The introduction of systems based on artificial intelligence is a necessary solution for companies with a complex organizational structure and a large amount of data. According to statistics, modern IT systems can automate up to 70% of the working timefor data processing, which increases the efficiency of employees and reduces the costs of the enterprise.

At the same time, the success of the implementation of an AI project depends not only on the choice of the right IT product, but also on the selection of a competent vendor who will put the system into service. You will interact with this company for a long time: communicate a lot, experiment, look for the best options. What to look for when choosing a vendor in the first place? What criteria are fundamental when introducing a new product? In this article, we will look at how the roles are distributed during the implementation of the project, what parameters should be followed when searching for a vendor, and what risks should be remembered. At the end of the material is a checklist for choosing an AI solution provider.

Implementation of an IT solution: the main participants of the process

The customeris a full-fledged participant in the project, who is primarily responsible for the implementation of the software product in the business processes of the enterprise. It is the customer who must initially determine what the system is for – what goals and tasks it will solve, what development it will receive in the future, etc. In addition, management needs to explain to employees why they need to switch to a new solution, and encourage staff to use the IT system. Often these functions can be transferred to a third-party consultant, but interaction with the responsible persons of the company is still indispensable – only the customer knows how all the processes in the company work, and what features need to be taken into account.

Who is responsible for the project:In real practice, it is normally a separate specialist who is most often responsible for the implementation of the project on the part of the customer – the project manager, the head of the department which sees the solution being implemented, the IT director, etc.

Vendoris a developer and supplier of an IT product. The tasks of the vendor include the creation, implementation, support and further development of the system. The new solution should correspond to the business goals of the customer, and if necessary, the functionality should be improved. In addition, it is necessary to synchronize the software with the internal environment of the company, and conduct staff training – this responsibility in some cases also falls on the shoulders of the product supplier.

Who is responsible for the project:As a rule, a project manager / product manager works on behalf of the developer and a customer – he collects the requirements and transfers them to the team. If the customer wants to delve deeper into individual processes, then it is possible to communicate with several specialists at once: a leading business analyst, a head of R&D practice, etc.

An integratoris an IT company that configures the operation of a new system. Integrator services are needed if you purchase a ready-made boxed solution: in this case, technical specialists ensure the connection of various components into a single functioning environment – they integrate it with servers, highly specialized software, corporate applications and systems. Integrators can serve a business of any size, but, as a rule, their services are needed by large companies that control a huge number of internal and external processes.

Why it is important to choose your IT solution provider carefully

The introduction of a new system requires the customer to carefully select a vendor or integrator. In the process of working on a project, you may run into new goals and objectives that the solution provider will also need to consider. In many cases, changing the system integrator that synchronizes the internal environment of the organization can be problematic. If you choose the wrong solution provider, you risk losing money and time – a new developer will have to re-immerse himself in the company’s business processes, and sometimes create a solution from scratch.

In this situation, not only technical problems may arise – the human factor will play a decisive role here. Employees can become accustomed to using a certain product, so they will be hostile to any innovation from a new vendor. Careful selection of an IT solution provider, a detailed discussion of all the goals and objectives of the organization, understanding the environment and business logic of the company’s functioning are factors that must be taken into account when implementing any software products. This will help not only minimize, but also eliminate any risks associated with the replacement of the vendor.

Vendor Selection Criteria

Now let’s pay attention to the main criteria for choosing an AI solution provider. Here are the top 10 factors to consider:

1. Expertise and knowledge of industry specifics

The supplier of the IT product must find out what goals and objectives are supposed to be solved with the help of the software. The vendor needs to understand how the main processes are built in your organization, and what business logic you are guided by in the course of work. Experience and expertise in a particular industry helps the contractor to choose the most optimal solution and ensure its implementation as soon as possible. An experienced vendor necessarily takes into account the market where the enterprise operates and offers a product that best meets the needs of the customer.

2. Reputation in the market

The presence of a large number of customers and the trust of industry leaders is another important indicator that demonstrates the vendor’s expertise in the market. Working with your competitors or partners signals that the IT solution provider knows how business processes work in a particular area, enjoys the trust of customers and effectively solves the tasks set by the customer.

3. Technology stack

If you are implementing a ready-made solution, then pay attention to the technology stack used. Sometimes a solution is so difficult to fit into an existing IT landscape that it’s cheaper to build it from scratch. If you choose custom development, then IT product vendors may offer solutions that most closely match the goals and objectives of the company – such vendor can refine individual software functions to suit your needs. Companies that resell third-party services usually do not provide services to complement the functionality of IT products, so when implementing complex solutions and the need to refine individual software elements, in some cases it makes sense to choose a company that develops a system from scratch.

4. Understanding the customer’s goals

If the vendor is not interested in what processes are supposed to be automated and what problems the software should solve, this is a reason to get wary. Sometimes a solution provider can impose its technology and refuse to change the functionality to meet the needs of the customer. Modeling the processes in your organization will help solve the problem – the POCstage (Proof of concept). Testing will show what performance indicators can be achieved and how the efficiency of the enterprise will increase when implementing an IT product.

5. Pricing

Keep in mind that different vendors may charge different amounts for similar work. Try to carefully study the market, be sure to ask what pricing is based on. Do not forget to include hidden costs in the price: the use of computing power, staff training, etc.

6. Cost recovery

As a rule, the development of any software is an expensive process that requires a lot of effort, time and money. The effect of the implementation of an IT system should exceed the costs spent on its production. In most cases, AI solutions are investment projects that bring profit in the future. The calculation of return on investment (ROI) will demonstrate how the investment in product development justified.

7. Pre-project data analysis

When implementing an AI project, the success of the solution directly depends on the completeness and quality of the data – which is why the vendor will definitely request an example of your data before starting work. Preliminary analysis will help to evaluate in advance the result of product implementation and will allow you to choose the most optimal strategy for working with data. If a vendor promises 100% quality of algorithms without first analyzing your company’s data, it makes sense to consider whether it is worth working with this developer.

8. AI Interpretability Management and Algorithm Quality

In some cases, it is important for the customer not only to see the results of AI work, but also to understand why the machine made a particular decision. Here you can ask the vendor to show examples of previously implemented analytical modules that demonstrate the “way of thought” of the system. In addition, it is necessary to immediately decide what quality of AI work will be acceptable to the customer. It is important to choose in advance the metrics that will see the algorithms to be evaluated – the selected criteria should correlate with the tasks facing the business. Without a preliminary selection of metrics, it will be difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of the work done, as well as agree with the vendor to refine and improve the intellectual “modules” of the system in case you are not satisfied with the quality of them.

9. Change management

The vendor must also take into account that when introducing a product, it is necessary to demonstrate new functionality, understand the difficulties faced by a line employee, and, if necessary, conduct staff training. In many cases, it is necessary to consult the company’s technical specialists on the implementation and support of the system – to resolve issues of localization and integration. In addition, it is important to check with the vendor in advance about the possibility of self-managing the system, changing settings and retraining algorithms – otherwise the customer will need to pay every time for any changes to the product.

10. Support and development

A good vendor will not only implement an IT product, but also provide its ongoing support and improvement. Thus, the customer will receive a modern working solution that will be synchronized with the company’s internal processes. The problems that arise with the operation of the system will be solved by technical specialists as soon as possible, which will ensure the smooth functioning of the product.

Key Recommendations

Summarizing, we highlight the main recommendations that should be considered when choosing an AI solution provider:

• Decide on the goals and expected results from the implementation of the project even before finding a solution provider;
• Analyze the cost of solutions in the market;
• Choose suppliers based on the optimal combination of competencies and pricing;
• Calculate profitability and cost recovery;
• Consider if the developer has similar cases, partners;
• Avoid vendors who are not ready to show their previous cases/solutions;
• Define roles within the team, write down tasks and responsibilities.

Conclusion

The implementation of an AI-based project requires careful vendor selection by the customer. Working with data is a time-consuming process. The technology proposed by the vendor can dictate the logic of building various processes within the organization for years to come, so changing the supplier of an IT solution or switching to a new system in some cases will be intricate. Look for a contractor whose products best suit your needs, analyze pricing, be interested in the possibilities of improving and changing AI systems – a competent assessment of these criteria will help you choose a competent vendor whose developments will be used by your company for many years.

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The team gets so deep into the project that they can’t see the forest for the trees. At this point, one can run into insurmountable difficulties. In this article, we will tell you how to deal with them by virtue of business therapy.

We’ll tell you how a position of a vice president helps the company: this person is often called to help when one of the projects has significant problems and needs to be urgently rescued.

Dive Deep: How the Shutterstock Founder Learned Photography

However, the first sentence gave you misleading information. The problem with most teams is that they don’t know when they need help. And only when a solution appears, they suddenly realize, “Why hadn’t we done this before.” People are sounding the alarm when the crisis has already happened and reached a certain climax. Therefore, by the time a vice president appeared on the project, all attempts to resolve problems in the usual ways (talking with top managers and owners of the client, reviewing finances, changing suppliers) have usually been made more than once and have not brought the expected result. The only way out is to delve very deeply into the core of the problem. And it’s better if someone from outside does this – it is much more likely for him to see what people who have been on the project for a long time do not notice.

How to find him in the company? This should be done by an open-minded person – a person who is ready to “fill in” a lot of new information into his brain. After all, it is necessary to thoroughly understand the details, even if the area in which the project is being implemented is very specific.

As for the position of a vice president, on the one hand, this high position often helps: people try to listen, to find time to explain something over again. On the other hand, it terribly disturbs sometimes. IT company teams are waiting for business analysts, programmers, but definitely not a vice president. Employees will accept you only when you master the information at the same level as they do, speak their language, put it that way. And it does not matter at all that you have only a few weeks or even days for this.

It is rational to use every time spot to gain this knowledge. A practical example of one of our colleagues: he once took the subway to work for a month to free up two hours a day for reading. He managed not only to study the specific automation standards in a very narrow field of energy, but also to find a detailed description of the foreign implementation of a system similar to the one in subject. What seemed impossible for a few days has become real and quite achievable.

The story of Jon Oringer, the founder of Shutterstock, one of the largest image banks, is quite amusing. Having not met worthy images anywhere in the agencies, he decided to study photography himself. The entrepreneur invested $800 in a camera and traveled around New York, its environs, and other cities with it. All the pictures that users bought at the start of the development of Shutterstock are taken by Oringer himself. Don’t be afraid to dive into the details, never reassure yourself that “this is not my level.”

Pay attention to the nuances that fundamentally change the result: how Steve Jobs did not want to present a computer with a scratch

After going through several stories of rescuing complex projects, one may come to a surprising conclusion: to move a project from complete failure to complete success, nothing needs to be changed. You may be fortunate to work with professional teams that were good per se but faced extraordinary challenges. Although it’s not about luck, but about the fact that great companies have great employees, but in complex projects their eyes are blurred and they stop noticing the nuances.

Steve Jobs, presenting the Apple II at the first West Coast computer show, became furious when he saw several scratches on the beige computer case. He immediately set about polishing it to a shine. The presentation went great. The Apple II looked solid compared to other metal-encased computers, although it was inferior to some of them in terms of technical characteristics. This shows that small but very important touches are usually enough to correct the situation. To do this, it is necessary to direct efforts in the right direction and close the existing gaps by means of an active team. You may ask a legitimate question – how to form it? The answer may surprise you. As a rule, the first impulse is to look for people in the market, because all the internal resources are already tied up. However, it usually takes months to find and train a new employee, and when you need someone new, the bill goes by days or weeks at best. If you followed the first advice and dived into the details, you would notice that suddenly people begin to cluster around to listen to you as they see you as the person who makes effective remarks and is able to give them the idea to save the project. These are the people you can rely on. They are already actively looking for a way out, which means they are quite motivated and know much more about the project than you do.

Preparing a synopsis of the work done: how Derek Forsyth came up with the legendary “Pirelli calendar”

Teams working on any project go into details and forget about fundamental things. However, these are the things that customers are actually interested in.

The most ordinary calendar helped the Italian company Pirelli, which produces car tires, to become famous all over the world. In 1964, art director Derek Forsyth made the fateful decision to publish not tires and their technical characteristics on the calendar, but fashion models who men associate with elegance and grace and, of course, a lavish lifestyle. Robert Freeman, the official photographer of The Beatles, was invited to work on the release of the Pirelli calendar, and all models went through a tough casting. As a result, the success of the calendar exceeded all expectations. He became a real sensation in the 1960s, and it was decided to release it annually. It would seem that if we are talking about the choice of tires, what do the snaps of girls have to do with it? The principle is important: clients often want to see something completely different from what they ask you for.

Let us tell you a story. For one project we once received a very large technical task. To be precise, the customer was waiting for a document with a size of almost 3 thousand pages, for almost every section of which he described the requirements in detail. However, the client forgot to leave wishes for one of the most important sections – the one that would unite all these technical blocks into a single system, explain the economic prerequisites for its creation and development strategy. None of the business analysts also did not think about it and did exactly what was required of them.

The suggestion was simple: to write no more than 100 pages of conceptual text in addition to the long documentation. One of the team members suggested making it as a picture book. Therefore, the document should have not only contained clearly formulated goals, objectives of the project and the basic principles of the proposed solution, but also be fairly diluted with a large number of illustrations. The team spent most of the time on this, following the previous advice, diving into the details.

When the first meeting with customer representatives took place, it turned out that each of them read only his own section of the document related to their direct work. At the same time, absolutely everyone got acquainted with the introductory part. It allowed them to get an idea of the operation of the system as a whole, and not of its individual parts. Despite the fact that neither in the contract nor during the negotiations on the project, no one demanded the creation of such a document, it turned out to be insignificant in scope, but had the biggest impact on the whole project. And thanks to the illustrations, it was also beautiful. Remember the photo of models from the Pirelli calendar – aesthetics is also important.

Track progress towards a goal: how a Pixar animator told an Oscar-nominated story in two minutes

There are other cases – teams lose vector in the process of work and forget about the goal. Many projects are cured quite simply when a person from outside reminds them about it.

All readers of this article are most probably aware of the triumphant result of the story that we about tell you. However, it didn’t start out happily. Pixar, a little-known company at that time, was preparing to participate in the SIGGRAPH 86 exhibition in Dallas. The event was only a few months away. Studio animator John Lasseter chose a table lamp as the hero of the video. The team decided to give up all the frills in order to have time to render a one-two-minute video. When the animator shared his pain with Raoul Servais, a respected Belgian animator, he reminded Lasseter that no matter how short a film is, it must have a beginning, a middle and an end. “We must not forget about history,” he stressed. Lasseter countered that his film was too small for that. “A story can be told in 10 seconds,” Servais replied. Indeed, the table lamp cartoon was not only nominated for an Oscar, but probably became one of the most recognizable 3D cartoons.

We often encounter a similar problem on the most serious projects. Customer representatives have new requirements and ideas every day. Employees begin to solve a lot of secondary tasks, rewrite a long specification from scratch in order to approve it with the customer, create reports, decide how to integrate a new database into architecture developed earlier, etc. But the goal of the project is completely different – it is the creation of an information system, and functioning not only on paper.

The experience often shows that the team is usually no longer able to see the forest for the trees. There was an example from our practice, in one of such projects, when participating in a meeting every week over and over again, as best one can, it was repeated: “Yes, I know that last night the customer decided to completely change the course of the project once again, and now all previous tasks are no longer relevant. But after all, we have the terms of reference, and we need to make a system according to it, so I want to know how much we have progressed in a week in the development of the originally planned software.”

 

Of course, at the end of the project, immediate needs were forgotten, and although page-turner ideas and important adjustments appeared during the work on the system, 90% of the solutions had remained the same as they were described in the original terms of reference. Just like Pixar’s animation of the table lamp baby, the timeless values of the story that every cartoon should have outweighed the importance of the technical aspects. And it is not so important that the client will insist that the new task is urgent and important, delegate the implementation of these wishes to only a small part of the team. But remember, you’ll be most probably nominated for an Oscar in your professional field for something else.

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Let’s consider the definition of outstaffing and platforms for finding employees

Staff augmentation, or outstaffing, is when a company hires a third party to perform certain tasks that are necessary for its business. Outstaffing in the IT field includes hiring qualified specialists on a remote basis.

Employee search platforms are online services that provide companies with the opportunity to find and attract candidates for vacancies. These platforms typically contain databases of information about the skills, work experience, and education of potential applicants, as well as tools for creating and posting job openings, filtering, and screening candidates.

International hunting, as well as growing demand and personnel shortages

Following trends, companies are ready to hunt for talent even in other countries. Some are looking for specialists from India, Israel and China, offering them favorable working and relocation conditions.

For instance, in 2023 the demand for IT specialists has increased by 63%, and at the beginning of the year, as many as 59 thousand open vacancies were registered on indeed.com. This creates talent shortages and forces companies to look for new approaches to attracting and retaining employees.

In conditions of personnel shortages, outstaffing and platforms for hiring IT specialists are becoming a “lifeline” for companies in search of experienced and professional candidates.

The goal is to compare outstaffing and hiring through employee search services

The right choice of IT specialists is the key to the success of your business. Today we will help you understand the two main approaches to hiring them: IT staff augmentation and search through platforms. Let’s compare the advantages and disadvantages of each so you can determine which is best for your company.

Flexibility and scalability

You are already familiar with the term “outstaffing,” but let’s look at its benefits in more detail. One of the main advantages of staff augmentation is the flexibility and scalability it provides to companies. Changes happen very quickly in the business world, and companies must be prepared to respond to them as quickly as possible. Outstaffing allows companies to hire external firms only for the duration of a specific project and not waste resources on additional training and adaptation of employees.

This approach saves money and time for the company, and also allows you to scale activities in accordance with current needs. For example, if a company is working on a large project, it may need to hire more specialists for a certain period of time. Outstaffing provides this opportunity without spending time and resources on searching and hiring new employees. As a result, the company can easily and quickly respond to changes in the business environment and scale its activities in accordance with current needs.

Saving time and resources is an important detail

Unlike searching for candidates through service platforms, staff augmentation offers time and resource savings to companies since the hiring process falls on the shoulders of external professionals. This frees companies from bureaucracy associated with paperwork, sick leave and vacation payments. As a result, companies can focus on core tasks, and entrust the hiring and adaptation of employees to experts in the field of outstaffing.

The experience and skills of outstaffing specialists mean less banes for HR

Specialists working on outstaffing projects have extensive experience in their field and can quickly adapt to various tasks and conditions. This is due to the fact that outstaffing companies often work with many clients from different industries, which gives specialists the opportunity to face a variety of tasks and solve complex problems.

In addition, outstaffing specialists have a wide range of skills necessary to work successfully in a team. They know how to find a common ground with colleagues and customers, communicate effectively and solve emerging problems. Thanks to this, staff augmentation projects can be completed with high quality and on time, which is a key factor for success in modern business.

Unlike hiring full-time employees, staff augmentation allows companies to gain access to experienced and qualified specialists without having to spend time and resources on training them and adapting to new working conditions. It can be a more effective and cost-effective option for companies that are looking for a quick and high-quality solution to their IT tasks.

A limited selection of candidates is a clear disadvantage of platforms for hiring specialists

Employee search platforms are an important tool when searching for specialists in various fields. However, some companies may struggle with platform limitations, especially if they are looking for highly specialized employees with extensive experience in a particular area. Additionally, competition for talented candidates can make search and recruiting difficult and time-consuming tasks.

In contrast, outstaffing companies provide access to a wider range of specialists and can find the best candidates for a project using their own resources and network of contacts. This allows companies to find not only experienced professionals with the right skills, but also those who can additionally bring new ideas and ways of working.

A clear advantage is that outstaffing companies can provide additional services, such as employee training, project support and expert consulting. This can be especially useful for companies that want to hire specialists, but do not have enough experience or resources to ensure they work effectively, or when you just need an employee for a certain time.

Unlike platforms with their limitations, outstaffing provides a wider and simpler choice of specialists

Staff augmentation provides companies with a wide selection of highly qualified IT specialists, which is especially useful for more complex and specialized projects. Unlike recruitment services, where companies may be limited to selecting candidates locally, outstaffing companies have access to global talent pools. Moreover, these companies can provide a better selection of candidates, allowing companies to save time and resources that might be spent searching and selecting candidates themselves.

Adaptation and training costs

When hiring an employee through the platform, the company may face additional adaptation and training costs, as the newcomer may not be familiar with the job and the business processes involved, which will cause delays in completing tasks.

However, with outstaffing, the employee focuses on a specific project, eliminating the need to delve into the corporate culture. Also, outstaffing companies constantly train their experts, ensuring a high level of knowledge and skills throughout the entire project.

How to choose between outstaffing and hiring through platforms?

• Determine the company’s needs. If your company requires specialized expertise and flexibility in hiring, outstaffing may be more attractive. It offers access to a wide range of IT professionals with a variety of skills and experience, which is especially useful when searching for qualified experts
• Explore your options. Outstaffing offers flexibility in choosing specialists, quick adaptation to changes and saving time and resources. Unlike recruitment services, outstaffing companies provide a more flexible approach to finding talent, which is especially important in the global market. High-quality selection of candidates carried out by outstaffing companies also saves time and resources
• Make an informed decision. Considering all the advantages of outstaffing, such as flexibility, saving time and resources, adaptability to changes in the business environment and high quality candidate selection, this approach may be much more attractive for your business than using employee search platforms. Consider all the factors and choose the best option for hiring IT specialists.

Conclusion

IT outstaffing is the best choice for companies that want flexibility and access to a wide range of highly qualified IT specialists. When outstaffing, a company can be located in different geographical zones, which significantly expands the choice of specialists. In addition, the company does not waste time and resources on the process of hiring, training and personnel management, because these are all the responsibilities of the outstaffing company.

On the other hand, platforms have a huge selection of candidates and provide the opportunity to quickly hire an employee in the shortest possible time. However, for companies that are looking for candidates with specific skills and experience, such services may not be the best choice.

It is important to choose your approach to hiring IT professionals carefully, taking into account your needs, budget and goals. Developing risk reduction plans and considering the limitations of each approach are also important to successful hiring. Companies must analyze their needs and goals and choose the most effective approach for their business.

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A top manager of a large and successful logistics company decided to leave after seven years of work: “Last year I went to the office for only a couple of hours a day. What was I to do there? I set up all the processes, everything worked fine without me. There were no new tasks or interesting projects from the management. I wasn’t even in the mood to do anything. I decided that I had to leave and look for a company that I could be useful to”, he explained.

For the manager, everything turned out quite well – he took a new career step. However the company lost a valuable employee who did a lot for the business.

To avoid such losses, managers must learn to recognize the markers of declining employee engagement. Let’s consider the main ones.

Marker №1: Employees often miss deadlines 

Often, deadlines are missed due to a lack of specialists. However, if the staff is manned, and the deadlines continue to be disrupted, it is worth considering: perhaps the employees do not realize the importance of working for the overall result. Hold a meeting with the team of the lagging unit. Analyze business processes, for example, arrange a brainstorm – and work on the bugs. Each member of the team must regain a sense of comradeship and realize the significance of their own contribution to the common cause.

The management of a railroad equipment repair company challenged the economic department to develop a new cost accounting policy in the view of a merger with another company within the shortest timeframe. A month later, it turned out that the policy not only was not formed nor even there were no preliminary developments. The director held a meeting with the economic block employees and realized they had not correlated the scale of the task with their own capabilities. He helped employees restructure their activities – create a working group, distribute roles, and take into account interim results. Among other things, and this is very important, he talked about how the completion of the task will affect the overall process of combining several assets. The specialists realized that the improvement of business indicators directly depends on them, and they got involved in the work.

Marker №2: Employees constantly cross-check tasks with their job descriptions

Start with a private conversation. As often as possible, talk to negative people about how their activity and initiative can affect career growth. Talk about the relationship between performance and KPI, give more freedom by offering options on how to complete tasks. At the same time, focus not on how employees do the work, but on why they do it. A common goal and personal influence on the overall result again come to the fore here.

Marker № 3. There are less and less candidates for leadership positions in the company

Define the company’s strategic goals. After that, ask yourself: what kind of leaders do you need, what skills do you want them to have and for what business directions. Look for promising specialists within the company. To do this, you can, for example, use the Hogan test which helps to determine the potential of employees. Ask candidates: “Do you want to take one of the key positions in the company in the future?” Those who have all the chances for this should be sent to training. Soon you will notice an increase in engagement, not only among selected professionals, but also among their colleagues.

We have a talent pool training program in our company. We invited 1st and 2nd level deputy directors who have a desire to learn and grow within their business unit or group of companies to participate in it. The creation of a personnel reserve is supervised by the central department for work with personnel. HRs conduct surveys and research during and after educational programs. The results show that having a perspective and specific subject training increases employee engagement.

Marker № 4. Employees often violate the working hours – they are late and leave early

First of all, find out the reasons for this behavior. It may turn out that those who like to leave early are simply not involved in the work processes. In this case, make a clear schedule for completing tasks. In the number of tasks for each employee, include those that are really interesting to them.

Another reason is that people do not feel the value of their work because of its routine – the constant repetition of the same assignments so make sure to adjust their loading. Sometimes the very fact that a colleague told you about his problems radically changes his attitude to the duties.

Marker № 5. Employees show little interest in what is happening in the company

Employees are reluctant to participate in corporate events, show reluctance to communicate, distance themselves and remain silent during general discussions. Create questionnaires and conduct surveys. You can ask colleagues:

• whether they participated in the last two corporate events;
• whether you liked these activities and why;
• would they like to participate in the next corporate event or organize one;
• whether they feel comfortable around colleagues;
• would they like the format of events to change, and if so, in what way;
• would they like events to be organized not only for the company as a unit but also for individual departments.

An analysis of the responses may show that employees do not feel like a team, and this breeds toxic moods. Use joint business activities and socialization tools. For example, use informal communications to find those who have hobbies and interesting interests that can captivate others.

In our company, we have united adherents of online games by creating a league of e-sportsmen. Over time, this initiative has rallied more than 700 employees from different business units. Every year we sum up the results of the eSports project. Creating an internal community of employees with a common interest has greatly increased engagement.

Marker № 6. Employees often shift the blame for their miscalculations to others

You often hear such phrases from employees as: they didn’t tell me, they didn’t give me information, they didn’t answer the letter, etc. Work out a system for assessing the status of work and summarizing. It is important that it results in a culture based on a proactive approach to any task. This approach is well illustrated by a quote from one famous movie: “I am not interested in why not. I’m interested in what you did to make it yes.”

Marker № 7. The company has a high staff turnover

Communicate with those who have decided to leave. Recurring reasons for dismissals are at the root of the problem. Once you identify them, it becomes easier to plan actions to increase engagement and stop the loss of talent.

A new head of department at a large retail company faces a staff loss and an atmosphere of oppression within the workforce. He conducted exit interviews with departing employees and found out that they were generally not satisfied with the salary level. He also learned that the division hadn’t had a salary increase in a long time and compared it to the market average. It turned out that the company lagged behind the general trend of wage increases. The head organized a stage-by-stage revision of the remuneration of department’s all specialists. This inspired people, many abandoned plans to quit.

Marker № 8. Employees spend more than 30% of their time procrastinating or doing other things

Not everyone who takes breaks is weakly involved in the work. If an employee is doing well, but sometimes switches to something that helps him stay in a resourceful state, do not interfere.

Pay attention to those who are not up to the task. Review their workload, schedule work, and talk about personal discipline. It may turn out that a person is not at all interested in what he has to do, and therefore he switches to anything. If we are not talking about an incorrigible slacker, try to help.

Marker № 9. You have to put in more effort than before to get from your subordinates the results you want 

There is one “but” here – a problem with involvement can only be stated if employees do not have more tasks. In the opposite situation, it’s not about people at all, you simply have to control the execution of work more often, since there are more of them.

If engagement did suffer, analyze what actions and events could negatively affect it. The reasons can be external and internal. An example of an external reason is a change in top management followed by rumors about the upcoming staff cuts and other drastic changes. An example of an internal one is a careless statement: for example, you praised one person, although the success of the task depended on many. After finding out the reasons for the drop in engagement, try to correct the situation: hold a meeting, dispel rumors, eliminate innuendoes and answer all the questions that have arisen in the team.

Marker № 10. Employees became skeptical about everything new, in particular to changes in work processes

A simple rule will help to cope with this problem: always involve colleagues in the discussion of upcoming changes, and do not announce something new in an ultimatum form. Employees need to feel informed, connected, and therefore involved.

Example: Employees in one of our business units asked for a new dining area in the office. The old one had a kettle, a microwave, the necessary furniture, but people wanted to completely change the design and rebuild the space.

In order to make a general decision about what the kitchen-dining room will be like and level out possible criticism of the results of the reconstruction, the HR service organized a survey. After that, they assembled a working group that considered ideas for changes. The design project, developed by one of the employees, was chosen jointly. The team accepted the changes with a bang, as the wishes of the people were taken into account.

According to the consulting firm Bain, organizations with highly engaged employees earn two and a half times more profit than their competitors. Conversely, when engagement is low, costs rise and sales fall. Gallup Institute research has shown that engaged employees are 21% more productive, 41% less likely to make mistakes at work, and 48% less likely to suffer accidents at work. Therefore, it is so important to record alarming bells and analyze them. After all, it happens that just one demotivated unit begins to influence other departments. A domino effect is triggered: the level of engagement falls throughout the company.

The post Why employees are late, miss deadlines and do personal things at work appeared first on MSOFT.

Cloud migration is more than just moving data and applications from on-premises infrastructure to a virtual one. Migrating workloads to the cloud requires a well-thought-out strategy involving a complex mix of management and technology challenges, as well as reallocating IT workloads and resources.

Before taking any action, you should develop a migration strategy, choose a cloud provider, and evaluate digital assets. When moving, it is important to take all these steps.

1. Approve a common strategy for transformation and transition to the cloud within the company

It is necessary to determine the key goals of migration: these are cost optimization, performance improvement, fault tolerance of the infrastructure or individual systems, obtaining maximum flexibility due to the rapid scaling of computing resources, and others.

It is important that all parties involved understand the key benefits of the decision, as well as be interested in its implementation. The discrepancy between the opinions of the IT and the business parties very often lead to an increase in the terms of migration to the cloud or a decrease in the effect, and in the worst case, to the rollback of the entire plan with the loss of invested funds.

Almost every company uses Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure success and identify failures. The task of migrating to the cloud is no different. Fixing the key performance indicators of migration will allow you to correctly evaluate both the process itself and its final results.

Here are some KPIs worth stipulating:

• Availability. Decide on the target availability of information systems
• Scalability. Assess capacity growth needs and establish requirements for the speed and volume of changes that the infrastructure must be ready for. It can be either linear planned growth or seasonal changes or unpredictable explosive growth.
• Cost of ownership. Evaluate how should the cost of ownership of information systems change, including the cost of computing power itself, the resources of IT specialists needed to support them, as well as overhead costs.

It is important to bear in mind that many KPIs are related to each other and a change in one indicator inevitably leads to a change in another.

2. Choose a service provider

How to choose the one? When choosing a service provider, we recommend paying attention to the following parameters:

• portfolio of clients – experience of working on various projects and completed cases;
• the ability to provide customized solutions for the specific needs of the customer’s business, and not just boxed solutions;
• availability of several support lines, including vendor support, and the quality of this support;
• Compliance with information security requirements and certification of the infrastructure in the event that it is necessary to place information systems that store and process personal data of clients in the cloud;
• Service Level Agreement (SLA) parameters.

3. Conduct an audit of information systems within the company: determine the existing architecture of systems, their criticality for business, the presence of mandatory protection systems

• Moving to the cloud requires an assessment of all applications, services and systems used in the company. Start by auditing digital assets to determine their volume
• Make a list of the software, information systems and services you use
• Determine which applications no longer meet business needs and provide value
• Find out which applications and services can bring more value and work more efficiently in a virtual environment
• Determine the impact of each digital asset on the operation of the company and the level of protection that should be provided for each of them
• Identify dependencies between applications is another important point to consider. Information systems within the company most often do not exist on their own, but closely interact with each other. This means that moving one application can affect others.

4. Define a migration strategy for each business application

After the audit, it is necessary to determine a cloud migration strategy for each assessed digital-business asset. Before moving to the clouds, it’s worth working with your service provider to determine which strategy best suits your business needs. Gartner experts identify five key strategies, best known as 5R.

Rehosting – A cloud provider simply re-deploys existing systems on a cloud server. This strategy is chosen when there is no need for significant architectural changes.

Refactoring – This approach entails re-architecting applications to take full advantage of the cloud. When greater agility based on microservices is required, applications are broken into smaller parts or services and deployed in a containerized environment in one or more public clouds.

Revise – This strategy is most relevant when there is a need to upgrade legacy systems. Before moving to the cloud, you need to expand or change your code base. This approach helps to bring the performance of systems to the same level as the characteristics of the virtual environment of the cloud provider.

Repurchasing is rewriting an application from scratch on a service provider (PaaS) platform, removing existing code, and changing the architecture of the application. This solution unlocks new and innovative features through the cloud platform of the IT solution provider.

Replace – a strategy that involves the abandonment of existing legacy applications that no longer meet business needs, and the transition to “software as a service” (SaaS) model.

5. Together with the service provider, choose the best solution for hosting resources – public, private or multi-cloud hosting, build a migration plan for each of the applications and determine the level of service (SLA)

After the audit has been carried out, the criticality of each digital business asset and the required level of protection and scalability have been assessed, the appropriate type of virtual environment will be selected together with the cloud provider.

A private cloud is a solution for business-critical systems that directly affect business profits and require an increased level of security and data confidentiality. The public cloud is the most flexible solution and is suitable for those systems and applications that are subject to seasonal fluctuations and peak loads that are difficult to accurately predict. A company website may serve as an example.

When choosing a multi-cloud strategy, highly critical systems can be placed in a private cloud, and some digital resources can be transferred to public clouds. The multi-cloud model allows you to take advantage of the solutions of several market players at once.

An agreed level of quality of service provision is the most important aspect when working with a cloud provider. This is where SLA comes into play – the level of service provision, which may include parameters of continuity, availability, performance, response time to calls, downtime in the reporting period, and others.

6. Fix all the details with the service provider – agree on the TCP. Calculate total cost of ownership for cost planning and potential savings

Service providers offer a pay-as-you-go model – the customer only pays for the virtual capacity that was used. After receiving all the details and agreeing on a technical and commercial proposal (TCP), the business can calculate the total cost of ownership – the total cost that a company incurs due to the ownership of some asset, in this case, IT infrastructure. For the cloud, they consider the capacities that a company requires to cover all needs.

On-premises infrastructure costs are primarily capital expenditures (CapEx), while cloud infrastructure is typically comprised of operating expenses (OpEx). Having received all the data, the business can compare on-premise and cloud costs and evaluate the level of cost reduction when concluding a contract with a cloud provider for a selected period.

7. Conduct a “test” migration of the least critical system in combat mode

This stage is very important, since it is it that will allow us to assess the correctness of the developed plan and the possibility of achieving the set goals, as well as adjust the migration strategy in time before the “point of no return” occurs.

Companies often start the migration process with complex and heavy applications. The reasons for this decision are quite obvious. If a company migrates the largest and most business-critical system to the cloud, then most processes and data are migrated along with this system. In addition, if at first it was possible to transfer the most complex system, then the migration of other services and applications will be a walk in the park. This theory may be bonny, but practice shows that in the first place it is better to transfer the simplest digital resources. With this approach, you can test how effective the chosen methods are. Plus, time costs are reduced as well as the risk of failure. This means that the chances of successfully implementing the entire cloud transition project are much higher.

The next step is direct migration according to the plan. Depending on the selected service level, this operation can be carried out both by the own IT unit, and completely transferred to the service provider.

8. The final step is to assess the compliance of the set goals and performance indicators (KPI) with real results

If during the process, it turns out that a number of indicators and the desired results cannot be fully achieved, it is necessary to draw up a plan for adjustments together with the service provider and with time implement innovations.

Moving to the cloud can seem like a long, tedious process. But if you approach migration to a virtual environment in a comprehensive manner: create a clear plan, evaluate digital business assets, thoroughly test the migration, then the transition to the clouds can go seamlessly, that is, completely unnoticed by business and end users.

The post Savvy changeover: A Step-by-Step Guide to Cloud Migration appeared first on MSOFT.

Contents:

1. Outsourcing and staff augmentation – concepts, pros and cons
2. Comparison of outsourcing and staff augmentation
3. The most demanded industries for outsourcing and staff augmentation
4. Outsourcing and staff augmentation – concepts, pros and cons

1. Outsourcing and staff augmentation – concepts, pros and cons

Both of these terms imply work with a third-party contractor, as evidenced by their common root “out” – “outside”. However, there are significant differences between these models.

Outsourcing (from the outside resourcing – “external source”) is the practice of transferring tasks and functions by a company to a contractor specializing in a particular field of activity.

You resort to outsourcing the personnel of another company, delegate certain tasks to them, concluding a contract for the provision of services, thereby getting rid of the problem of equipping workplaces, paying taxes and insurance. Moreover, the salary for personnel outsourcing services is often lower than the salary of full-time employees.

Main advantages of outsourcing:

• Reduced efforts to find, hire and manage staff.
• Reducing the cost of equipping workplaces.
• Unloading payroll, tax cuts.
• Replacing existing staff during vacations and decrees.
• Attraction of additional resources for seasonal work.
• Quick start of tasks.

The disadvantages of outsourcing can be problems with communication when working remotely, the difference in time zones, the risk of corporate data leakage. That is why it is important to seek services from reliable and trusted performers.

Staff augmentation, or Outstaffing (from the out – “outside”, staff – “personnel”) – a form of relationship between an employee and an employer which allows the employer to legally attract labor without registering employees to the staff.

In other words, the staff augmentation service implies the removal of personnel from the state and the transfer of authority for personnel administration to the contractor. At the same time, in fact, employees continue to work at their workplace and perform their previous functions, but the obligations of the employer are officially transferred to a third-party outstaffing company.

This tool is one of the most effective in the field of management. It allows you to flexibly adjust the number of employees depending on current tasks without changing the official staff of the company.

Advantages of staff augmentation:

• Simplified personnel management system, elimination of legal problems when working with employees from other countries
• Elimination of the need to deal with financial issues
• Reduced payroll and tax costs
• Accomplishment of large tasks with a small staff

The disadvantages of staff augmentation, as with outsourcing, can be problems with communication and staff motivation, so it is important to choose contractors with extensive experience who can foresee these situations and avoid them during cooperation.

With proper use of outstaffing, you can solve much more tasks than you planned.

Outsourcing or staff augmentation

2. Comparison of outsourcing and staff augmentation

Outsourcing:

• Convenience. The client simply submits an application and pays for the services actually rendered. All other tasks are taken over by the performer.
• Focus on the essentials. The customer gets the opportunity to concentrate on his core business, leaving to qualified contractor non-major issues related to employee management. Often, by focusing on key processes, you can see the efficiency increase in the client’s company.
• Saving. In some cases, a company specializing in outsourcing services is able to recruit workers at lower wages than its customers.
• Cost reduction. The client gets the opportunity to reduce the costs of maintaining additional specialists in the selection and management of personnel, maintaining personnel records management, payroll calculation and payroll tax allocations. When outsourcing is involved, you do not need to keep records of vacations or sick leave payments – all personnel issues are handled by the outsourcing company.
• Increasing efficiency. Staff outsourcing companies recruit, adapt, and manage effectively, resulting in an overall increase in the quality and efficiency of work.
• Risk reduction. Due to the lack of labor relations with the staff, the customer is relieved of the responsibility and obligations of the employer to the employees involved in the project. It also significantly reduces the risks associated with accidents and injuries at the work site.
• Flexibility. The client gets the opportunity to quickly change the number of employees involved in the project, without the cost of reducing and termination of staff.
• Transparency. Working with an outsourcing company, the client, in most cases, receives a fixed price for services.

Staff augmentation:

• Convenience. Staff augmentation allows you to reduce the number of employees while maintaining the actual one. This is relevant for clients using the simplified taxation system.
• Focus on the essentials. Concentrate on the core business and increase the competitiveness of the company.
• Cost-effectiveness. Allows you to reduce the cost of personnel service and accounting, and unload these units at the height of the season or with an increase in the volume of work performed.
• Legal registration of employees. Ensure legality and legal support when working with personnel.
• Cost reduction. Make one transfer of funds to the agency instead of multiple transfers to employees.

It can be seen that the difference between outsourcing and staff augmentation is significant. The choice in favor of one of the models should be formed depending on the goals pursued, but the advantages of any of the practices are undeniable.

3. The most demanded industries for outsourcing and staff augmentation

Contrary to the common stereotype that outsourcing and staff augmentation are used exclusively by IT companies, the market for industries using these services is growing day by day.

According to the latest data, the leading sectors in the field of outsourcing and staff augmentation are IT, accounting, logistics, management and personnel search.

Outsourcing and staff augmentation of personnel are actively used not only by large corporations, but also by small businesses.

The post Outsourcing and staff augmentation: choosing the best solutions for business appeared first on MSOFT.

IT specialists for rent: who is outstaffing suitable for?

Imagine you have a mobile application with complex business logic and a variety of integrations, and the in-house team does not have time to finalize it due to lack of time or sufficient expertise. As a result, customers constantly encounter errors and leave negative comments. What can you do?

The classic solution is to launch an HR mechanism: recruiting, onboarding, ramp-up. However, this is not the best option if the task is one-time: the costs will definitely outweigh the profit, which means the ROI will go negative. It is also not the most suitable choice when the project is urgent: according to indeed.com, the average time to close one position is 70–80 days.

The other day, we were contacted by a client who was faced with both problems at once. It was necessary to quickly select a systems analyst with experience in the financial sector to develop requirements for the backend core of a bank’s mobile application. The specialist organized the development of requirements for two teams at once: in-house and outstaff, which was formed from four C# developers. The outstaffing experience turned out to be successful, and for more than a year we have been supplying IT specialists to a banking sector.

What is outstaffing?

Outstaffing is actually renting qualified specialists from a contractor company. Here are some features of the model:

• An employee or a team sells their hours to a customer, usually a full-time job
• Usually work is carried out on one project, less often – on several ones
• The customer carries out a demanding selection of hard and soft skills with test tasks and even live coding
• Setting tasks, creating a backlog, reports and commits take place on the customer’s side. Specialists communicate directly with the project manager
• Payment is carried out as per two models: Time & Materials – rate per hour, less often  a Retainer – a fixed monthly amount.

Some may confuse staffing IT specialists with outsourcing. Although both models involve external employees, the role of the customer is very different. In outstaffing, you are a football team coach who strengthens one or another line with outstanding athletes: training, competency assessment and responsibility for the result are on your side. The outsourcing model is suitable for those who do not want to participate in the process. The customer only evaluates the result: victory in a certain stage of the cup or reaching the final.

Who is better off “renting” programmers rather than hiring them as staff?

Let us state once again: a company can consider outstaffing IT specialists when there is a technical leader but the team has not yet been formed. It is also suitable for companies staffed by specialists that do not yet have internal expertise. Outstaffing is a good solution, even when there simply aren’t enough free hands to implement the project.

Hiring temporary employees is suitable in the following scenarios:

• One-time assessment. For example, you are engaged in web development for users and there is a need for integration with 1C.
• Urgent assessment. You have a vacancy for a PHP developer. The project is stalled due to a lack of employees, and time is running out. Hire a developer in a couple of weeks, not months.
• Project takeoff. You need to test a hypothetical – for example, develop an MVP of a web platform for online fitness. All internal resources are attached, so you decide to find several Fullstack developers, speed up the development cycle, and bringing the product to market.
• Niche specialization. Small companies often lack the expertise to solve highly specialized problems. Large businesses consider it unprofitable to hire and pay a salary to a specialist who will be in demand in two out of ten projects.

Why is outstaffing better than outsourcing or hiring?

IT outstaffing provides businesses with the following advantages:

• Cost reduction. Hiring involves recruiting costs: searching for candidates, usually 3-4 stages of interviews, training, onboarding, tax and insurance deductions, costs of organizing the work process, benefits package. With outstaffing, these costs are borne by the partner company, and the customer only covers the hours worked.
• Dynamic teams. When hiring people, a company often loses profit due to downtime. The programmer does not code, but receives a salary, which means he brings losses instead of income. In this case, he may face a new task in a few months. Dismissal will be even more expensive given the upcoming recruiting (again!). With outstaffing, costs are optimized, and the team will always have only the right specialists.
• Guaranteed expertise. Often a business needs more than one month to ensure that an IT specialist is highly qualified. If the task is urgent, competency assessment may be superficial. As a result, the “wrong” employee will do more harm to the project than good. Outstaff contractors provide access to a pool of proven candidates with real work experience. Moreover, if the developer suddenly runs away, the company will quickly and free of charge find a replacement, which means the work process will not stop.
• Investment attractiveness. Fixed costs of hiring and maintaining employees will move into the category of variable costs. This means that liabilities will decrease and the balance sheet will improve. At the same time, the investment attractiveness of the company will steepen.
• Breaking the deadlock. Outstaffing allows you to quickly attract a qualified expert who will help the in-house team find a solution when working on a project. It often can be solved easily by simply taking a fresh look at it or at a different angle.
• Test drive of a specialist. Not all outstaffing providers afford this opportunity, but at some of them you can hire the employee you like on staff after the project work. This allows you to immediately evaluate a specialist in action and quickly involve him in long-term work.
• Focus on what’s important. Businesses often lose productivity by being scattered across many small tasks. By entrusting them to an outstaff employee, you can calmly deal with the main processes and being completely confident that the secondary ones are in good hands.

Verdict: to rent or not?

If you need to strengthen your development team, outstaffing is an effective solution that will reduce the time and costs of building a competent team. Essentially, you are renting the talent, leaving the legal responsibility for hiring on the contractor’s side.

The post It outstaffing: what it is, who it is for and when it’s applicable appeared first on MSOFT.

In the article, we figured out the difference between these types of testing, what stages and types of functional testing exist, what tools are useful, and how testing can be automated. We also shared some tips for newbies in QA.

Functional testing is a type of testing where we check WHAT the software product does, for example, checking the API, database, user interface, functionality of the product under test, etc. It is checked for compliance with specifications and business requirements and is based on customer requirements.

Non-functional testing is a type of testing that checks HOW a software product works: performance, scalability, load, UX, etc. It is based on customer expectations. Example: authorization occurred in 2 seconds.

Compared to functional testing, requirements for non-functional testing are harder to collect. They are vaguer, do not have a clear TDA and are based on user experience. It should be noted that non-functional testing occurs after checking for the correct operation of all functions – functional testing.

Beginning testers often forget that they need to look at how the system behaves under unforeseen conditions. When does a product perform as expected by the consumer? Is it effective under any circumstances? What load can it withstand?

Checks that include non-functional testing

• accessibility testing – the software product is available for use 24/7;
• usability testing (UX/UI) – how the design matches the layouts; moreover, the usability of the software product by the end user is also checked;
• performance testing – how fast the product works, as well as determining the speed of procedures, stability and reliability;
• localization testing – the content of the software product is checked for linguistic errors, compliance with cultural requirements and the specifics of a particular country/region;
• security testing – on this stage, the vulnerability of a software product to various attacks is checked.

Where to start non-functional testing, or what you need to check

Availability and security. The software product can be used at any time, and the user’s data will not be in the hands of an attacker. If we are talking about web applications, eliminate the possibility of cross-site scripting and request forgery, as well as exclude authentication and authorization bypasses.

After that, you should pay attention to ease of use. Look at the target audience of the software product and build a test plan based on this. The end user must like the product so that they want to return to it and use it over and over again.

Performance and localization. Here, you need to reason from the specifics of the project. For example, your product is for internal use in a company, and only 100 people will use it. In this case, performance testing will be exhaustive.

You can automate some of the checks described above and make your job easier. But don’t mindlessly automate everything. Understand how necessary this is for your particular project.

Tools that are needed / will be useful when automating non-functional testing

• Apache Jmeter is one of the most popular load and stress testing tools. Can be installed on any OS. The Jmeter official website has detailed instructions for using the product. Plus, you can find the answer to any question on the Internet, because it has been used by many testers for over 20 years. How it works: JMeter emulates user requests. In it, you can set the number of visitors to the software product and the cycles for launching queries. Jmeter will collect all the statistics on the executed scripts and give you a report in a convenient form
• Netsparker – This program allows you to identify vulnerabilities. For example, SQL injection or cross-site scripting in web applications and web APIs. Helps automate security checks. How it works: Netsparker automatically scans all legacy and modern web application types and single page applications, as well as password-protected web resources. Found vulnerabilities are immediately assigned severity levels in order to determine potential damage
• Google Optimization – with the help of this service you can view the behavior on the site and conduct experiments. The most popular section is A/B-testing where you can evaluate the usability of new buttons on the site and entire pages. How it works: a script is created that switches versions. Set up display criteria. As a result, the user will see one of the versions of the site or page.
• Firebase – This service is similar to Google Optimization. Most often used for mobile applications.

It should be noted that a complete newbie in QA will find it difficult to use this toolkit. Get ready to learn SQL and programming languages, at least at a basic level.

You may also face a lack of time, because non-functional testing comes at the very end. Of course, there are checks that go in parallel with the functional one – localization and UX/UI. But basically it is carried out when the software product gets into operation by the end user. Your task is to check the system based on the initial data and prevent product failures and breakdowns. And try to start as early as possible.

Conclusion

Non-functional testing is necessary when testing software products. It is difficult to understand and study, but you should not forget about it. Beginners in this field should start the acquaintance with security and usability testing, and when you have more experience and knowledge, move on to other types of non-functional testing. Remember: never give up!

The post What is non-functional manual testing and what tools should be used appeared first on MSOFT.

is the process of testing a software product in order to check the conformity between the actual and expected behavior of the program. There are several types of testing. As a rule, it can be distinguished either functional or non-functional testing.

In the article, we figured out the difference between these types of testing, what stages and types of functional testing exist, what tools are useful, and how testing can be automated. We also shared some tips for newbies in QA.

Functional testing

is a type of testing where we check WHAT the software product does, for example, checking the API, database, user interface, functionality of the product under test, etc. It is checked for compliance with specifications and business requirements and is based on customer requirements.

Non-functional testing

is a type of testing that checks HOW a software product works: performance, scalability, load, UX, etc. It is based on customer expectations. Example: authorization occurred in 2 seconds.

Differences between functional and non-functional testing

In functional testing:

• We check that the system performs the tasks that have been stated in the requirements for the application;
• Usually performed using test cases that describe the steps to test the functionality of the product;
• Easier to test without resorting to additional tools.

In non-functional testing:

• It is checked how the system behaves when performing the stated tasks;
• Writing test cases is much more difficult, as there are often no clear requirements for it;
• You have to turn to the help of special programs, so it is more difficult than functional.

Stages of functional testing

1. Determine and analyze what functionality requires to be tested. Before starting, you need to study the tested functionality: what are its requirements, how it should work, how the user will use it.
2. Write test cases. In them, the tester describes the scenario for testing certain functionality step by step.
3. Preparation of test data. For testing, data is used that is as close as possible to what users can use. Test data collection is based on requirements.
4. Testing. There is a comparison between the actual result and the expected one.
5. Drawing up a report on the results of testing. Upon completion of testing, it is necessary to collect a report with the results of testing, a list of bugs and recommendations for improving the product.

Types of testing used in functional testing

• unit testing – performed by developers at the stage of application development. The purpose of unit testing is to test the operation of a particular functionality
• integration testing – checking that the modules work correctly as a group. Integration testing is a very important step since modules can be created by different developers
• system testing – conducted on a complete and fully integrated system to confirm that the system performs according to the original requirements
• regression testing – carried out after any changes made to the application. This type of testing is important because any changes can affect or break existing functionality
• sanity testin – very similar to regression. It is done when the tester receives a new build with minor changes. The difference between these two types is that while during regression we conduct full application testing, during sanity testing we test one particular functionality
• Smoke-testing – carried out in order to make sure that the most critical functionality of the application works as it should.

Tools for manual functional testing

Test management systems:

• TestIT is a test management system that was created by testers for testers. With its help, it is convenient to store test cases, create test plans, create runs and manage them
• TestRail – it is convenient to create checklists, test cases and runs, upload the results of runs, test reports and test cases themselves in CSV format. Also compare the results of multiple runs. It supports integration with various bug tracking systems (Jira, YouTrack, etc.)
• Allure – with its help it is convenient to manage manual and automated testing. It is easy to develop test cases and checklists, create test runs and collect statistics on test results.

Database tools:

• DBeaver is a versatile database management tool with a user-friendly interface. With it, you can work with various DBMS: MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Oracle and others
• SQL Developer – a graphical interface for working with the database and executing SQL queries. It can be used to create and execute queries, explore databases, and track down errors
• HeidiSQL is a graphical shell for working with MySQL, PostgreSQL and Microsoft SQL Server. It can be used to create, modify, and delete tables, insert and delete data, create SQL queries, and many more.

API testing tools:

• Postman – with it, you can make and send requests, collect collections and share them with colleagues. You can also write automated tests in Postman to test the API
• SoapUI – Using this tool, you can easily and conveniently test both SOAP and REST services. You can check the health of web services, set the availability, the operation of various requests, and monitor the receipt of responses
• Swagger UI is a tool for describing and testing API methods. Each request has an example of a response and a description of the parameters that come with them. It does not require installation on the user’s device.

Logging systems:

• Kibana is a tool for visualizing and analyzing data in real time, tracking trends and predicting future events
• Graylog is a system for collecting, storing, monitoring and analyzing logs from various sources in real time. Allows you to save large volumes of logs and analyze them using search queries and filters
• Android Studio and Xcode – you can collect logs from mobile devices – Android and Xcode, respectively – in real time. It is convenient to collect, read and analyze logs.

Device farms:

• Android Studio – Using the Android Virtual Device Manager tool, you can create and manage virtual Android devices. When emulating devices, it is possible to test the application in various states (slow Internet connection, interruptions, low device memory, etc.).
• Xcode – this tool has the ability to simulate various Apple devices from iPod to Apple TV. Unlike emulation using Android Studio, Apple Simulator only simulates a subset of the functionality of a physical device.
• BrowserStack is a service for testing websites and mobile applications on various devices and browsers without having to install them on your local computer. It provides an extensive collection of real devices, operating systems and browsers that can be used to test websites and mobile applications on real devices online.

Is it possible to automate functional testing and what is it for?

Over time, the functionality of the application grows, respectively, the number of functional tests increases. This is where automated testing comes in handy.

Automation helps speed up the testing process, provide more consistent results, reduce human error, and shift the workload of multiple manual testers to a single tester.

There are many tools for automating functional testing. We will talk about the most popular below:

• Selenium is one of the most popular web application testing automation tools. Selenium allows you to work on various operating systems (Windows, Mac, Linux) and browsers (Chrome, Firefox, etc.), besides it supports various scripting languages
• Appium is a cross-platform test automation tool for mobile applications (native, hybrid and web). Allows you to create and run tests on real devices and emulators, use various programming languages to write tests
• Katalon Studio – a tool for automating API, web, desktop and mobile applications. To write test scripts, the Java or Groovy programming language is used. The advantage of this tool is that it is enough to have basic knowledge of programming languages to work with it that makes it great for beginners.
• Ranorex Studio is another versatile test automation tool. This tool, like the previous one, is well suited for beginners, as it supports the ability to create tests without writing code.

In conclusion

Functional testing is necessary to verify that the product meets the stated requirements. It ensures that the user can use the product for its intended purpose, and errors will be found before the application gets to the client.

Beginners should familiarize themselves with the basic principles of functional testing, learn the tools, try to create test cases and conduct practical testing. To do this, you can use any site or application. We recommend that you familiarize yourself with ready-made checklists on the Internet, use them for practice and gain experience in conducting functional tests.

Build your skills, learn and try new approaches and technologies. Put them into practice to gain new experience and expand your knowledge in testing. Good luck!

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In this article, I would like to dwell on the scenarios and mechanics of gamification and consider what cases are more effective for a certain scenario, and how the target audience influences its choice.

Let’s start with the fact that no matter what your target audience is and what scenario you choose, you need to remember that any game should have:

Simple rules for participation

We do everything necessary to ensure that the game has an easy entry, and simple and clear rules. Entering the game should not turn into an impossible quest. Even if a fellow worker starts it, he will have the feeling that the game is most likely much more difficult than the entry, and the desire to play further will completely disappear.

The gradual uprise of new rules

If you give the participant all the rules at once, there is a high probability that he will become confused or scared and will not participate. On the other hand, if the gameplay is too simple and nothing changes for a long time, people get bored and eventually their engagement decreases.

Presence of competition

The spirit of competition and the desire to take a leading position, to overtake a friend – this is what increases engagement at times. Here, competition is indispensable, while it must be healthy and consistent with the culture of the company. In order for gamification to give good results, in addition to defining and describing the target audience, and applying the basic principles of gamification, it is important to choose the right scenario.

What are the main factors influencing the choice of scenario?

• your target audience;
• KPIs that need to be improved through gamification;
• budget.

Gamification scenarios in Robusta

Virtual world

This is a full-fledged game world that involves employees in continuous improvement. This scenario can be used for complex goal setting in terms of qualitative and quantitative indicators.

Here, you can involve a full record of the indicators for each employee – quantitative, qualitative, long-term and short-term, group and individual indicators, production and administrative goals, etc. Each employee installs a mobile application where a true virtual world unfolds, where each player “upgrades” his character: from clothes and weapons to opening new levels. By completing his work tasks, the employee receives points that can be exchanged for game “goodies” (weapons in the game, updating his game character, opening new levels in the game). Or exchange for corporate (often branded) gifts – if the employer provides such an opportunity.

City development

This scenario is most often used to support the work of highly skilled teams. A real city or a map of a fairy-tale country appears in the mobile phone of your employees. Each building can represent a specific workshop, department or individual participant in production. The level and appearance of the building depend on the type and level of indicators. The higher the player’s business indicators, the more attractive his building is. Such a scenario not only motivates to improve personal performance, but also works to unite teams in achieving a common goal. The development of the entire city depends on the status of each of its buildings, which motivates teams to continuously increase their performance. Employees always see ratings for one or more indicators, they clearly understand where they are now, which helps them “accelerate” in order to get results. Here, we see several aspects – healthy competition, visual feedback, and game badges to encourage unique achievements.

Farm

This scenario is used to stimulate quantitative and qualitative, group and individual performance in teams. It adapts well to the same type of daily processes, it is simpler than the virtual world and the development of the city, but at the same time it is also full of game mechanics.

Here it is possible to visualize the implementation of group and individual plans for one or more indicators, take into account the results of quality control, support organizational changes, support and visualization of learning and testing processes.

Absolutely all mechanics, scenarios and graphics of the game are adjusted to the tasks of a specific business model of a specific company. It is possible to choose a scenario depending on the business goals and tasks of gamification, individual solutions for the development of styles and visual components. Each solution adapts to the requirements, features and needs of the business.

What to do when implementing?

First of all, we define gamification goals, tracked KPIs and their priority. We collect available data from the client’s systems: operational data, distance and face-to-face courses, testing, visiting the system, reading materials, and more. Set up integration – automatic data update online. We create flexible ratings, team and individual. We develop game content: artifacts, badges, player and pet profiles. We choose game mechanics: arena and battles, Tamagotchi, farm, surprise chests, quizzes, city building, etc. The graphics and themes of the game are fully customizable. Together with the customer, we form “Bonus Cafeterias”: prizes and benefits that an employee can receive as a result of completing tasks. If necessary, we set up integration with online stores.

Why you should create games for your employees?

• you create a unique corporate virtual world that immediately captivates your employees. They see their tasks and each time they receive badges and bonuses for completing them, they learn how to work in a team by developing their city; they compete by upgrading their character, they begin to work better in the real world instantly receiving feedback in the game;
• this model of motivation is very easy to understand;
• employees on site can monitor their performance, and manage them;
• availability of results for management online gives the opportunity to control and make adjustments, additional motivation of employees, etc.

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