QA and test automation
Tankar sets up and runs testing for products built by anyone, including your own team. That covers a written test strategy, automated tests at the levels where they pay off, a CI pipeline that blocks a broken build, and exploratory and manual testing for the things automation misses. Where a product has no tests at all, the first job is to establish what it does today before adding anything.
Tests that reflect risk
A test suite is worth what it prevents. The strategy starts from the flows that cost money when they fail and the incidents that already happened, then decides which level of test catches each one most cheaply.
Green means green
A suite that fails intermittently gets ignored, and an ignored suite is a maintenance cost with no benefit. Flaky tests are treated as defects in the suite and are fixed or removed.
Where a person is still better
Exploratory testing, usability and accessibility checks are done by hand, because they need judgement. Automation takes the repetition so the QA engineer has time for the rest.
Typical engagements
What this service usually produces, as deliverables rather than adjectives.
- A test strategy and coverage plan for an existing product, with the gaps ranked by risk
- An automated end-to-end suite for the flows that lose money when they break
- API and contract tests wired into a CI pipeline that blocks a failing merge
- Mobile test automation on real devices for Android and iOS releases
- Performance and load testing against an agreed peak, with a written report
- A QA engineer embedded in your team for a release cycle or a period
How it runs
The stages this service goes through, and what you see at each one.
Assessment
What the product does, what breaks in production, what is already tested, and where a test would have caught the last three incidents. Written estimate within 48 hours of the scoped call.
The written estimate follows within 48 hours of the scoped call.
Strategy
Which checks belong at unit, API and browser level, what stays manual, what the pipeline blocks on, and how flaky tests are handled.
Build
Tests written against the highest-risk flows first, with test data and environments set up so the suite can run unattended.
Integrate
The suite runs on every pull request and on a schedule, with results reported where the team already looks.
Release testing
A QA pass on each release candidate, exploratory testing around the change, and a written report before sign-off.
Maintain
The suite is kept green. A test that fails intermittently is fixed or removed, because a suite people ignore is worse than no suite.
- Team shape
- A QA engineer who owns the strategy and the suite, with a second engineer for automation build-out, working alongside your developers rather than after them.
Stack for this service
The technologies this work is usually built on, and why each one is used here.
| Technology | Why we use it here |
|---|---|
| Playwright | One browser automation tool for Chromium, Firefox and WebKit, with tracing that shows why a test failed instead of just that it did. |
| Vitest and Jest | Fast unit and integration tests that run in seconds, which is what keeps developers running them. |
| Appium | Real-device testing for Android and iOS builds where a simulator does not represent the phones your users have. |
| k6 | Load tests written as code and run in CI, so a performance budget is checked rather than remembered. |
| GitHub Actions | The suite runs on every pull request in the same place the code is reviewed, so a failure blocks the merge. |
Selected work
Case studies where this service carried the engagement. Only outcomes with a source are shown.
Own productGovernment and public sectorTenderBazaar: tender discovery and alerts for Indian SMEs
A tender discovery platform that collects listings from central, state and municipal portals into one searchable feed with daily alerts.Services: SaaS product development, Mobile app development and 1 moreRead the case study
Anonymised clientRetail and e-commerceA multi-vendor marketplace with vendor self-service and compliant invoicing
A marketplace where vendors onboard themselves, list and price their own stock, and are paid out against a commission engine with GST-compliant invoices.Services: E-commerce and marketplace development, Custom software development and 1 moreRead the case study
Engagement models that fit
An assessment and strategy is usually fixed price; building and running a suite works better on time and materials or as an embedded QA engineer.
- Fixed priceA defined scope with a clear end state: an MVP, a website, a well-specified module or an integration.
- Time and materialsEvolving products, research-heavy work such as AI features, and engagements where the backlog is set sprint by sprint.
- Dedicated teamOngoing product development where you want engineers who know the codebase and stay on it, working as an extension of your own team.
- Retainer and supportLive products that need maintenance, monitoring, small improvements and a response commitment after launch.
Questions buyers ask
What buyers ask most about this service, answered before the first call.
Tell us what you are building.
NDA on request. Written estimate within 48 hours of a scoped call. Reply within one business day.