Do you own a software product that demands extensive testing your resources can’t readily provide? Has a last-minute system bug threatening the release of your product on time, unless something gets done right away? Are you a start-up that’s not yet at the stage to develop your own QA department, but still need testing services?
Well, Quality House hears your call and comes to the rescue! The company has been providing behind-thescene assistance and improving software quality since 2004. Quality House provides testing services to IT companies of all sizes, having worked for both telecom giants and budding start-ups. It acts as a natural extension of on-site QA teams or build entirely new ones, and model the work to match customer’s internal processes.
An interview conducted between CIO LOOK and Mitko Mitev – CEO carves out the journey through a careful strategy, tight plan, and meticulous manual & automated test scenarios. For more than a decade, Quality House has worked with startups, national market leaders, and global giants on highly specialized software.
Below are the highlights of the interview:
Give a brief overview of your company, its uniqueness, and its vision.
Quality House provides testing services to IT companies of all sizes and types both from Bulgaria and abroad. The company has been providing behind-the-scene assistance and improving software quality since 2004. We have worked for multiple different companies spanning from telecom giants to budding start-ups.
The Quality House Team consists of more than 80 ISTQB trained & certified QA specialists that act as a natural extension of on-site QA teams or build entirely new ones, and model our work to match our clients’ internal processes. What we do, is providing the needed QA expertise and capacity to other companies so they can meet their goals both in terms of software quality and deadline.
We provide companies with various testing services, such as Test Management, Test Automation, Functional Testing, Web & Mobile Testing, Acceptance Testing, Security Testing, and Load and Performance Testing.
Clients can also benefit from our consultancy services. In this case, we perform an objective inspection of the customer’s current software testing processes and recommend tools, technologies, and measurements, appropriate for achieving software testing efficiency.
Not to forget, apart from the outsourcing and consultancy services, Quality House is a trusted provider of a rich portfolio of accredited testing courses following international standards and practices. Our courses are accredited by ISTQB, and we pride ourselves on the know-how and expertise of our lecturers. All of our QA specialists (and not only) can choose and boost their knowledge by attending the following courses: ISTQB Foundation Level, ISTQB Agile Tester Extension, ISTQB AL Test Manager, ISTQB AL Test Analyst, ISTQB AL Tech Test Analyst, ISTQB AL Automation Test Engineer, ISTQB AL Security Tester, ISTQB Mobile Application Testing (MAT) or Certified Professional Requirements Engineering (IREB) – FL.
Give a detailed description of the featured person’s influence over the company and the industry.
With more than 25 years of experience in software quality assurance and more than 20 years of experience as Project and Test Manager, Mitko Mitev is one of the leading software test experts in southeast Europe. He dedicated his professional life to the promotion of QA and Test professions, particularly in Southeast Europe. As a part of the International Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB) and President of the South East European Testing Board (SEETB) Mitko has been actively participating in their efforts for setting and improving international standards in Software Quality. Mitko is also the Chief Editor of the Quality Matters Magazine, distributed internationally with a focus on the best leading practices and new trends in the area. His commitment to the promotion of Software Quality is also demonstrated by taking the role of Chair of the SEETEST Conferences and participation in other software quality assurance conferences.
Describe in detail the work culture and the values that drive your company.
We aim to create a work culture that makes employees feel fully motivated. Experience has taught us that this means a mixture of professionalism, being proactive, but also empathy and understanding towards employees’ needs and wants. We encourage friendship in the team, in and out of work – we’ve found it creates a feeling of belonging, being in the right place with the right people, which boosts work morale and motivation in working towards a common goal with their colleagues – successful projects and high quality.
Some of our most important company values are Continuous Learning & Constant improving – in such a dynamic industry as IT, not learning new skills and information means falling behind. We constantly improve our work methods and training according to best practices and developments in the field. Commitment to clients means we always try to find the best and most beneficial solution for our clients. We are not just testers, but also skilled and knowledgeable consultants. And most importantly – Quality. It is our main aim, so we give our best to achieve it.
What technologies are you leveraging to make your solutions resourceful and bringing advancement in the industry?
We adapt to the client’s established working processes, including the technologies and tools they’re using. Having in mind the specifics of the outsourcing business, all of our QA specialists are used to working in a dynamic environment and quickly adapt to new teams. If there isn’t an existing QA team, we can also provide consultancy services on how to build QA processes and recommend tools and technologies. In some cases, along with this, we build a QA team tailored to our client’s needs.
What are your company’s future aspirations? What strategies are you undertaking to achieve those goals?
What we would like to see happening is for Quality House to keep growing, offer our services to partners in Europe, and improve our influence in Southeast Europe and East Europe. The IT market is constantly evolving, and so are we. Clients continuously up their expectations, and to answer them our employees, have to exist in a constant learning state. That process never ends here, as almost every day, there is something novel in technology, and if we don’t want to fall behind, we have to learn every day. And to do that, we depend mostly on ourselves, as official education in the field in Bulgaria, sadly, is currently not enough. We add in practice, and real-life work cases to the mix, so that employees have useful skills & knowledge they can utilize the very next day at work.
So, we like seeing us change, along with the industry. It is inspiring to think of how much IT has changed, for the last 15 years, and how those changes reflected in our company. We would like to see more changes like that, more reasons to become even more specialized. It fuels growth and success. So we plan to grow, not only our market but our service portfolio as well.
