TESTCo Software Test Engineers teamed up to find creative ways to do more with less

TESTCo Software Test Engineers teamed up to find creative ways to do more with less – and always doing so with a positive attitude. Their commitment to the Journyx R&D team is greatly appreciated. We would be lost without TESTCo, and their hard work will be instrumental in improving conditions this new year.

In addition to the outstanding value we receive, I also genuinely enjoy our weekly stand-up time. The TESTCo team is a pleasure to work with.

 

Meredith Z.

They ask thoughtful questions, bringing clarity

We are an independent third-party software & technology escrow agent that ensures software investments are secure and protected for all parties involved. TESTCo’s participation in the audits we perform for our clients has been professional, and very diligent while testing and writing the reports that our customers need. They ask thoughtful questions, bringing clarity, which will be helpful to our clients if ever they need to rely upon the escrow deposits to support their business critical applications.  TESTCo is a great partner!

Chris S.
Praxis Technology Escrow

Ship with confidence

A couple of years ago, we were forced to trim down testing resources, blocking our full velocity for new products or versions.  The reduction in resources gated our ability to launch new products. Last year we got back on track with automated test maintenance and other testing best practices. Now testing is going well, and the regression cycle has been reduced. Shortening the regression cycle allows us to push more things out quickly and be more aggressive with the scope. Getting back on track with thorough testing through best practices allows me to ship my products with confidence in their quality, and that’s a great feeling!

More Than We Could Ask For

I think what you’re doing so far is more than we could ask for. We love it! Communication has been key and is great. Keep doing what you’re doing! You guys are awesome!

Digging Deep

On a recent bug that Stan found, his initial report contained enough information that developers would know how to replicate the bug. Without being asked, Stan then proceeded to dig deeper into the behavior to better understand it. His investigation and follow-up information turned the bug fix effort from potentially several hours down to less than five minutes. I am often quite impressed with the depth of Stan’s observations, but this one was so clear cut that I wanted to flag it.

A Top Position in Store

Our app is second place in the store and happened because of the help of you, Karla and your team. I feel glad to have you guys as part of TIX ID.

Supported Our Business Goals

Definitely, TESTCo’s contribution supported our performance! Tix is number 2 in the Indonesia Play Store!

Fantastic With Our Customer

The TESTCo team is very responsive and knowledgeable of the scope of this work/delivery. Great to work with, I didn’t have to follow up with them once, and they were fantastic facing our customer.

Fast Response, Quick Adjustments

I appreciate the early validation work and all of the information that TESTCo team provides us.

Since you’ve been with us, you’ve always shown us the way you put your hard work and effort to get everything done smoothly.

Engineers’ curiosity, planning, and technical skills enabled fast response time and quick adjustments to the changes we did during the sprints. So I couldn’t expect anything better than what you guys always deliver to us.

Well, kudos to TESTCo QuriosAlways team!

Increased Our Revenue Velocity

When I took over product management at my small software start up, we had never employed anyone as a dedicated product manager. We had no QA process to speak of, and the company nearly went of business due to the costs of supporting a very low quality product release. QA was all ad-hoc and fell primarily to the engineers writing the code for bug fixes and new features. As part of establishing product management best practices, I started looking for a way to build out standard QA processes. Needless to say I was worried about the company as a going concern, and improving the quality of our products was key to righting the ship.We nearly went out of business due to the costs of a low quality release. First and foremost, I needed to make sure that future releases achieved some minimum viable level of quality. I also needed a process that was repeatable and that I could afford to carry out for each new release. So while quality was our biggest pain point, standardization and budget/affordability were also concerns.

We started out by hiring a QA resource in-house. Given our budget, we opted for someone without a lot of experience. This tester did a good job of getting us started on standardization of process, but we didn’t have enough capacity to get scalable standard tools and coverage to meet our minimum quality level. More importantly, training and replacement were huge obstacles, both in terms of time and money. When our tester moved on to another job, we had to practically start over when hiring a new tester to take the position, and we were essentially without QA throughout the new hire training period.

After having difficulty finding a good option for an in-house tester later, we did try to outsource QA with an offshore firm. While the offshore firm was affordable, we ended up getting nothing of value after working with them for about a year. The testers were not managed well, no one was expert enough to offer us best practices advice, AND the testers were not good at letting us know when they did not understand instructions.

In the end, we continued to limp along with Excel-based test cases that our in-house testers had developed. As product manager, I was spending over 50% of my time covering QA on my own. So it’s not a surprise that the rest of our product management efforts suffered. Then, we found TestCo. TestCo offered extensive QA process and management expertise, along with a flexible pool of testing resources, that allowed us to achieve our product quality goals within our budget constraints. I have more confidence in TestCo than any other partner I have ever worked with. I know that when I get too busy to monitor our QA activities, they can be trusted to keep QA running smoothly and make sure I’m aware of what needs my attention. I no longer have to worry about maintaining QA at some minimum acceptable level. I can look to the future and aim for top quality products, and TestCo will advise me on how to do just that.

TestCo, first and foremost, is my primary resource for QA best practices. They advise me on how to improve what we are currently doing, and they look for opportunities to expand our efforts to make the process more efficient and comprehensive. As part of the advising, they also do the hard work of finding the right resources for my projects and ensuring that they are fully trained to do the work. After the testers have been engaged for a project, they offer the additional benefit of experienced QA professionals who manage the team of testers.

All of these benefits allow me to focus on critical product management like building products that my customers want to buy! In addition to reducing our historical support costs by improving the quality of our product releases, they are also helping us to make our goal of continuous delivery happen. By shortening our test cycles with automation and plugging testers into the development process while new feature code is being written, we are expanding our ability to deliver value to the market faster and increase our revenue velocity as a result.

Above and Beyond

TESTCo’s test engineers did a fantastic job of understanding our local marketing SaaS application in order to devise a test plan. They truly earned their title. The management team then worked with us to define the right level of QA for the project, and the engineers executed it on time while communicating all of the issues clearly.

Every issue reported had all of the information necessary to replicate it. Where functionality was lacking, they went above and beyond by suggesting improvements in a professional manner.

Comprehensive Quality Assurance

TESTCo provides Journyx with a comprehensive quality assurance solution that not only ensures we deliver high-quality software and products to our markets, but also identifies opportunities for greater efficiencies in development and testing as they become available.

Journyx is free to focus on developing software solutions because TESTCo keeps track of best practices and new developments in quality assurance tools and methodologies. TESTCo created an entirely new test suite in tandem with new and existing product development that allowed Journyx to add a major product without any delays for new testing procedures or coverage.

Prior to engaging TESTCo, I spent 80% of my time on software QA testing oversight and managing customer patch requests. I had little time to devote to strategy, future release planning and requirements because testing procedures were inefficient and the resulting product quality was a drag on support and development resources. Thanks to improvements implemented by TESTCo, I have the ability to spend the majority of my time on forward looking activities that allow me to be prepared for opportunities as they arise.