through different stages. Communication over Slack for questions about the product.

What was the team composition?

1 black box tester

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

A number of bugs reported by customers has come down. A better pipeline for the deployment of features has been set in place.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Smooth communication over Slack, Trello, and emails.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their attention to detail and regression testing are impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None that I can think of at the moment.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Cie creates websites and mobile apps for clients and startups.

For what projects/services did your company hire QA Mentor, Inc.?

We hired them to do on-demand QA as needed.

What were your goals for this project?

To receive good support for our QA needs when we need more resources.

How did you select this vendor?

After doing some research, we found that QA Mentor had a great reputation and excellent rates.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Whenever we’re resource-starved, we ask them to assist with QA on different in-house projects. It can range from small- to large-scale projects, for both websites and mobile apps.

What was the team composition?

It can vary from just a developer and a QA resource to a whole team of many developers and QAs.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

All of their work has had a great impact on our business as a whole. The projects they’ve completed are vital to us.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

I try to make it simple by providing easy instructions for them, which they always follow and exceed my expectations.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their responsiveness impresses me the most.

Are there any areas for improvement?

As of now, they've been great. No complaints.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the owner of my company.

For what projects/services did your company hire QA Mentor, Inc.?

We needed thorough software testing across our legacy planning platform, including the online-generated keys.

What were your goals for this project?

To identify bugs in the software before its launch in the market.

How did you select this vendor?

They were recommended to us and then we interviewed them.

Describe the project in detail.

They began by familiarizing themselves with our software, then provided a scope of work. They used a detailed testing matrix to do the work and gave us daily updates about areas that had passed testing and those which had bugs. Those areas and other functions were retested on an ongoing basis until all issues had been eliminated.

What was the team composition?

The team was cross-functional, including software developers and management.

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

I wish every tech firm that I’ve worked with are as organized, professional, and thorough as them. From setting clear expectations to their reporting, they were a delight to work with. It’s been one of my best professional experiences and I’m incredibly particular in my demands.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was phenomenal.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was blown away by their professionalism and organization. I wish all vendors were like QA Mentor.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No.