Shift

SHIFT Inc. operates as a specialized software quality assurance and testing company, applying principles from manufacturing process improvement to the IT sector. Founded in September 2005 by Masaru Tange, the company initially began as a small consulting firm focused on enhancing manufacturing and business processes. Tange, a graduate of Kyoto University's Graduate School of Engineering, leveraged his experience from building a successful consulting department at a prior firm to establish SHIFT. A pivotal shift occurred in 2007 when the company ventured into software testing, and by 2009, this became its primary business focus. This strategic change fueled rapid growth, leading to an initial public offering on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers market in 2014 and a subsequent move to the Prime Market.

The company's core business revolves around providing a comprehensive suite of software quality assurance services. This includes test planning and design, test execution, automated testing, and project management office (PMO) support. SHIFT serves a diverse client base across various industries such as finance, manufacturing, telecommunications, and entertainment, including mobile and social game developers. The business model centers on outsourcing, where clients engage SHIFT to handle their testing needs, aiming for higher defect detection rates at a reduced cost compared to internal efforts. A key growth strategy involves the active acquisition of smaller firms to expand its engineering talent base and service offerings.

A central component of SHIFT's service delivery is its proprietary, cloud-based test management platform, CAT (Computer Aided Testing). This tool integrates various stages of the testing lifecycle, from case management and execution to bug tracking and real-time progress visualization. CAT is designed to streamline project management by centralizing information and enabling collaboration between development and QA teams, even across remote and offshore sites. The platform supports integration with external tools like Slack, Redmine, and GitHub, functioning as a unified hub for software development and quality assurance projects.

Keywords: software testing, quality assurance, test outsourcing, test automation, QA consulting, test management, project management office (PMO), enterprise software, game testing, IT services, CAT platform, defect detection, software inspection, Masaru Tange, Tokyo Stock Exchange, quality management, software development lifecycle, test design, test execution, IT consulting