QA Testing

Case Study: Independent QA Testing

Challenge: A major printing firm with four offices / print centers across the U.S. lacked sufficient testing of their custom printing which resulted in a failure to meet customer quality standards. Both customer retention and the high cost of print job reruns were major problems. Limited and unstructured testing was performed by software developers and client services representatives.

Approach: Recognizing that the developers and client services representatives did not have the time nor the skill set to perform thorough testing, the Kaslen Group recommended, organized, and staffed an independent QA testing team to perform functional and regression testing of all new or modified customer printing. The QA testing team reported directly to the CIO of the firm to provide an independent evaluation of the quality of the printing.

Solution: When the Kaslen Group was contacted by the CIO for assistance, the firm was focused on a major troubled project for a key customer that was only a few weeks away from the target implementation date. Project documentation was poor and very little testing had been performed thus far by the developers. Data files from the customer were not yet available for testing.

The Kaslen Group quickly assembled a testing team staffed with a senior test team lead and two QA testers. Using Kaslen’s testing best practices, the Kaslen testing team defined test cases while simultaneously discovering undocumented requirements. Defect management and test metrics were also put into place during test execution.

Following this initial client project, the Kaslen testing best practices were implemented across all projects and a reusable regression test suite was built for the web, client server, and AS/400 applications.
The Kaslen Group directly managed and staffed an Independent QA testing team for two years with up to six testing resources for the client. We then assisted the client with recruiting contract-for-hire resources and direct hire employees, including recruiting the QA Manager. Contract staff augmentation QA testing resources were then provided on an as-needed basis.