What guarantees do you provide for the quality of the written software?

 
All our programmers must follow strict internal procedures and guidelines when working on software outsourcing projects. For example, when it comes to database projects we write automatic programs that deal with all the aspects of the logic. (database normalization, integrity, etc.).

Delivering outstanding quality at affordable rates is AROBS' main goal. We do our best to ensure that the client gets a bug-free software. Furthermore, we provide support for our software for the time agreed upon in the contract (usually three to six months). This warranty offers the customer the opportunity to use the software in the field and report any potential problems to us. We guarantee that we will solve all of them in the shortest time possible. Over the entire warranty period, AROBS will fix any glitches in the software that are not related to inappropriate usage. Any failures owed to the improper use of the product can also be fixed for the price specified in the contract. Upon the expiration of the warranty period, the client can have it extended for the sum previously agreed upon.

During the support period, AROBS fixes the problems within the agreed response time (normally no more than one working day).

What strategy does AROBS employ to ensure quality in its services?

 
We regard quality as the most important aspect of our activities. Hence, we take all the necessary steps to ensure we deliver products of the highest quality possible. To do so, we rely on a testing department which we can scale up or down, based on customer requirements. We are committed to providing you with a bug free code. This is not an easy feat, but our experience with software development projects and the high involvement of the management team produced excellent results over time, leaving our customers highly satisfied.

How does AROBS monitor the quality of the services being provided?

To monitor the quality of our services we rely on:

• Regular customer feedback, done on a weekly basis for long term projects and more often for small projects. The feedback allows us to identify any potential departures from our quality standards in their infancy and to swiftly correct the problems
• Code reviews, done by senior members of the team as often as necessary.
  Daily scrum meetings of the project team to take incremental corrective actions to ensure quality remains on track.
• Rigorous manual and / or automated application testing.

How does AROBS address customer concerns on the service quality, when such concerns occur?

The periodic customer surveys we conduct enable us to predict potential concerns before they escalate into serious problems. The moment we foresee a potential problem with our service quality we take preventative actions based on the collected customer inputs. These actions include:

• ensuring the company communication protocols have been used properly;
• identifying potential errors in requirement interpretation;
• identifying any skill mismatches for the specialists allocated to the project;
• solving confirmed skill mismatches by cross training, with the participation of AROBS specialists not directly involved in the project or of independent consultants.

If concerns escalate into real problems we take corrective actions, which include addressing the resource allocation issue and adjusting communication protocols.

Is your company experienced with Service Level Agreements (SLA)? If so, are SLAs used in client environment?

Our partnerships with a significant number of software houses that are proficient with SLAs taught us excellent lessons on this issue.

To properly address the issue of product quality we work closely with the various members of our customer's team and define together service delivery expectations.  Based on the specific business objectives the service / solution commissioned to us would support, we choose the performance criteria for their matching service delivery components.  The SLA thus defined and continually refined will be used to measure the service / product quality throughout the cooperation.  Such a negotiated agreement creates a common understanding about services, priorities and responsibilities.  

Preparing SLAs is a resource intensive and long term process, taking anywhere from 2 to 4 months, which makes us limit their use to long term projects and partners.

Our SLAs incorporate service elements and management elements.

The service elements defines customer expectations by communicating such things as:

• the services provided;
• service standards, such as the time-frames within which services will be provided;
• conditions of service availability;
• the responsibilities of both parties;
• cost versus service tradeoffs;
• escalation procedures.

The management elements focus on such things as:

• how service effectiveness will be measured (the metrics used);
• how information about service effectiveness will be reported and addressed;
• how service-related disagreements will be resolved;
• how the parties will review and revise the agreement.

Sample SLA:

A) Availability of the services offered

• the services provided will be available 24 hours day, 7 days a week with the following exceptions:
  • scheduled releases that affect the back-end services,
  • service interruptions for emergency fixes and unscheduled outages. While the unpredictable nature of such occurrences makes it impossible to specify the exact outage duration, due diligence will be taken to resolve them in a timely manner.

B) Performance of the services offered

• the services offered will be available to end users via the mobile application
• response times will be such as to make the application usable over GPRS and WiFi

C) Available support and means for problem reporting

The end user support for application usage will include self-service via help pages such as Wikis and recorded tutorials available online. There would be no phone support provided for questions regarding application usage.

D) Problem resolution response time

• email support will be available outside business hours
• if agreed, server support will be provided 24x7
• based on the priority of the issue, we suggest the following issue types:
  • critical: service outage or a major application problem making it impossible to use the service
  • major: a big number of users is affected
  • normal: a workaround exists
  • low: no impact on users, a request for a new feature might be created

E) Quality metrics for the services offered

Quality metrics are used to continuously evaluate the quality of the services offered and to determine if an architectural or infrastructure change is required or additional resources are needed.

• Excellent / Good / Poor
• Availability: 99% - Excellent / Over 97% - Good / Less 97% - Poor
• Performance: based on response times
• Issue resolution: More than 99% critical and major issues resolved in 1 business day - Excellent / Over 92% - Good / Less than 92% - Poor