When making applications, we strive for perfection but have to accept that bugs are a fact of life in the tech business. No code is ever going to be flawless and even the best code can become corrupted over time by changes and recalibrations. That’s why it is essential to go back and do the hard work looking for bugs and maintaining the code over time.

"I was pleasantly surprised that the entire company got engaged in our project and that quality is so highly coveted. It’s good to know that the Synergy Codes team have done absolutely everything their power to be as prepared as possible for the release."

  - TOM LUBINSKI, SHERRILL-LUBINSKI CORPORATION

Since 2016, we have been working on a project for SL Corporation, a developer of graphic software tools for high-end process control and application monitoring systems, with more than thirty years of experience serving organizations such as NASA, and in the telecommunications, eCommerce, and financial industries. We have helped SL develop a  sophisticated toolset to assist users in building real-time graphical reports showing data obtained from diverse monitoring or telemetry sources. We have been using technologies like React, Redux, Webpack, GoJS, NodeJS and Express—and our output already exceeds a staggering 99,000 lines of code. In all of those lines, we just knew there must be a couple of rogue bugs, so we made it our mission to do everything we could to find and destroy every issue we possibly could before launch.

At Synergy Codes we don’t do things by halves. We didn’t just get a couple of our best people on the job. We didn’t even put together a team of half a dozen experts. No. Not us. We went the extra step to make sure that the client got the best possible solution. In fact, we tasked everyone in the office. Everyone? Yep, that’s right, EVERYONE!

Instead of making it a dull couple of days, we decided to take it as an opportunity to improve our skills and build better relationships within our own team and with the client—whilst having some fun at the same time. We organized a competition called Bug Hunters and split all of our great people into teams. They were then charged with finding as many bugs as possible and becoming quality guardians. It not only meant that we were giving SL the best possible service and cleaning up the application, we were also getting our developers and other workers an insight into the daily life of a tester. 

Finding bugs may seem like a tough task in the first place, but we also made it more difficult by insisting that all occurrences were reported with the correct version of the browser, all technical information and even a supporting video where possible! To make it even more fun, we stoked the competitive spirit by offering prizes for the winning team (who were chosen after the event by ourselves and the client).

The results were spectacular. The teams found 52 separate bugs, including 2 critical ones, and allowed us to accelerate the release of applications. We don’t do boring at Synergy Codes; we do professional and fun. And we do it all to improve our own skills and improve the products we deliver to clients.

Bug Hunters was an event born out of necessity but it also had a number of other benefits outside of finding bugs and integrating as a team. From a project perspective, it helped us to save time and effort in the future, meaning that the client saves money and has a better experience using the application. And knowing the real state of the code and the project status gave us a clear roadmap of the work to be done prior to going live.

It’s this kind of commitment to improving our products, our own skills and the service we give to clients that sets us apart. And, in this case, the client was well aware that we were prepared to go the extra mile in search of perfection.