Blue Fish Case Study: Software Developers No Longer Have To Perform Time Consuming Software QA Testing

Outsoure Testing Allows Blue Fish To Focus on Building Customized Solutions

Situation

Blue Fish Development Group has cultivated a reputation for excellence by never prioritizing company growth over quality and client relationships. This core value has helped the Austin, TX-based provider of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions maintain the highest standards when it comes to the engineers they hire and the quality of work they produce.

Problem

By sticking to its principles, Blue Fish has earned a loyal following of clients with rapidly escalating needs. Scaling to meet those needs without sacrificing quality means Blue Fish has to find ways to work smarter, not harder. As demand for the company's services grew, management knew it was vital to find a way to focus highly paid software engineers on developing exceptional code, instead of testing that code. They also wanted to continually improve on their quality standards by instituting a more rigorous software QA testing methodology without introducing any delays. "We needed to make the jump from writing code that is bug free and checked internally to having a rigorous third party review to ensure quality, but we didn't want to make our clients wait longer for their deliverables," explained Blue Fish President, Michael Trafton.

Decision

Blue Fish executives made the decision to hire a software testing company as it was the best way to access new talent and receive software QA testing results quickly - literally overnight. This was a difficult decision as the company's executives were concerned that outsource testing was synonymous with mediocre results and a management nightmare. "Despite its obvious financial benefits we had never considered offshore testing because we believed the only way to do it right was to do it in-house," said Trafton. "TESTCo's reputation convinced us to give it a try. It was clear from speaking with their customers that they shared our commitment to quality deliverables, professionalism, and going above and beyond."

Solution

Blue Fish put TESTCo to the test with a trial project designed to leverage the company's extensive software QA testing expertise to provide discipline to its own testing processes. Initially, Blue Fish used the test cases and plans to test its own deliverables.

As confidence grew in TESTCo's expertise and ability to execute, Blue Fish turned to TESTCo to help them deliver on an unusually large, long-term project that would consume much of Blue Fish's development staff. TESTCo became critical in the planning and management of this project as well as in writing test cases, creating test plans, and executing the tests. That left Blue Fish developers free to focus solely on developing the application code which was submitted for testing at the end of each development iteration. At that point, the TESTCo team took over running the test cases they developed and delivering the results over the next few days.

According to Carl Gilbert, Practice Manager at Blue Fish, "TESTCo is great at documenting the defects they find. And, communication is never an issue. They consistently keep us updated using email and Instant Messaging which means we get immediate feedback and it minimizes the language barriers some face in working with offshore testing teams."

Today, TESTCo is a resource for all of Blue Fish's practices - Web Content Management, Custom ECM Solutions, Content Migrations, and Information Access - providing QA Management personnel, test engineers, team leads, technical writers, and maintenance managers. TESTCo also provides a "virtual practice manager" focused on managing Blue Fish's needs versus just managing the individuals on projects. Gilbert says he is impressed with the company's approach to outsource testing. "The TESTCo engineers are extremely thorough and they don't limit themselves to what is written in a specification or contract. They look at the overall project and our objectives and tell us what can be improved."

Benefits

Working with TESTCo has enabled Blue Fish to take the time-consuming job of testing and QA off their software developers' plates and refocus them on writing code and fixing bugs. And, the 24-hour development/test cycle has enabled the company to imprice its QA program without increasing the length of time between code deliverables.

But, the benefits of working with TESTCo have extended well beyond just increased productivity. The TESTCo team has shown a remarkable capacity to learn the applications and diligently try to break them which ultimately leads to better products. "TESTCo is great at de-constructing our application design and developing test cases that make sense," says Gilbert. "They didn't just uncover bugs. They actually showed the impact of the defects they found and provided insight into areas of the application that needed to be enhanced for quality and stability."

Overall, the relationship with TESTCo has helped Blue Fish do much more with less, while increasing quality. "Equally important," says Trafton, "partnering with TESTCo keeps everyone happy - our clients love the timely, quality results, our developers stay focused on what they do best, and our practice managers have full confidence in them."

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About TESTCo

TESTCo customers eliminate software testing problems, slash support costs by up to 50% and achieve their release date commitments ... all without the risk of hunting down the best offshore testing vendor, the pain and frustration of learning how to properly manage them and the unpredictable results so common with most offshore testing vendors.

About Blue Fish Development Group

Blue Fish Development Group is a consulting firm that helps companies manage and extract value from their intellectual assets. Our clients, among the most successful and trusted brands in their industries, leverage our specialized expertise, methodologies, and software for their critical enterprise content management needs. Blue Fish is located in Austin, Texas and serves clients nationwide. Visit Blue Fish on the Web at www.bluefishgroup.com.

Our software testing company provides Outsource Testing, Offshore Testing, and Software QA Testing.