Reducing the cost of testing with a risk-focused strategy

About BigChange

BigChange provides all-in-one job management for thousands of field service businesses. Its mobile app is used by field service engineers and provides a suite of tools to drive productivity in the field.

The engagement

I was engaged by BigChange to support their mobile app development team. They needed guidance to improve agile ways of working and engineering practices within the team, enabling them to deliver high-quality outcomes at pace.

The challenge

Product and engineering leadership perceived that mobile delivery was slower than other teams, making it difficult to develop features and deliver business value on schedule.

One major bottleneck was the release cycle. Mobile releases were happening only every 3–6 months, with each cycle requiring a 2+ week manual regression test. This process needed streamlining to support faster, more frequent releases without increasing business risk.

The solution

I focused on both immediate improvements and long-term strategy:

• Embedded within the team as interim technical lead, I built trust and assessed challenges.
• Mapped existing quality gates (code reviews, automated tests, manual testing, phased rollouts).
• Collaborated with stakeholders (Product Leaders, Release & Reliability Managers, Quality Engineers, Developers) to understand risk tolerance and testing concerns.

Key insights

• Regression testing rarely found critical issues - only minor bugs, often affecting internal test users.
• Release & Reliability wanted smaller, more frequent releases to reduce risk.
• The Quality Engineer had already designed a 1–2 day condensed test pack but struggled to gain buy-in.
• The Development team was highly risk-averse, relying on exhaustive regression testing for confidence.

The new approach

We reframed testing around risk rather than habit:

1. Workshopped with Product & QA to define high-risk areas, i.e., where failures could damage reputation, disrupt service, or require executive intervention.
2. Aligned quality gates to these risks, ensuring critical areas were tested without over-investing in low-risk features.
3. Implemented the condensed test pack as the new standard. The Quality Engineer integrated it into their downtime at the start of each sprint, eliminating extra lead time for releases.

The results

• Testing time dropped from 2+ weeks to 1–2 days, integrated seamlessly into the sprint.
• Confidence in releases increased, as stakeholders and developers understood how quality gates mitigated risk.
• The team built a foundation for more frequent releases without increasing business risk.

What the client said