The client is a large government-affiliated healthcare organization operating across the UAE. It manages an extensive network of medical facilities and digital health services, serving a wide population of patients and healthcare providers. They used an extensive IT infrastructure, including an EMR system, client apps (mobile and web), microservices, and some integrations with external systems and third-party service providers.
The company’s QA activities were distributed across multiple software development vendors, which led to a lack of unified QA practices and a coherent quality approach aligned with business needs. Meeting stringent industry standards regarding performance, usability, and security posed an additional challenge. These conditions affected overall software quality, delivery speed, and operational expenditure.
That’s why the organization had an intent to get the information about gaps in current QA approach, resolve them with a go-forward plan, and achieve industry best practices. Due to relevant capabilities and vision, a1qa was chosen to contribute to reaching these goals.
a1qa dedicated 2 QA consulting specialists to help the client define the real situation with SQA and testing, identify bottlenecks and areas of enhancement to set up solid QA processes within current standards landscape (ISO, ITIL, COBIT, CMMI), monitor progress with metrics, establish effective work with requirements, and enhance software quality in the production environment.
The scope of their work included the following high-priority steps:
The proposed structure of the QA framework that comprises several elements deserves specific mention.
First, QA consultants defined a suitable QA policy considering the specifics of the client’s company. This policy aimed to measure and control software quality, improve operation of IT solutions in the production environment, optimize the cost of quality, and meet set requirements. Suggested metrics, such as the number of defects within UAT, the number of minor fixes (after going live) per project, etc., helped optimize QA expenditure.
Second, QA consulting specialists devised a QA strategy on an organizational level. It included the description and interconnection of diverse vital elements, such as resources, quality standards, risks, audits, environments, tools, test plan and types, test automation, bug- and test-tracking systems, and quality metrics.
Finally, a1qa’s experts suggested introducing QA and its areas into the organizational SDLC to enhance software delivery speed, spot issues earlier in the SDLC, and decrease expenditure. The specialists also drew up a management structure within a company to ensure effective work, compliance with deadlines, and reaching business goals.
