Top Canadian Bank Scales QA Operations 3.5x in 6 Months with Zero Disruption
At a glance -
the essentials
Top-Tier Canadian Bank
- One of Canada's largest banks faced increasing complexity in its QA operations under a top-tier incumbent provider. The need to enhance efficiency, scale processes, and optimize costs led the bank to transition its entire QA function to Kumaran - a high-stakes handover requiring zero disruption to ongoing trading platform operations and a fast ramp to full productivity.
Kumaran executed a two-phase "Ready-Set-Go" transition strategy to ensure seamless handover. Pre-onboarding covered intensive Trading domain training, skills boot camps in API, Accessibility, and Automation, and Conformiq GBT certification for all resources prior to Day 1. Post-onboarding included a dedicated Program Manager at zero cost, rigorous knowledge transfer through documentation and incumbent shadowing, and weekly governance audits with strategic resource allocation. A staggered, multi-wave ramp-up scaled the team from 14 to 50 resources in just 6 months, with a talent mix spanning Robot Framework, Python, Java, Data Services, Accessibility, and Performance Testing.
- Team scaled from 14 to 50 resources in 6 months (mid–end 2023)
- 21 automation engineers with full testing lifecycle coverage
- CAD 168K average monthly cost including 10 shadow resources
- 10% Shadow QA resources ensuring 100% uptime and contingency
- Zero disruption during transition - fully autonomous steady state achieved
From 14 to 50 resources in 6 months - zero disruption, full autonomy
One of Canada's largest banks partnered with Kumaran to take over QA operations from a top-tier incumbent, scaling from 14 to 50 resources in just six months while maintaining zero disruption to live trading platform operations. The engagement deployed a two-phase Ready-Set-Go transition model - combining pre-onboarding certification, boot camps, and domain training with a post-onboarding governance structure and dedicated programme management. For this bank, the challenge was never just a headcount swap - it was a complex, risk-sensitive transition of institutional QA knowledge in a mission-critical capital markets environment, delivered on time and under budget.
The Background
The bank had been relying on a long-standing incumbent QA provider, but growing complexity, cost pressures, and the need for greater scalability and test coverage prompted a strategic decision to transition. The risks were significant: a trading platform QA transition could not afford knowledge gaps, productivity dips, or coverage regression. Kumaran was engaged to absorb the full QA function, ramp a new team to steady state at speed, and deliver measurable cost efficiency - all while keeping the bank's release pipeline uninterrupted.
Want to know how we achieved these results?
Contact us today to learn more about our approach and the success story behind this QA transition engagement with the Top-Tier Canadian Bank.
More proof
Cost Savings vs. Rebuild
30%
US Healthcare Agency Modernises Oracle Forms to J2EE - 30% Cost Savings
A leading US federal healthcare agency modernised its Oracle Forms-based grant management system to a modern J2EE web platform - achieving 30% cost savings versus rebuilding from scratch and enabling online grants management across 3,000 users.
Test Cases Automated
7,500+
Tier-1 Global Bank Scales Cross-Platform BDD Automation (UI, API & Mobile)
A Tier-1 Global Bank operating a large-scale enterprise digital platform faced mounting regression challenges. With 7,500+ UI and API test cases requiring automation and 1,000+ validation tests spanning reports, databases, and logs, manual execution had become unsustainable. Long execution cycles an