On our tenth anniversary, we are delighted to launch “Ether”, a monthly newsletter showcasing our work and capabilities. “Ether” connotes the pure air that Gods breathe, and for us, it represents clean software, free of defects. I believe this symbolizes our passion, ability to see & do things differently and our constant pursuit of excellence in order to deliver value to YOU.
In this inaugural issue, I am pleased to introduce Hypothesis-based testing(HBT), an innovative methodology to deliver clean software. The “Work showcase” section features some of our finest work using HBT like '10x improvement in defect reduction', '250% increase in coverage' & 'Large scale tool script migration'.
I am delighted to feature our customer “Ortiva Wireless” in this issue. Thank you for the business and trust you have reposed in us.

Happy reading!

- Ashok, Founder & CEO

Re-architecting test assets increases test coverage by 250%
Faced with the challenge of managing a successful product evolving rapidly, the company decides to re-design the product. The test assets have also been changing with the evolving product and get to a point where they are “tired” and do not find newer issues. Updating the test cases becomes increasingly painful, and the management is worried that the redesigned product cannot be validated adequately. So how does it end? Read on..

10x reduction in post release defects - Finest experience of applying STEM
A global chip major with the finest engineering team runs into the issue of high post-release defects. The product is complex, involving hardware and software, built in multiple locations across the globe, with multiple flavors of real time OS. This is when the visionary management team decides to bring in a specialist test organization (STAG) to setup an effective and efficient QA practice. Faced with the challenging problem, we sought solutions powered by STEM, and it has been one of our finest experiences to crack the problem and deliver business value to the customer. Interested in how we cracked the problem? Read on..

“The quality race” - STEM 2.0 wins
A large German major with a mature QA practice is seeking new ways to improve its test practice. They decide to setup a “competitive race” to evaluate STAG Test Engineering Method (STEM) after they listened to a 90 minute talk on “The Science and Engineering of Effective Testing”, to determine if it is indeed effective & efficient to deliver high business value to their customers. Post the controlled experiment involving two teams (one powered by STEM - and the other using their custom approach) to evaluate the same product, STEM powered team emerges a clear winner. Read on..

Large scale migration of automation suite - “Scaling the peak”
This is a unique automation-related project for STAG, where we were chartered to migrate a large set of automated scripts from Visual Test to SilkTest. The key challenges were lack of documentation, complex data dependency, the need for uninterrupted long runs , the support for language packs, and finally, a single license of Visual Test to use. This was akin to climbing a mountain and scaling a peak. It was filled with interesting surprises like landslides, treacherous winds, but the cool crisp mountain air at the peak was worth it! To know more about the climb, read further..

Ortiva Wireless (www.ortivawireless.com) offers the industry’s most advanced commercial solution for proactive management of mobile video, allowing service providers to dramatically improve control, quality, and efficiency of rich media content delivery. Ortiva'’s mobile Video Optimization Gateway (mVOG) extends service reach, increases network efficiency, and improves video coverage density for mobile operators, while dynamically shaping the content to give subscribers the smoothest video and clearest audio experience possible – all regardless of fluctuating and hostile wireless network conditions.

Starting as an extended arm of their QA team, STAG setup a team trained in Digital Video domain and RTSP technology. Today the team designs and executes tests (functional and Load/performance) for internal as well as customer releases. STAG also automated tests that validate end-to-end scenarios for the product. Over a period of time, Ortiva is comfortable in presenting STAG to their customers. Ortiva and STAG have become true partners over time, as we even demo the product for Ortiva’s prospective customers around the world for the same.

“I find that many firms focus on cost per resource but in my experience, this is the wrong metric. The real key to selecting an offshore development/QA partner is productivity per dollar (or pound) versus cost/resource. To this extent, we have found STAG to provide exceptional value.”