Just to continue the topic of successful outsourcing to Ukraine, I would like to mention that very often software development companies prefer to develop their mobile games, applications, security systems or whatever inhouse. Then they finish the development process… Finally! Here we go! The developers deliver a product to their managers and rush to get involved into the new tasks…

End of story? Oh no!

In a week these developers are very surprised when their Big Boss arrives to their office and waving his mobile phone demands:

‘Hey, who can tell me how to quit this stupid menu?! I cannot get to the next level of the game you released last week!’

…Silence.

On this stage this is very painful for the developers to check, if everything works properly and which part of the programme is going to fail when being used a lot.

Yet, there is a solution! This solution is outsourcing which is the most helpful tool to be sure that end users will be happy with your programme. Thus several years ago after the 5th external request ‘please, just check whether there are any bugs in our software’, QArea have started to run a separate testing lab. At the moment QArea even has standart scenario of the game called ‘Long-term cooperation’.

Level 1. A client doesn’t want to disclosure any scripts and source code, so the first request is usually ‘black box’ testing. Apart from bug tracking this also involves usability, playability, consulting upon design issues. Several very accurate bug reports and we get to…

Level 2. A customer feels like to continue with ‘white box’ testing and deeper analysis of the programme. When checking any application from inside, testers can predict the ‘behaviour’ of this software in different situations, its security and endurance. As soon as our testers also fix all the bugs they enter the…

Level 3. Most of the companies after this 2 Levels of testing each other entrust their project development to our engineers as well.

End of the game? Oh no! We get into…

Win-win situation!

If you want to play this game with me, click here.

About Steve Ives

Steve Ives is a founder and CEO of Jamtap Ltd, a Cambridge, UK-based startup company working in the field of mobile search. Between 2000 and 2004 Steve was founder and CEO at Trigenix Ltd, a pioneer and leading innovator in the field of mobile user interfaces. After its recent acquisition by Qualcomm Inc, Trigenix technology now powers the user interfaces of many of the latest 3G handsets being launched into the consumer market.

After a very successful story of cooperation between Trigenix and QArea, Steve came back to our team with his new ideas for startup company Jamtap Ltd.

One beautiful Ukrainian evening I had a chance to get Steve’s interview in an exotic Kharkiv restaurant of Caucasian cuisine called ‘Bukhara’.

Just imagine, we enter a glass dome and get into the room with concrete sofas and bright cushions… we are served by probably the best waiter in the world, the boy is speaking perfect English and offers really high level of service and attention, so that whatever we wish, comes immediately… These are spicy salads and meat wrapped in grape leaves, Georgian wine and Uzbek desserts… Funny enough, we find it an excellent place to talk about Ukraine and IT industry.

- Steve, everyone is extremely curious to know what is your new business and your current objectives.  

We are creating a new kind of search engine for mobile users. A search engine which finds content which is relevant and actionable from a mobile device. Our long term objective is to build a large community of mobile users who find this service valuable enough to use every day, which will also become an attractive proposition for advertisers.

- What is your background? Can you define the milestones of your life?

Actually I am a biochemist by training, but created my first IT startup business back in London in 1984. This came after a three year period in the US, where I studied for my MBA at Wharton and worked as a management consultant for Strategic Planning Associates in Washington DC. Since I’ve got an experience of serial entrepreneur, either as a founder or non-executive advisor. The last one was Trigenix, a mobile user interface developer based in Cambridge, UK which was acquired by Qualcomm at the end of 2004.

- How did you get in touch with QArea and when did it happen?

One of our developers at Trigenix used to work for QArea, and recommended their testing services to our CTO in late 2002. So we tried them out, and were very pleasantly surprised by their care and attention to detail and of course the very competitive rates.

- How did you start to outsource your projects and what did attract you to do so?

Software testing was always slightly challenging for us to manage because the activity was not constant but had specific peaks as we approached the end of a software release cycle. So once we found a reliable and trusted testing partner, it was natural to build long-term relationship.

- Are there any interesting memories which Trigenix team has after work with QArea?

The partnership really opened my eyes to the efficiencies of outsourcing specific activities! Before, I had always felt it was best to build integrated development teams with everything on a single site, to maximize the bandwidth of human communication within the teams.

- QArea team is very happy to continue with you, what are the strongest sides of QArea testing lab?

My perception is that in Ukraine, some of your most intelligent people are interested in doing testing work and are motivated to do it very well. This is very hard to sustain in the West, where the best and brightest are always looking to get out of testing. This contributes to testing becoming an under-appreciated and under-resourced part of the software development process.

- What did you expect to see in Ukraine before you came here?

I really didn’t know what to expect! I had traveled earlier this year in Estonia, so had some feeling for life in a former Soviet republic, but Estonia is really much closer to Scandinavia than to Russia now.

Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman visited Kiev and Ukraine on their round-the-world bike ride, which I watched on British television. Apart from that my only other background expectations were shaped by spy novels like The Russia House!

- What are your main impressions of Ukraine? Please be frank!

Very warm-hearted and slightly shy people. Terrible roads with many potholes. Beautiful gold-domed churches in Kiev. Soviet-era Volga and Lada taxis where the driver doesn’t always bother to fix a cracked windscreen. Strong female personalities: Ruslana, Julia Tymoschenko… And a great depth of culture and history.

- What has surprised you in Ukraine the most?

The vitality of Kiev. There is a real sense of re-generation and my feeling from looking around me that (some) people are beginning to make and spend a lot of money. So it appears that things are moving on quickly from the Soviet era.

- What do you like about Ukraine the most?

The intelligence, the attitude and the creativity of young people, who will be the future of Ukraine. These features I see in Max Garkavtsev, the founder of QArea as well as in its development team. I think that such people are also founders of new Ukrainian culture.

You have visited many Ukrainian attractions. After this first visit your ideas:

- What is the most beautiful in Ukraine?

St. Michael’s Golden Domed Cathedral, Kiev (See picture on the top!)

- What is the most tasty in Ukraine?

I know this is not an exotic dish, but I love the borsch (beetroot version).

- What is the most stylish in Ukraine?

Bukhara restaurant, Kharkiv.

- What is the most unusual in Ukraine?

- Syadristy Microart exhibition in Kiev.

- What are the main differences between Ukraine and the UK?

In favour of the UK: Personal income and consumption levels, quality of infrastructure (roads, transportation, public areas in buildings),

In favour of Ukraine: Low income combined with high education attainment makes Ukraine highly competitive in certain knowledge-based activities e.g. software development and testing

- Why do you think that Ukraine is the best place for outsourcing?

See above!

- What does differ Ukrainian people from Western Europeans?

I have only visited once, in Kiev and Kharkiv and met people from only one company so I can only claim a surface impression. Ukrainian people have had to live with much less than Western Europeans, so they can achieve great results with what seem to us to be limited resources. It seemed to me that young Ukrainians (most of the people I met were in their mid 20s) are less selfish and more sincere than the average Western Europeans. Perhaps because of all the years of Soviet oppression they sometimes idealise the West, and maybe don’t appreciate some of the negative aspects of our countries and cultures.

- How would you describe the development of business in Ukraine?

The market economy is growing but young. Some skills e.g. marketing, international sales were not needed in Soviet times and have only recently started to develop. There are big gaps and opportunities for entrepreneurs. For example, reasonably priced, good quality hotels are very thin on the ground.

- What kinds of business will be the most successful in our country?

Industrial businesses like car production, because Ukraine has good engineers and can access both Russian and European markets. Knowledge-based businesses like software development, because there is a large talent pool of educated software engineers, combined with relatively cheap Internet connections.

- Soon you will visit us again! What dreams do you have about your next visit? What would you like to do/ see/ experience here next time?

Such a personal question!

Weekend. Independence square – main square in Kiev.

If you ever come to Ukraine – your heart will become a resident of our country.

This year I was happy to see Stephen Ives, ex-CEO of well-known company Trigenix for the first time. That happened at 3GSM in hot Barcelona in February and the description of that legendary meeting you can see here.

I say ‘legendary’ because since February Steve has been visiting Ukraine every month and became the most frequent foreign guest in QArea office. He is also very much beloved guest, because his trips to Ukraine always become legendary events for the whole development team of QArea, due to Steve’s natural attention to people and positive mood.

On his turn Steve also is excited when he comes to our country. First of all he is very much interested in progress of his business on our side, second, Steve says that each trip to Ukraine is very cognitive for him. For example due to the first challenge – lesson of Russian language I gave Steve in the plane on our way from Kiev to Kharkiv, Steve has started learning our language.

 (Extreme lesson of Russian in the plane was very efficient!) 

Also Steve visited the most important historical attractions in Kiev like Sofia Kyivska, St. Michael’s Golden Domed Cathedral (see picture on the top of the page), ancient Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, museums; best restaurants and… I will not tell you more, you should definitely see Kiev yourself!

As for Steve’s main travel destination – Kharkiv, where QArea headquaters are located, this city doesn’t have many magnificent churches and ‘hot’ places to attract tourists… However Steve was impressed with prices in Kharkiv which are 2 or 3 times lower than in Kiev! After 3 more days in our place Steve concluded that it’s very wise to base QArea in a place with quite reasonable prices, developed IT industry and 5 universities which prepare hundreds of software developers every year.

Other impressions and perfect introduction to Ukraine by Stephen Ives in the next posting!

Today I start my MaidenUkraine blog. It will be devoted to beautiful Ukraine and best things made here. What do you think it is? Maidens? No, of course I mean exciting mobile games, high-level software outsourcing services and best engineers… You will even find a hint about certain place to find all those things. :)

People who have never visited Ukraine have too many questions about our country. I will be very grateful, if you express YOUR questions, so that I am not limited with my own fantasy.

To make this blog open for fresh ideas, I will be posting interviews with businessmen from different countries, who have expanded their business to Ukraine. If you are one of them, please contact me and tell me WHY?

Maiden Ukraine welcomes you!