How We Helped a Startup to Launch a Product

The release gets postponed. The distribution platforms are rejecting your application because it doesn’t meet all the technical requirements and guidelines. Your inbox notifies you with requests of something like, "Please revise your app and test it on a device to ensure that it runs as expected."

Sounds too painfully familiar? Then keep on reading this article and learn how you can prevent such a nuisance.

This is a story about our recent collab with a German startup facing a similar dilemma; a story exemplifying how QA can make it all smooth and easier for you.

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Discovering the Role of QA in Startup Launch (the Story of Circles App)

Julian, a startup’s co-founder, and his team were working on the MVP of their brainchild – Circles App. The inspiring idea behind this application is to enable people to find their soulmates in any corner of the world.

All you have to do is to register and share your interests with the Circles App - then, it does everything else for you. Based on your info, it finds groups of people matching your personality the best, creating so-called “circles”, where you can chat, exchange your thoughts, ideas and in such a way, build connections that might grow into something bigger like friendship or partnership.

The eventual goal is for you to meet in real life and have fun together so that you never feel bored or alone - no matter where you are.

Facing a Challenge Anyway

As Julian’s team got to the long-awaited finalizing stage of the app creation, the notorious bugs started to pop up here and there.

The thing is that the team did not include an in-house QA specialist with the proper expertise to perform testing at each of the development stages. And let’s be honest - you cannot avoid QA. It can be performed either at each stage of product iteration, which would be the best option, or already upon the product completion - but it has to be done anyway to ensure the product’s quality and reputation and to avoid any risks and additional expenditure for dealing with the technical debt in the future.

When Julian realized that his product needs “check-ups”, he started to search for options on the Internet and came across our company. After scrolling through our clients’ reviews and getting acquainted with our services on an intro call, he decided to go along with us.

Our Approach

Prior to testing or any other services, we set up a call where we listen attentively to our clients' stories and the obstacles they have faced in order to come up with the best solution for overcoming them.

So we agreed on an analytical talk with Julian, where he opened up about his challenge and expectations. Based on these, our business development specialist offered several cooperation frameworks to meet the set-up goals in the most efficient manner.

"ElifTech did an amazing job doing QA for us. The task was to check our app for any bugs before sending it to the app stores. The whole collaboration was absolutely professional. They've identified multiple bugs within our app, communication was great. Looking forward to the next collaboration with ElifTech!" - Julian Rosenberger, Co-Founder of Circles App

Eventually, the decision was made to incorporate our QA specialist into the in-house development team of the Circles App. For this, we suggested a simple issue-tracking system, by which their team had access to any issue discovered by our QA.

Behind-the-Scenes & More QA Specifics

In the perfect scenario, QA should have been incorporated into the development at the early stages to do regular check-ups after each product iteration. This would help to save time and money in the long term. However, in this case, the application was almost complete as we started implementing QA.

It took our QA specialist around two weeks to perform the testing:

• The process included two iterations: firstly, the current app was tested, and after the “leakage” points were identified and subsequently a new, improved version was created, the second testing round took its part
• In this case, manual testing was most appropriate since the project was relatively small, and receiving a quick result was critical
• The app was tested on iOS and Android devices to ensure that there are no system-specific bugs. To achieve the best results, our QA expert used real devices for testing: he identified the most commonly used iOS versions and performed testing on them
• For this project, the QA service didn’t include extensive test documentation because its preparation takes additional time, and in this particular case, wouldn’t meet the desired expectations. Instead, a simple checklist was prepared, and most of the time was spent on testing itself
• There were identified dependencies between different parts of the system in order to build an efficient regression testing process and make sure that new changes, such as bug fixes, wouldn’t break anything in already tested functionality

What’s Next?

And next goes the happy-ending part of the development stage — the launch.

After our tester has checked both iOS and Android applications for their bugs, Julian and his team feel secure about the quality of their application.

Thanks to the proper and multifaceted testing, the app is not likely to face any technical issues: the release in the App Store and Google Play Market is going to run smoothly and, most importantly, the users are going to be satisfied.

How about Your Project?

Are you one of those startups that take a risk assuming that QA can wait till better times? For the sake of your purse and nerves in the long term, we would not recommend you to do so.

From our 10-year development experience, we convinced ourselves multiple times that for ensuring success, QA should be incorporated into your product development team anyway - the sooner, the better.

If you are interested in reaching similar quality results for your project and getting a full overview of our QA services, contact us, and we will reach out to you with a consultation on the development process for your particular case.

Let’s ensure a happy-ending part of your project's story together.