An appropriate vision for Qualitest might be “Meet then exceed our client’s software testing needs through our unique understanding of their innovative and evolving requirements at both a testing and SME level.” But is exceeding client need a reality, or just some crazy marketing hype, and what does it entail?
At one client where we had reduced sprints through test automation, we moved several sanity tests to the front of our testing so more easily ensure that blockers would be discovered within the first 2 days of testing, ensuring an early start for development to tackle such problems that might otherwise delay testing. With another vendor, we had so many problems using their software in-house that we carefully reported the problems and ended up landing the contract for that company.
At many clients, unannounced changes, like shifting from Agile to DevOps, allow us to assist due to our expertise in wide range of testing methodologies, tools and domains. When we add additional staff, we try to ensure that additional staff shadow or study before they officially start, to reduce ramp-up time.
We include SME’s, so that initial ramp-up and learning your evolving business process is a smooth transition. In one particular project where we were brought in as additional staffing, we expanded our IV&V of mailing addresses, going beyond the initial data set to additionally challenge what was or was not a valid mailing address.
In another project, we overheard employees complaining about deduplication issues in their databases in a different department, and offered to expand our services to include assisting in resolving their problems there. Maybe we’ll even make a TPI-style observation and help you implement it, without going full-TPI.
This is what our Chief Operations Officer Yaron Kottler refers to as “doing something”, where we go above and beyond by seeking out unasked-for needs and fulfilling them. This is what you can expect from Qualitest, because this is the Qualitest way. It is built into our company culture. We don’t want to just do the job; we want to do it better.
There’s one other way that we exceed expectations. Many of our clients are surprised to learn the extent of our testing services, with an industry and discipline range that greatly exceeds the breadth of any initial contract. When software testing backed by business assurance is all you do, you gain a lot of test management and testing tool expertise, industry knowledge, reporting skills, and overall ideas on how to test more quickly and effectively.