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BOLD SEER OF QUALITY AND CREATOR OF VALUE

Qentinel is a privately owned Finnish company specialising in the quality assurance of IT systems. We are an active developer in our industry and one of the leading players in Finland. We test, measure and improve the quality of IT systems, implementation projects and business processes. We bring assurance to decision-making. With our help, your projects will succeed and you will achieve improved results.
Qentinel is an independent and unbiased protector Quality covering the entire lifecycle of IT systems of customers intereststhe master builder of IT Organisations IT expenses grow continually, time-tosystems.
Our customers are companies who consider the quality of IT systems a key success factor. We are an impartial protector of our customers interests and a trusted partner. We fight against errors, latencies and unnecessary events. Our customers success is our success. market requirements get tougher, but at the same time also higher quality is expected. The amount of testing and quality assurance work grows large, but the amount varies largely over time.

Partner with us to ensure business benefits throughout the entire lifecycle of your IT systemfrom acquisition to production to quality assurance.

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Page 2: News and views on quality assurance Valid measures for estimating financial IT benefits are conspicuous by their absence Deploy Quality Intelligence Six laws of nature in IT system projects Eliminate waste and improve productivity Page 7: Make your IT investments succeed with our quality assurance services Successful Acquisition - Your IT system acquisition will succeed Testing as a Service - The quality of products and the productivity of testing will be improved Service Quality Management - The quality of your ICT services will be measured and improved Page 8: Success stories from our customers Qentinel successfully clinched the Kuntarekry.fi system for ALFRA Qentinel is a flexible testing partner Fennia Mutual Insurance Company relies on Qentinel for ICT service monitoring

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Valid measures for estimating financial IT benefits are conspicuous by their absence

Deploy Quality Intelligence

Have you taken all applicable measures to improve the predictability and steerability of your IT system projects? How can you monitor the progress of these projects in real time?
In order to ensure project success, you need to set up metrics that produce indications of success as early as possible. The metrics must be selected so that they correspond to the capabilities of both the customer and the vendor. Furthermore, the metrics must be understandable for the target group. The data produced by metrics must be utilised actively. When the obtained measurement data is analysed and refined into corrective actions as early as possible, the project is more likely to succeed than it would be with retrospective metrics. This is called Quality Intelligence. Successful measurement requires mastery of the basic processes in IT system projects. The management of requirements, implementation, configuration and release must be at a reproducible level before Quality Intelligence can be utilised. The most significant estimation errors are made in the early phases of a project. It is important to notice that estimates are still somewhat uncertain in the requirements specification and design phases. These margins should be kept in mind when estimating project duration and costs, for example based on business requirements. The main reason causing delays in IT system projects is that the results have been sold up front before having any evidence whatsoever on the actual workload and implementation speed. Pushing development into overdrive will inevitably lead to increasing errors, a bad end product and a burnt-out, quarrelsome organisation. The organisation must be committed and motivated to develop their operations continuously. Risk-based project management aims to avoid the most likely error paths. Instead of focusing on the risks, it is more useful to manage opportunities and uncertainties, actively searching for opportunities for success while also identifying uncertainties and tackling them. Supporting positive thinking motivates and encourages project personnel far better than just analysing the risks. Quality Intelligence stands for interpretation based on measurement data, which aims to maximise the opportunities for success and minimise the ones for failure. At the same time, the capability and maturity of the entire ecosystem develop positively and a culture of continuous improvement is created.

IT systems business benefits are mainly evaluated with indirect and soft methods.
As the organizations IT costs grow, so does the pressure to measure the value they produce. Qentinels recent study IT systems value to business states that few, if any, valid measures for evaluating the benefits. The respondents of this qualitative study told that they measure the profitability of investments by either using the feedback from the users, the activity of using the system, or the problems that have appeared. On the other hand, they also tried to assess the changes the investment brings to the operation, result, or costs. When there is no way to reliably measure the value, many companies measure the costs. But the costs dont tell anything about the benefits the investment brings. The desire to measure and understand value is clearly increased. Although currently the measures are deficient, they do increase understanding, and gradually the measures are also improved. The study points out also that the more important factor IT benefits are seen as the influencer to the organizations success, the better they can be measured. IT and business management see both the value produced by information systems and the methods used in the measuring differently. The respondents who represent IT management were significantly more satisfied in both the value produced by information systems and the methods used in the evaluation. Different organizational roles have different information needs. Measurement results must be presented in a way that is meaningful to the person reviewing the results. 30 business and IT managers from 21 large Finnish companies were interviewed via phone for the IT systems value to business study during the Spring 2012. Please contact us for more information on the study.

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Six laws of nature in IT system projects

leave it up to the vendor to manage it. However, a successful IT system project requires a successful relationship and this can only be achieved by active input from both parties. If this does not happen, there will be an imbalance when the one follows the other. Since it appears IT system projects are defined by a few laws of relationship management, which cannot be repelled, lets spend a few minutes discussing what they are. . One of the cornerstones of a successful IT system acquisition is vendor relationship management. It is very common for a customer to order an IT system project and then

A project worth doing is always uncertain In order for a business venture to have rationale, the value of the outcome must be several times greater than its price. Since most business ventures these days require a unique IT project, it would seem detrimental to plan everything ahead of timelet alone request for tenderswith inflexible conditions. A project worth doing will take longer to realise and cost more than was budgeted initially. Our advice: be prepared to adjust your plans accordingly. Vendor benefits before the customer From the vendors perspective, the benefits of an IT system project become available when the first deliverables are produced and charged for. The customer, on the other hand, benefits as deliverables are put into production in the customers business. The unpolished truth is that charging for projects constitutes the vendors business, and hence the vendor will stay motivated until the project can be charged for. Customer bears a bigger risk than the vendor If an IT system is worth doing, its value to the customer is many times greater than its price to develop it. In practice, the vendors maximum risk is in not receiving the amount invoiced to the customer for delivery, whereas the customers maximum risk is in paying the vendor for the project to market and not receiving the desired benefits. This is a disparity that is fairly immune to elimination through severe sanctions.

Turnkey vendor disclaims responsibility for the entire delivery As it turns out, IT system projects where one system integrator supplies a turnkey solution do not really exist. Any turnkey solution is always based on the customers existing infrastructure, placed in a cloud service or data centre run by a third party, integrated into the customers existing systems and exposed to changes resulting from system updates. Every single IT system project is a multivendor project, and not all vendors are even aware that they are participating in it. Turnkey vendors are quick to deny overall accountability when problems caused by others emerge.

Vendors profit margin comes from changes It is possible to sell a project at a lowor even loss-makingprice, as any project will undergo changes resulting from the customer. The closer you are to the end of the project, the more pricing power the vendor gains. A wise customer plays the game with the vendors tactics. The customer starts off with a minimalist order and at the same time prepares to spend a significant amount of time and money on ordering and supervising changes. What is essential is that any change work is orchestrated and managed by the customer, not the vendor. Key project personnel only care about the project IT system acquisitions are organised as projects, as this has proven to be the most efficient way to carry them out. A project could be defined as a way of organising work within a tight range that lays the foundation for efficiency. A successful IT system project comprises clear goals, remuneration supporting the achievement of the goals and a leader who removes any obstacles. IT system project teams inherently devote their energies to what it says in the project plan in complete disregard for everything else. It is therefore pointless to imagine that IT system projects would observe future requirements, stakeholders or any other external hindrances. In a well-organised IT system project, there is literally no incentive to consider any of these things. This applies both to the vendor and the customers personnel.

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Eliminate waste and improve productivity

Quality and productivity have a lot in common. Both are familiar words, hard to define and measure definitively, and yet they share an obvious connection.
In the software business, productivity is often mistaken for efficiency or cheap price. If you increase the efficiency of bad work, you get bad results more efficiently. If you haggle the price of bad work, you get bad results more cheaply. In neither case do you improve productivity. There are two ways in which testers approach the issue of productivity. First, they see more clearly than anyone else the extent to which inputs are wasted in system development. Second, they work under constant pressure to be productive, as testing is always regarded as too expensive and lasting too long. The development of IT systems produces vast amounts of process waste. According to testers, the origins of this waste can often be traced all the way back to requirements specification. Requirements specification is bloated with an enormous amount of features, even though not all of them are necessary. The absolute key to a successful IT system project is having the right wants. Perfecting the quality of requirements and validating their implementability and meaning to business constitute quality assurance at its cheapest. The resulting impact on productivity and quality can prove to be incredibly strong. In our experience, less is almost always more in the end. Another type of waste testers often talk about is doing things all over again, referred to as rework. In a usual IT system project, testing is repeated multiple times simply because the same errors are fixed incorrectly more than once. Achieving a high-quality end result requires that the verification rate of fixes increases, while at the same time the refix rate remains constant or even decreases. The third type of waste is not a subject often brought up by testers, as it is the waste they themselves produce, known as testing waste. All testers have spent a major chunk of their lives wondering why nothing works and waiting for something that works enough to be tested. On the other hand, testing itself can be performed unproductively either by not planning ahead or by focusing on nonessentials. The more waste an IT system project produces and the more late it is, the more likely it is that testing will be performed in a hurry, with a large number of people involved. The productivity of a large group of people panicking under pressure is almost always much weaker than that of a small group working systematically. Professional testers know their work, focus on the essentials, avoid unnecessary measures, use equipment skilfully and automate what can be automated. A team of professionals works productively if their work is well organised and managed. When it comes to iterative test activities with a longterm effect, a professional team is able to improve productivity dramatically, for example, by means of test automation. Nevertheless, the most significant productivity benefit of professional testing does not lie in the actual testing but in the data it produces. Professional test data, Quality Intelligence, is up-to-date, accurate and presented in accordance with the decision-makers information needs. When quality is assured by professionals, project and business management are able to make the right decisions at the right time.

Make your IT investment succeed with our quality assurance services

Successful Acquisition Your IT system acquisition correctly and work efficiently. The true level of quality is will succeed
determined quickly and any issues can be resolved in time. The test team is always the right size and performs only Successful Acquisition ensures the benefits of IT system necessary tasks. Ever-growing test data and systematic investments. Success relies on four simple principles: automation improve profitability continuously. Right Wants, Right Choices, Right Controls and Right Tests. Our competent Successful Acquisition team will help you transform your business requirements into Service Quality Management The quality of your system requirements, choose the right vendors, control ICT services will be measured and improved the quality of the implementation project and ensure successful deployment. Service Quality Management is a solution to the challenges of ICT service level management. Qentinels monitoring solution provides an up-to-date view on the state of ICT Testing as a Service The quality of products and services on a single screen, either from the point of view the productivity of testing will be improved of business processes, architecture or geographical location. Any issues can be detected with one look and Testing as a Service improves the quality of products and their root causes can be peeled down to the very last the reliability of testing. A professional, well-managed test layer. Our consultants will help you predict and tackle any team that knows the product can allocate their resources issues and improve your systems service ability.

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Success stories from our customers

Qentinel successfully clinched the Kuntarekry.fi system for AFLRA
The membership of the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities (ALFRA) consists of the towns and municipalities in Finland. The Association also provides services to hospital districts, regional councils and joint authorities. The objective is a viable municipality that will ensure the wellbeing of its residents and their opportunities for participation also in the future. The Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities (AFLRA) acquired the Kuntarekry.fi system in order to obtain a nationwide, browser-based recruitment solution for all Finnish municipalities. AFLRA wanted to team up with an independent expert who was able to help with the tender process as well as evaluating the acceptance test plan and ensuing results, making sure that the system met the necessary requirements. I can truly recommend using an independent auditor to anyone. Qentinel helped us ensure that we were getting exactly what we wanted, says Tuula Nurminen, currently Managing Director of KL-Kuntarekry Oy, who was in charge of the project. AFLRA chose Qentinel to ensure the successful acquisition of the recruitment system simply because they wanted the opinion of an experienced, impartial actor who would help achieve the desired outcome of the project and assist in the selection of the system vendor and schedule planning. After the tender process, Qentinel undertook reviewing the acceptance test plan and ensuing results. Towards the end of the project, Qentinel performed acceptance testing for the selected business-critical functionalities.

This is how AFLRA benefitted from the cooperation: An impartial view on the selection of the system vendor as well as answers to remaining questions Correlation between the critical functionalities of the recruitment system and AFLRAs requirements Timely deployment of the recruitment system Best practices to support project success Improvement suggestions to enhance service usability Common ground rules to help the customer and system vendor throughout the project

Fennia Mutual Insurance Company relies on Qentinel for ICT service monitoring
Fennia Mutual Insurance Company is owned by its clients. Fennia belongs to the Fennia Group, which invests in multichannel customer service. Clients can choose personal contact by phone or face to face or use the online services. Fennia has over 60 offices offering services to clients all over Finland. One of Fennias values is high-quality customer service. For years Fennia Mutual Insurance Company has entrusted Qentinel with ICT service level management as well as ensuring the reliability and development of Fennias ICT services. Thanks to comprehensive monitoring, we dont need to take just in case measures, and this has led to cost savings, says Elina Kotilainen, Director of IT services at Fennia. Monitoring produces facts that help bring up the right issues with vendors, business operations and IT specialists. For years Fennia Mutual Insurance Company has entrusted Qentinel with ICT service level management as well as ensuring the reliability and development of Fennias ICT services. Monitoring covers the entire ICT environment. Service level monitoring has enabled adding more focus to the development of Fennias ICT services, particularly with regard to capacity planning. In addition to continuous service level monitoring, Qentinel has provided Fennia with several different reports and surveys on a case-by-case basis. Qentinels services have also been used to enhance cooperation with vendors. Quality objectives have been defined for ICT services and service providers, and reports produced through service level monitoring have been offered to Fennias vendors. This is how Fennia is benefitting from the cooperation: Single tool that ensures both ICT service reliability and comprehensive basic monitoring Clear visual view of service level with automatic error messages Fast problem-solving through effortless fault isolation and allocation to the responsible party Support and facts for improving the management of ICT service providers Avoidance of unnecessary proactive costs through improved capacity management Facts for both decision-making and dialogue with business operations and IT specialists

Qentinel is a flexible testing partner

Wincor Nixdorf is an international provider of IT solutions, consultancy and services to retail sales and banking industries. In the spring of 2009, the companys Finnish subsidiary outsourced all testing operations to Qentinel. The companys operational manager Ismo Kurri says that Wincor Nixdorf began cooperating with Qentinel because they needed high quality testing services that would lead to higher quality software for customers. Now we have reached this goal. Testing operations are well defned and planned. We know that our cooperation has been successful because now we have a better understanding of the quality of the software we deliver to our customers. Kurri sees Qentinel as a fexible partner that has been able to meet the changing situations and needs. At the moment, Qentinel is an important testing consultant and resource buffer for us. Our cooperation has continued splendidly on these bases. An outside, testing-focused quality assurance provider can offer profound skills and views that support developing the companys own operations, Kurri says. This is how Wincor Nixdorf benefitted from the cooperation: Improved quality of testing operations Higher software quality for customers In-depth competence and understanding that support the development of the companys operations

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