Client: Test Common

Test Common is leading the charge in the emerging Testing as a Service market – TaaS!  By focusing first on building the most diverse and global community of software test and QA professionals, Test Common provides its members with a place to network, share techniques, learn about the industry, and find jobs.  Through its site, Test Common also offers software organizations and IT departments unique access to a diverse and global community of test professionals.   For customers, the key advantages to using Test Common include on-demand access to its global community, platform and environment flexibility, and cost effective pricing. 

Symbio provided the following services to Test Common:

• Requirement and competitive analyses

• Site design

• Product implementation

• QA and testing

In late 2006, Bruce Daley, the founder of Test Common, researched the dynamics and inefficiencies in the testing industry and found a real need  for a global community of  talented software testers and QA professionals that could ultimately be engaged on an as needed basis.  After making an initial pass at the requirements and filing a patent application, Bruce engaged other members of the current team to develop the business concept.  By the fall of 2007, the Test Common team's specification effort stalled, and it was apparent that in order to accelerate its time to market, the team needed to engage outside assistance. Being a boot-strapped, early phase startup, Test Common needed a partner that could provide cost effective yet comprehensive support for the complete development lifecycle.  The team rapidly surveyed the marketplace, requested and analyzed competitive bids and in November 2007, Test Common engaged The Symbio Group.

In December 2007, , Test Common adapted its strategy and placed a stronger emphasis on the community aspect of the model, making time to market a priority.  Given its new priorities, Test Common challenged the Symbio team to research existing white-label social networking packages in a build vs. buy analysis.  

After completing the analysis, the Symbio team began the site build in early February 2008 and launched the site mid-April 2008. The change in market strategy created challenges to meet the initial time to market goals.  Nevertheless, the Test Common management and the Symbio teams maintained their open communication and agile process.  Change requests were well documented, and the Symbio team adapted quickly to include change requests in the rapid release schedule to meet Test Common’s customer and investor functional requests.  The close collaboration between Symbio and Test Common, and Symbio’s strong project management and agile development processes were key factors in the project’s success.

While evaluating potential vendors to build its vision, Test Common realized it was Symbio’s deep development processes that were most beneficial for the successful build of the Test Common solution.

Symbio’s experience in working with start-up companies allowed Test Common to go to market without long term investment in an in-house technical team.  The Symbio team incubated the project, and ensured that Test Common was able to leverage the cost savings offered in China without sacrificing knowledge of the US Web 2.0 user expectations and preferences.  The Symbio team was also experienced in working with start-ups whose team ramp-up and ramp-down schedules were driven by investor funding and functionality requests.  The team consisted of a dedicated project manager and tech lead, and they leveraged architects, GUI experts and experienced part-time developers to fit the start-up release schedule and budget constraints.

The incubation team hosted Test Common in Symbio’s Chengdu, China lab for a joint application development (JAD) session.    During the session, the group defined the project requirements.  Following the session, the Symbio team outlined the design architecture, project plan, costs, features, use cases, data model and other specifications.  Symbio’s belief in total cost of ownership and its investment in planning proved valuable as the flexible architecture was later adapted to meet its change requests without any re-design.  In the end, Test Common stated, “Symbio provided excellent project management, fast response and quick implementation to changing business needs.  It was a huge benefit in responsiveness and time to market to have developers, testers, project management and the US technical and business team all able to provide real-time input on features, defects and various critical issues.”

Symbio successfully delivered version 1 of the web solution on time even while ramping down the development team during the end of the implementation phase.  The version 1 solution is currently enabling the growth in the Test Common user community, development of strategic partners, solicitation of Test Common clientele, and it is providing a live demo environment for potential investors. 

To discuss how Symbio can meet your needs, call 866-469-4116 or e-mail info@symbio-group.com.