- Oct 14, 2019
- 4 min read

Friends shouldn’t go into business, right?

An article about software testers. It’s enough to fill you with dread, right? Not this one.

Picture five friends in a New York coffee shop. No, wait. Picture five friends in the software testing industry who loved what they were doing; providing stellar software testing services, with a passion for customer service.

Cinq Amis was born. And, because we value long-term relationship building as much as the work we do, we’re very selective about who we partner with. Like Afferent!

We’re pleased as punch to have joined their reseller Afferent Partnership Programme as a platinum service provider for a very unique service (more about that later). So, that’s the now. More of the then…

In the beginning there was… software testing

Pre-Cinq Amis, our directors worked in many different areas of software testing. One thing was clear though, it wasn’t always as smooth a process as we knew it could be. We saw skills gaps in teams. Testers were siloed off to the dark recesses of businesses. There was a LOT of process.

But we loved what we were doing, dammit. We wanted to be in the light. Banging the drum for innovative testing, not just throwing people at the problem (that would hurt).

Our collective experiences started to morph into a hive mind when we all sat down and thought, why not? Let’s do it ourselves.

We knew that we wanted to revolutionise testing for the client’s benefit. Not just hit-and-run testers that will work with anyone.

Cinq Amis was formed so we could build relationships for the long-term. Testing doesn’t have to be faceless, boring and corporate. It can be five friends, becoming directors, doing what they love with clients that keep coming back because we save them money, speed up results and routes to market, and much more.

From small technical changes through to major infrastructure renewal programmes, we’re committed to our client’s success and constant deepening of change knowledge.

Which is why we’ll later expand on our revolutionary automated testing. We’re going to (bold claim alert) usher in a modern era of very specific ATM testing to push forward using less resources and less time. We want to guide clients through a changing financial services landscape that needs to break the old rules with new tools. But before we do…

What do our clients say?

It would be churlish of us not to have collected some opinions along the way. Otherwise, it’s just us trumpet blowing, right? We think this sums us up perfectly.

‘The founders of Cinq Amis are in my opinion the perfect example of a team. Every one of them is dedicated, professional and very good at what they do. Most importantly though they are extremely nice people and make even the most challenging of implementations fun.’

We wanted to ensure that everything we’ve worked towards, like automated testing, meeting complex business challenges and problem-solving for enterprise or smaller businesses is kept going with the next generation. And, most importantly an opportunity to shape a nascent tester for them to be an integral part of our close-knit teams.

“So what exactly do you do?”

Thanks for asking. We’ve got the us bit out of the way. Now it’s time for the what. We’ve talked about software testing in the abstract, and happy clients, but here’s some solid rationale behind Cinq Amis’s trajectory.

Using UFT & QTP, Leapworks, QC, Jira, Confluence (Atlassian suite) Loadrunner, Jmeter and Webserver Stress tool (to name but a few), we’ve got solid experience across the Retail and Banking sectors. We use agile, waterfall, iterative and bespoke methodologies to define test strategies based on fiscal and time challenges. And, we upskill your teams and existing resources for a safe, measurable exit strategy.

You don’t have to be an enterprise giant or investment bankrolled disruptor.

You just have to want the best QA for your testing cycles. We can work to a phased delivery schedule and roll out pragmatic solutions. We can work within challenging environments and within strict timelines and budgets. We can do it all.

Define & Implement testing environments
Oversee the management & governance of testing delivery against an agreed plan
Manage & initiate escalation when required – ensure the smooth transition from testing into ongoing support and delivery
Stakeholder and client management throughout the test phases, while providing high levels of personal support during the testing activity
Manage and develop multiple teams to a high standard & high productivity, across multiple challenging programmes of work
Define and Implement successful training career pathways and processes for each team member
Drive governance and management of the overall end to end test processes, refining and streamlining at every point possible (including test automation)
Introduction of significant strategic cost-saving efficiencies including Test Automation.

You get a QA point for that

Test Automation. A smooth segue into the big reveal. Our new partnership? Revolutionary new service? Reassurance for Quality Assurance on projects of any size? Cinq Amis and Afferent have joined forces to start an ATM testing revolution. Because, every revolutionary party needs its allies.

With dedicated ATM testing services, we can test instantly with automation that doesn’t require cards or notes. We’ll help you swiftly move on from human error, lack of specialist skills and the shackles of time restrictions. We’re 24/7 switched on.

But, even with all our skills, knowledge and abundance of affability, we needed the right tools. We needed a software partner that would match our ambition and help us seamlessly move through our carefully defined testing cycles.

Afferent’s RapidFire software suite helps us speed up routes to market (essential in today’s ‘cashless society’). They provide modern, user-friendly end-to-end payment testing solutions. Like us, they’re cost-effective, but have a powerful product (enabling our powerful services) and are game-changing in reducing test cost and project times.

In a software testing nutshell…

We’re a close-knit team with an innovative culture. Cinq Amis works collaboratively with internal or external teams on testing projects of any size. We’re super-nice, super-professional and with partners like Afferent, super-equipped to start testing revolutions.