For over four years, SHIFT ASIA has partnered with a premier Japanese technology corporation to streamline and enhance its quality assurance processes. By providing a dedicated test automation team, we transformed their testing workflow, successfully increasing web automation coverage from 60% to 80%. This ongoing engagement has established a robust, long-term solution for maintaining quality across frequent product updates, solidifying a partnership built on technical excellence and trust.

About the Client

The client is a global leader in technology and internet services, headquartered in Japan. Their vast ecosystem encompasses a variety of services in eCommerce, Fintech, Digital content, and Communications, serving millions of users across 30 countries and regions. As a major innovator, they are constantly evolving their digital platforms, requiring a quality assurance strategy that is both comprehensive and agile enough to support their dynamic growth.

The Challenge

The client’s rapid development cycle, which involved releasing new software versions approximately every two months, presented a significant QA bottleneck.

Organizational Context

As a rapidly growing technology conglomerate with frequent product updates and feature releases, the client faced the common challenge of maintaining quality standards while accelerating development cycles. Their diverse portfolio of services, from eCommerce platforms to financial applications, demanded comprehensive testing coverage that could adapt to evolving business requirements.

Technical Challenges

Version Management Complexity: The client operated on an aggressive development schedule with new product versions released approximately every two months across multiple service lines. Each release required extensive regression testing to ensure backward compatibility and system stability across their interconnected platform ecosystem.

Legacy Script Maintenance Burden: The organization maintained approximately 200+ existing automation scripts that required continuous updates and maintenance. These scripts, originally developed by a previous offshore team, needed significant refactoring and enhancement to meet evolving quality standards.

Manual Testing Bottlenecks: Despite having some automation infrastructure, the client relied heavily on manual testing processes, creating resource bottlenecks and limiting their ability to scale quality assurance operations in line with business growth.

Cross-Platform Integration Complexity: The interconnected nature of their service ecosystem meant that changes in one platform could impact multiple other services, requiring comprehensive cross-platform testing and validation processes.

Strategic Requirements

To address these challenges, the client required a comprehensive solution that could:

• Maintain and enhance existing test automation infrastructure
• Design and implement new automated test cases for emerging features
• Establish robust continuous integration practices for daily regression testing
• Provide ongoing technical expertise and strategic consultation on testing best practices
• Enable scalable quality assurance operations that could grow with their business

Our Solution & Approach

SHIFT ASIA provided a dedicated team of four Test Automation engineers who became part of the client’s workflow. Our approach was structured yet flexible, focusing on two core streams: systematic maintenance of existing automation infrastructure and strategic expansion of test coverage through new automation development.

Service Delivery Framework

• Model: Comprehensive Test Automation & Continuous Maintenance
• Methodology: Agile-based iterative improvement with continuous integration practices
• Engagement Type: Long-term strategic partnership with an embedded team model

Maintenance & Enhancement Workflow

Our systematic approach to automation maintenance ensures robust, reliable test execution across all client platforms:

Phase 1: Release Cycle Synchronization

Every bi-monthly product release cycle begins with a comprehensive impact assessment and maintenance planning. Our team conducts a detailed analysis of approximately 200 existing automation scripts, identifying dependencies, potential breaking changes, and required updates. This proactive approach ensures minimal disruption to testing schedules and maintains high script reliability.

Phase 2: Cross-Environment Validation

Following script maintenance, we execute comprehensive regression testing across two distinct client environments: staging and pre-production. This dual-environment approach validates script functionality under different configurations and ensures robust performance across the client’s infrastructure ecosystem.

Phase 3: Continuous Integration Operations

Daily automated execution of critical test scenarios through Jenkins-based CI/CD pipelines ensures immediate detection of system issues. Our monitoring framework provides real-time visibility into system health and automatically escalates critical failures to relevant stakeholders.

Phase 4: Quality Reporting & Feedback Integration

Comprehensive reporting mechanisms capture test results, system configurations, and identified issues. Our team maintains detailed bug tracking systems and provides actionable recommendations for system improvements and optimization opportunities.

New Test Automation Scripts Process

Our structured approach to new test case development ensures high-quality, maintainable automation scripts that align with client standards:

Requirements Analysis & Technical Planning

Each new automation request undergoes thorough analysis, including technical feasibility assessment, resource estimation, and integration planning. Our team works directly with client stakeholders to understand business requirements and translate them into comprehensive technical specifications.

Test Case Design & Development

When clients provide existing test cases, our team focuses on automation implementation. For new functionality, we develop comprehensive test case documentation that covers positive scenarios, negative testing, boundary conditions, and integration points. Our test design approach emphasizes maintainability and reusability across different product areas.

Implementation & Quality Assurance

All automation scripts undergo rigorous peer review processes and quality validation before delivery. Our development standards ensure consistency with existing automation frameworks while incorporating best practices for code maintainability and execution reliability.

Delivery & Client Collaboration

Script delivery includes comprehensive documentation, execution guides, and integration instructions. Our team provides training and knowledge transfer sessions to ensure seamless adoption by client teams and long-term sustainability of automation assets.

Technology & Tools

The technological foundation of the project was centered around a practical and efficient toolset. All automation scripts were developed using Python, a versatile and powerful language well-suited for test automation. At our recommendation, the team utilized PyCharm as the primary Integrated Development Environment (IDE), as it was perfectly equipped to handle the existing Python codebase. To enable continuous testing and daily health checks, we implemented Jenkins, which automated the execution of critical regression scripts, providing consistent and reliable feedback to the development team.

Project Outcomes & Measurable Impact

The sustained partnership between SHIFT ASIA and our client has delivered significant improvements in testing efficiency, automation coverage, and overall quality assurance capabilities.

Automation Coverage Transformation

When SHIFT ASIA began the engagement, the client’s automation infrastructure provided approximately 60% coverage of their web-based testing requirements. This coverage was achieved through scripts originally developed by a previous offshore development team, but many of these scripts required significant maintenance and optimization to meet current quality standards.

Progressive Coverage Enhancement

Through systematic script improvement, new automation development, and comprehensive test case design, we have successfully increased automation coverage to 80% of all web-based testing scenarios. This 20-percentage-point improvement represents substantial efficiency gains and reduced reliance on manual testing processes.

Automation Asset Growth

Beyond coverage percentage improvements, the absolute number of automated test scenarios has grown significantly through our new script development processes. We have successfully maintained approximately 200+ existing automation scripts while continuously adding new automated test cases to address emerging product features and business requirements.

Sustainable Long-Term Partnership

The client has made strategic decisions to retain SHIFT ASIA’s automation tools and methodologies as integral components of their quality assurance operations. This long-term adoption demonstrates the value and reliability of our automation framework and represents successful technology transfer and organizational integration.

Continuous Improvement & Support

Our ongoing maintenance and enhancement services ensure that the automation framework evolves with changing business requirements. This continuous support model has enabled the client to focus internal resources on core business activities while maintaining high-quality testing standards.

Strategic Technology Adoption

The client’s decision to standardize on our recommended tools and methodologies across their quality assurance operations represents successful consultation and strategic technology guidance. This adoption extends beyond immediate project needs to influence broader organizational testing practices.

Strategic Value Proposition & Conclusion

The partnership has delivered significant, long-lasting value. The most critical outcome was the successful increase in test automation coverage for their web platform from an initial 60% to a comprehensive 80%. This achievement solidified the platform’s stability and allowed the client to release new versions with greater confidence. The project’s success has cemented a strong, ongoing partnership that has now lasted for over four years, with our team becoming a trusted extension of their QA operations. Looking forward, the client plans to leverage our expertise further by expanding the automation scope to include their native iOS and Android applications.

Key Success Factors

This engagement’s success stems from several critical factors that distinguish SHIFT ASIA’s approach:

• Technical Depth & Adaptability: Our team’s advanced Python automation skills and comprehensive understanding of modern testing frameworks enable us to handle complex technical challenges while adapting to new technologies and requirements.
• Communication Excellence: Direct English/Japanese communication capabilities eliminate common offshore engagement barriers and enable efficient collaboration with client stakeholders at all levels.
• Long-Term Partnership Mindset: Our approach focuses on building sustainable automation solutions and transferring knowledge rather than creating client dependency, resulting in lasting partnerships and mutual success.
• Continuous Innovation: We continuously explore emerging technologies and methodologies to ensure our clients benefit from the latest advances in test automation and quality assurance practices.

Ready to transform your quality assurance operations? Contact SHIFT ASIA today to discover how our test automation expertise can accelerate your development cycles, improve product quality, and provide scalable solutions that grow with your business.