For me, transparancy is
one of the most important characteristics a SaaS company or other
cloud company (IaaS, PaaS) must have to survive in the current world.
A customer relies 24/7 on
the SaaS solution and when something goes wrong (server down,
security breach etc.) a customer should be informed immediately so he
can adapt to it and hopefully don't loose too much time and money
when the SaaS solution is down.
So when I read the tweet
by AFAS Software CEO Bas van der Veldt that transparancy is great
when you have nothing to hide and AFAS likes transparancy, I made a
bold move.
I tweeted back that I want
to test that. Promptly I got a tweet back with an invitation to do
just that.
But as a SaaS software
tester I was really interested in how AFAS deals with traceability,
which was also interesting for Mr van der Veldt, so he invited me to
come over.
Within a few days
arrangements were made and I was invited on Friday 15 February to see
how Testing&Development was done at AFAS in a transparant way.
After a nice drive through
the Dutch 'hills' (Utrechtse Heuvelrug) I arrived at AFAS.
At arrival in the
reception it became clear to me automation was a key process here.
The AFAS reception
welcomed me and guided me to a registration unit where I could
register myself. Pretty fancy stuff with an automated photocamera to
take mugshots (not so fancy :-) ) and a SMS-service telling my host I
arrived.
Within minutes my host
arrived: Martijn Wouter, teamlead test.
After a brief introduction
I was given an elaborate tour through the AFAS building seeing the
different departments development, test and support and the inhouse
server room. A nice thing to see was the AFAS Usability Lab where it
explores through cameras and special software how customers realtime
use its software and register the results for future use.
Martijn introduced me to
his team and explained the different roles the team members have.
As a professionally
educated tester it struck me most testers came from other divisions
of AFAS ready to use their knowledge and also eager to learn testing by certifying and visiting workshops.
I see it as a way of
exploratory testing, using your skills as a domain tester testing new software, doing testspecification and execution at the same time. The last is not simultaneously at AFAS, which
is no problem, software is rated high by its clients.
is no problem, software is rated high by its clients.
Another thing intrigued
me: most SaaS-companies work via the agile methodology in small
interdisciplinary teams. Martijn explained to me AFAS still uses the
waterfall method, but because of the short line development&testing
is still moving in a fast pace with the documentation department.
Also with the client because of the direct incident system (including
automated dashboards).
Next to this, inhouse
developed test automation tools speed up tests and ensure test
coverage.
Clients are very important
to AFAS and AFAS sees to it they are satisfied through the already
mentioned Usability lab, the AFAS Theater product and knowledge
presentations (SEPA!), an online transparant annual report and
special online client and partner dossiers. Traceability meets
automation!
Employees are also
important for AFAS: during breaks they can play table soccer, spent
time in the gym or eat lunch/dinner at the company restaurant.
It was a great Friday
afternoon at AFAS. I hereby want to thank AFAS for the opportunity
they gave me to have a look into the kitchen of a successfull SaaS
company.
