QA team augmentation
Benefits of team augmentation with a1qa
Cost-efficiency
You don’t have to spend significant financial and time resources on hiring and training internal staff. We can provide specialists with the required technical expertise to join projects and perform tasks immediately.
High speed
We quickly allocate QA team members based on your changing project needs. In most cases, our experts start working within two weeks.
Vast pool of QA specialists
a1qa unites 1,100+ QA specialists who can ensure high quality of software across 10+ industries. Our engineers are proficient in Agile methodologies, test systems and platforms of any type, and deliver a large set of services. a1qa’s managers supervise QA processes or establish them from scratch. Thus, we help our clients minimize recruitment risks and obtain talents with diverse skills at short notice.
Wide industry expertise
With over 20 years of operation, we’ve been providing companies across multiple industries (e.g., IT and software development, telecom, BFSI, eHealth, eCommerce) with professional QA and software testing, ensuring failsafe operation of IT products of varying complexity.
Smart staff replacement
When QA engineers are on vacation, sick leave, or other leave due to significant events, we provide full-fledged replacements to ensure business continuity.
Smooth scalability
With our support, companies of any scale can easily ramp up the number of QA specialists according to their evolved business needs and project requirements.
Eased management
Within the team augmentation model, the client manages the chosen QA specialists directly. However, we can assign a skilled project manager to ease the workload and help the client focus on other tasks.
Best QA practices
Relying on process-related knowledge accumulated within 10+ CoEs, R&Ds and 100+ courses provided by the internal a1qa Academy, we follow best-of-breed QA practices, develop in-house testing solutions, and help our clients improve or build effective QA processes.
High confidentiality
All our dedicated QA specialists sign an NDA and follow companies’ internal policies to ensure data protection and high working ethics.
How we augment our clients’ teams
Be it manual testing, test automation, or any other QA activity, we expand our clients’ teams to cover any gaps in software testing skill and expertise.
We can provide a QA consultant to analyze project specifics and compile a precise scaling plan to reach set milestones.
Stage 1. Requirements analysis
We delve deep into clients’ business goals to plan testing types, timing, and experts’ required skills and competencies.
Stage 2. Selection of suitable specialists
Based on the findings, we compile a list of technical skills and knowledge requirements for future candidates. Then, we search through our extensive CV database to choose suitable applicants. After performing internal pre-screening of the candidate and picking the most suitable ones, we send chosen CVs for clients’ approval.
Stage 3. Conducting interviews
The client will conduct CV screening and interviews with our candidates to personally select the most suitable people and make sure they’ll match their in-house teams in terms of expertise level and cultural fit.
Stage 4. Signing documents
After the selection is done, we sign an NDA, SLA, and strictly follow clients’ internal policies to ensure ongoing protection of sensitive data.
Stage 5. QA team integration
We onboard selected experts and integrate them into current processes so that they start working on the clients’ project as soon as possible.
Stage 6. Monitoring engineers’ progress
We make sure that our QA engineers strictly follow the clients’ KPIs and metrics to ensure their productivity levels throughout the entire cooperation on the project.
QA competencies we provide
Manual QA engineer
- takes part in planning sessions and requirements refinement
- creates test documentation
- executes manual testing
- prepares quality reports
- submits bugs and validates their fixes
QA automation engineer
- helps define the automation scope
- creates and executes automated scripts
- develops and extends test automation frameworks
- sets up QA automation infrastructure and pipelines
Performance testing engineer
- evaluates application performance requirements and creates a testing strategy
- defines all required testing types (stress, load, volume, scalability, stability, configuration)
- creates and executes performance testing scripts
- sets up system monitoring
- provides a report on performance issues found
Cybersecurity testing engineer
- helps to define scope of security checks
- performs vulnerability assessments
- performs penetration testing across selected attack vectors
- creates a detailed report with all issues rated in accordance with the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS)
See how we helped companies quickly scale QA teams
What our clients say
When to augment QA teams using a1qa services
Lack of QA expertise
The shortage of certain competencies in in-house software testing teams leads to the late detection of defects in the SDLC.
Slow project pace
The lack of extra QA resources hinders the team from meeting deadlines and releasing software on schedule.
Long onboarding process
Time-consuming knowledge sharing procedures for new QA team members prevent them from testing software quickly.
The need for extra help
Peak periods in the project, such as preparing software for high sales seasons or major releases, can overburden in-house teams and necessitate additional support.
Regular team overwork
An insufficient number of QA engineers on the project results in regular overtime, reduced attention due to fatigue, and the possibility of overlooked defects.
Ambitious growth plans
Team augmentation is a swift and flexible way to expand critical departments like QA teams. It allows companies to bypass the hiring process, immediately increase their capacity and efficiently scale core business operations.
Why a1qa?
20+ years in SQA business
We offer a vast variety of QA and software testing services to ensure failsafe operation of any software type, build and enhance QA processes, and shift to Agile-based methodologies to reach set business objectives.
Business and operational benefits
We dedicate seasoned QA experts who enhance software quality through need-driven QA activities, help speed up testing cycles with test automation, and ensure business continuity regardless of external circumstances.
1,500+ delivered projects
We test solutions across diverse industries – from telecommunications to IT and software development. We put quality first in everything we do, therefore, 90% of our clients choose to work with a1qa again.
Vast technical expertise
We continuously accumulate technology expertise, develop solutions to increase testing efficiency, and advance QA techniques in our 10+ proprietary Centers of Excellence and R&Ds.
1,100+ QA engineers on board
We can quickly assign QA engineers and managers with the required level of expertise and ramp the teams up and down depending on changing project workloads to promptly help you close any skill gaps or meet release deadlines.
QA support throughout SDLC
We can seamlessly dedicate the required number of QA engineers at any SDLC stage to facilitate software releases and ensure high quality at any project stage.
Frequently asked questions
QA team augmentation is the provision of qualified quality assurance specialists to companies to help them fill skill gaps on software projects. It enables companies to scale testing efforts quickly, improve software quality, and meet deadlines without spending time and money on in-house specialists’ hiring and training.
Team augmentation can cover various QA roles, including manual testers, automation engineers, performance testers, and cybersecurity specialists. These professionals handle everything from writing test documentation and running test scripts to setting up automation frameworks and conducting vulnerability assessments.
Specialists are chosen through a multi-step process: requirements analysis, candidate screening, client interviews, document signing, onboarding, and ongoing performance monitoring. This ensures the selected QA experts match the client’s technical needs and team culture.
By eliminating the need for long hiring cycles and in-house training, QA team augmentation reduces recruitment expenses and shortens specialists’ onboarding time. It also helps avoid project delays and the risks associated with overworked internal teams.
We remain adaptable enough to switch specialists if the situation requires it. Our objective is to ensure QA specialists meet your needs fully and add real value to the project.
You oversee QA specialists yourself, while they adopt your approaches, software ecosystem, and roadmaps, acting as an additional branch of your in-house team. This model allows you to maintain full control over the quality assurance process while leveraging our resources for extra bandwidth.
If this happens, we guarantee continuity by supplying a substitute and overseeing a thorough transfer of information and duties. We use documentation, shared tools, and structured setup guides to help reduce any interference.
We always select professionals based on their niche expertise, required toolsets, and technical goals to ensure they integrate seamlessly into the project, elevating the standard of testing for your specific application scenarios.
We customize onboarding and offboarding processes to ensure testing continuity. Newcomers analyze project records, methods, and test libraries and receive guidance from the team. When leaving the project, our specialists summarize their tasks, update artifacts, and deliver training to replacements or the remaining members to prevent disruption.
We can provide targeted support, such as completion of specific testing tasks, when full-time allocation isn’t required. We establish working hours and team structures at the outset of the collaboration to foster dependable partnership and absolute clarity.