Suunto – Reliable Quality Assurance at Night Shift
Good critical testing data.
Suunto develops watches and services for supporting active lifestyle. Software development work takes place in Finland, but quality assurance in China. Operations across the globe intertwine perfectly: software that is programmed during the day in Finland, is tested overnight in Chengdu China, and the quality assurance report can be found in the developers’ email next morning.
Quality assurance is provided by Symbio’s Adaptive Quality Assurance service and ”Follow the Sun” model. The cooperation between Symbio and Suunto began in December 2015.
“The Chengdu team has become a significant part of our development efforts. We get clear reports about relevant problems and good solutions to the problems. When all this happens overnight, the service is really high quality and fast, ”says Petri Lehtovirta, Head of Consumer Software, CDDS, Amer Sports.
According to Lehtovirta, Symbio plays a vital role in Suunto’s software development, as the Chinese testing team enables Suunto to release daily versions.
“We have reached a cost-effective situation where we only release software that for sure works on different devices. The improvement in absolute quality is reflected in customer satisfaction, ”says Lehtovirta.
Good Critical Testing Data
In Suunto’s diverse ecosystem of devices and services, the challenge is the compatibility of all other device manufacturers, which is especially emphasized in mobile applications.
“The Chengdu team is running tests with 40 Suunto devices. In addition to testing the new software versions, the Chinese team also ensures that the bugs found have been fixed, ”says Petri Lehtovirta.
Chengdu’s quality assurance team is well integrated into Suunto’s own business and is part of the Suunto team. Round-the-clock operations have stabilized Suunto’s publishing cycle and helped developers focus on the right things.
“We are now better able to predict when versions will be ready for release. Symbio’s testing team in China is professional, self-sufficient, and each of them gives a lot of themselves. We have received more than we have even been able to order, ”says Lehtovirta.
Unique Understanding in the Chinese Market
Suunto’s quality assurance palette consists of many components, such as Symbio’s test automation, data coming directly from the field as customer feedback, and input from the Chengdu team.
“Symbio’s Adaptive QA service is easy to purchase, and in the future, we would like all compatibility testing from Symbio as a testing service. We are developing our cooperation together with Symbio and I believe that it will expand even more in the future. ”
The Chinese team has also helped Suunto localize its products to the Chinese market. “They have reviewed the language support, and how our products work in Chinese devices, and how the Chinese users experience our products. We would not be able to do this ourselves”, says Petri Lehtovirta of Amer Sports.
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