What does SHIFT do? Creating the future of Business Cards
"What does SHIFT do?"
I get asked this question a lot.
It is a lot to explain.
We work on a variety of projects with clients in different verticals.
That is why we put together these case studies.
Here's a look at a project you will work on at SHIFT:
Client Case Study – Leading Business Card App Developer
Supporting Rapid Growth Through QA Excellence
"Going forward, we want SHIFT’s QA perspective from the very start of development."
Summary
Client Industry: IT / Telecommunications / Media
Company Size: 501–1,000 employees
SHIFT Services Provided: Test Planning / Test Design / Test Execution / Test BPO
This client, known for its mission of "Turning encounters into innovation," develops a leading business card management app.
SHIFT has been a QA partner, ensuring high quality and speed while supporting the client’s efforts to enhance user experience.
The Need for QA Knowledge During Rapid Growth
When was the QA team first formed?
QA Lead: We started around 2015, just the two of us—myself and a development lead. At that time, the app was still small and focused on individual users. Three years ago, we began expanding into corporate services and overseas markets, diversifying the business.
With many new initiatives happening at once, we didn’t want to compromise on speed or quality. That’s when we formed a QA team and brought in SHIFT.
Why did you choose outsourcing over internal QA?
QA Lead: As the only QA specialist, building a team internally would have meant hiring and training, or shifting engineers to QA, which could slow down development. Instead, we decided to bring in experienced QA professionals from SHIFT to maintain speed.
Product Manager: We also lacked internal QA knowledge. Agile development requires speed, and we didn’t have the expertise to keep up with testing demands. Outsourcing made sense for our organizational structure.
How Did You Learn About SHIFT?
Product Manager: I was researching companies specializing in QA when I discovered SHIFT. Separately, our dev lead met someone from SHIFT, which led to the collaboration.
SHIFT Representative: Our leadership had been in touch with your company since its early days. We’re grateful for the relationship.
From Test Execution to Process Support
Were there concerns about outsourcing QA?
QA Lead: Initially, the team may have been unsure if outsourcing would yield results. But once SHIFT joined, any concerns disappeared.
Major App Overhaul: SHIFT’s Test Execution Support
QA Lead: In December 2018, we revamped the app’s UI/UX and added features like improved camera functionality. It required full regression testing across the app.
Our app spans multiple domains, including business card management, messaging, and social networking features. We needed extensive unit, integration, and relational tests.
SHIFT provided three testers and a test lead. Thanks to their support, testing did not delay our iOS release—despite being a major transitional period for the company.
Smooth Scheduling & Seamless Collaboration
How do you handle scheduling with SHIFT?
QA Lead: Whenever we draft a release schedule, we consult SHIFT to estimate testing needs. Assignments happen quickly.
SHIFT QA Lead: We appreciate being involved early and having time to prepare properly.
Are SHIFT members fully integrated into your team?
QA Lead: Yes. SHIFT members communicate naturally and blend right into our team. It’s easy to ask for help casually, even during informal chats.
SHIFT’s Involvement Beyond Testing
QA Lead: SHIFT QA members attend planning meetings with developers, designers, and product owners—even before development starts. We encourage them to raise concerns about UX or anything else they notice.
Product Manager: They go beyond the role of QA—they contribute as full team members and share valuable insights.
Building Internal QA Knowledge
What results have you seen from working with SHIFT?
QA Lead: We started classifying bugs by impact level, based on SHIFT’s practices. This lets us prioritize efficiently and conduct more meaningful retrospectives. Our QA knowledge has grown significantly.
What are you most satisfied with, and what do you expect going forward?
Product Manager: We now measure quality using metrics like impact and severity. That’s a big step forward.
We’d like to dig deeper into how quickly bugs are fixed, and what causes delays in testing. We’re shifting from simply preventing bugs to preventing them from being introduced in the first place.
We also want to maintain—or even improve—quality while reducing test time.
SHIFT Representative: It’s exciting to hear you’re already moving to the next stage! We're happy to evolve with you from test execution to more strategic QA.
We’ve started quarterly reviews of bug data to support preventive approaches. We'd love to keep developing that process together.
Unique Testing Practices and Insights from SHIFT
QA Lead: One unique initiative is our “B1 Grand Prix”—a timed bug-hunting session where 6–7 people compete to find the most bugs. It’s helped developers see QA from a new perspective and has led to a better understanding of testing practices.
SHIFT QA Lead: Getting developers involved in this way was a big win.
SHIFT Representative: This type of activity can also help build a stronger quality culture, encouraging developers to think like testers or users—even briefly.
SHIFT’s Impact on Global Expansion
How did SHIFT contribute to your global rollout?
Product Manager: We started releasing global features in late 2017, and brought in SHIFT around December. It was a critical period for global and B2B expansion.
QA Lead: Besides language, we had to define which features were available globally. There were many decisions around spec details.
Product Manager: For example, name field formatting and pluralization varied across regions. SHIFT’s QA team had deep real-world knowledge of these details, which helped tremendously.
SHIFT Representative: We’re happy that our experience in spec understanding and test design contributed meaningfully.
SHIFT QA Lead: With each review and test plan, our team built deeper understanding and insight—especially for functional differences across regions.
Focus on Quality While Maintaining Speed
What are your future priorities?
Product Manager: We want to maintain speed while raising quality. This means reducing time spent on testing and bug reporting, while still improving outcomes.
“Shift-left” is a big theme—we want to provide quality feedback early in the dev cycle and have test cases ready before coding is done. This will embed QA throughout the product lifecycle.
What Do You Expect From SHIFT Going Forward?
Product Manager: We’d like SHIFT to continue sharing QA perspectives from the beginning of each project or feature. This is essential for development teams.
SHIFT QA Lead: We’re happy to support process improvements and align on your goals.
Product Manager: If we can reduce bugs—not because we missed them in testing, but because they weren’t introduced at all—that will really increase our development speed.
Rising Awareness of Quality Across the Organization
Has the partnership with SHIFT changed your team's mindset toward quality?
Product Manager: Yes. While we’ve always valued speed, our app is now used by hundreds of thousands of users every day. The way users interact with each other is evolving, so quality is becoming more important than ever.
Because of this, I’ve been emphasizing quality more—even if I sound overly persistent!
SHIFT Representative: Having voices like yours is essential.
Product Manager: Our team is now visualizing bug counts in integration testing. That data helps us give feedback to engineers and discuss risks and productivity losses factually.
It’s a bit stressful, but necessary to raise our standards.
SHIFT Representative: We’ll continue aligning with your speed and quality expectations and do our best to be a partner you want to rely on across every phase.
SHIFT QA Lead: Thank you again for sharing your story. We look forward to supporting you further!
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