This case study showcases how SHIFT ASIA assisted a system development company affiliated with a major Japanese financial group in delivering a mobile application with significantly improved usability.

About the Client

This client provides comprehensive IT services for the financial industry, including strategy planning, system construction consulting, and development. They collaborated with various domestic and international vendors to strengthen their financial offerings. However, inconsistencies in the quality and language of test specifications and design documents across vendors led to challenges:

• Inconsistency in document quality: Documents (specifications and designs) created by different vendors exhibited inconsistency and ambiguity in language and logic, hindering thorough quality assurance.
• Strict security and compliance: Higher security standards were crucial as a financial application. The need to identify and address document-related issues quickly became an urgent priority.
• Resource limitations: The client faced a shortage of qualified software testing personnel to address these inconsistencies and ensure project quality.
• Project complexity: Managing development progress and quality across multiple vendors, including offshore teams, proved challenging for the client.

Client Requirements:

• Skilled Test Engineers: They sought experienced and skilled test engineers to address quality gaps.
• Improved Document Quality: Their goal was to improve the consistency and clarity of test specifications and design documents, eliminating ambiguities and inconsistencies.
• Project Management: They required a partner to manage the project as a PMO (Project Management Office), overseeing development progress and quality across multiple domestic and international vendors.

SHIFT ASIA’s approaches and results

SHIFT ASIA addressed these challenges through the following solutions:

Document Inspections:

• Logic Inspections: To identify inconsistencies and flaws in the logic and functionality described in the documents.
• Internationality Inspections: Conducted by Japanese-speaking test designers, these inspections focused on risks specific to offshore development, such as language barriers, specification omissions, and translation errors. This proactive approach helped prevent potential bugs from impacting later stages of development, leading to cost savings.

PMO Support:

Leveraging experience with similar multi-vendor projects, SHIFT ASIA established a development system, staffed it with skilled personnel, and focused on improving document quality through thorough inspections. This approach significantly reduced “specification bugs” before implementation, minimizing defects and rework in subsequent stages.

Communication and Collaboration:

Improved document clarity through inspections fostered better understanding between developers and minimized communication loss, reducing development and testing time while enhancing system stability.

Enhanced Security:

To meet the strict security requirements of financial applications, SHIFT ASIA built a dedicated in-house security room with biometric authentication and remote monitoring systems, ensuring the highest level of security throughout the project.

Technology and Tools:

Java (Programming Language)
Jenkins (Continuous Integration)
Jira (Issue Management)
Appium (Test Automation)
Allure (Automated Test Reporting)

Results:

• Reduced Defects: Thorough document inspections significantly reduced “specification bugs” before implementation, minimizing rework and improving development efficiency.
• Improved Communication: Enhanced document quality and internationality inspections fostered better communication and understanding between developers, reducing misunderstandings and communication loss.
• Increased Stability: The combined efforts reduced development and testing time, creating a more stable and secure mobile application.

By combining expertise in document inspection, multi-vendor project management, and enhanced security measures, SHIFT ASIA played a crucial role in delivering a high-quality and user-friendly mobile application for the client, contributing to their success in the competitive financial services market. This collaboration demonstrates the effectiveness of our expertise in document quality improvement, multi-vendor project management, and ensuring adherence to stringent security requirements.