Kraysis, a startup in Lahore that focuses on Quality Assurance and testing services has signed an agreement with Microsoft 
to be part of the QA effort for the epic Age of Empires III game. It will also do some R&D, usability and performance testing. This is big news, with kudos going to the team at Kraysis. These guys have in a relatively short while gained a strong customer lineup for its niche area.
Kraysis was incubated at LUMS and started out with 2 people. Recently it has spun out of it shell and moved into its own offices and has a team of 20 professionals, and one awesome business model.
The problem they solve? Most software firms, especially the smaller ones face significant QA challenges. Its easy to write the code, but there is arguably more pain when it comes to QA, validation and performance testing, cycle after cycle. Sound familiar? Kraysis comes to take away that pain from you, gives you quality assurance ability usually found at the Microsofts and SAPs of the world. (Sniff, you had me at hello 
) They also have something most software firms cannot afford : very senior QA resources. They get outsourced work from around the globe and also are branching out locally. Good luck guys, you’re doing great!
btw , if you havent yet played AOE3, you’re missing out bigtime. AOE3 is a game that I’ve been playing obsessively for years now (a big thank you to my wonderful wife for putting up with me 
) and I would think this would be a really fun project to QA it as well!
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February 26th, 2008 at 4:04 am
why do all married gaming enthusiasts have to thanks their wifes in their opening or ending sentences?
February 26th, 2008 at 4:14 am
How is QA for an old game any significant?
February 26th, 2008 at 7:29 am
Shaji,
Challenge lied on two fronts
1- Gathering the knowledge and then creating the whole infrastructure to conduct performance & usability testing for a video game. We struggled to work for 6 months to get some Game development company to work with us, and in the end ONLY Microsoft would agree. - well not a bad struggle atleast! I think this has brought us alot of knowledge which in my opinion is more important than anything - as we plan to jump into this area. In Pakistan no one did it , so we are happy to be the first ones and hopefully will establish this area in Pakistan.
2- Crashing an old game and bringing its FPS down to 0 , i consider it very significant. Just imagine the amount of hardware tweaking we had to do to make it happen…old game was a tough thing to crack!
…thats pretty much two reasons which can suffice!
thanks for your post Mohtashim.
February 26th, 2008 at 10:14 am
I don’t think its insignificant in any way that some talented guys from Lahore snagged a project from a multi billion dollar global company. Btw, AOE3 still sells millions of dollars worth of licenses a year. Heck, Windows 2003 server is still tested to this day. And, if it was it would have not showed up here.
February 26th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
I have met Khurram and Jamil several times (the most recent meeting was yesterday in Lahore). I feel great pride at their achievements. They are totally focused and many of us can learn a thing or two from their dedication and commitment. I think that it is great that they are doing the QA for AOE III. The learning that both MS and Kraysis will get out of this will be helpful for both. It is a big deal that MS is sharing the code with a young company in Pakistan. Quite a leap of faith and indeed well deserved.
Kraysis has also done the QA on an anti-virus software and other local products. They will go far and I hope that we will all watch them with pride. Thanks for the post Mo!
February 26th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
M and Shaji
When was the last time Microsoft bought any services business from Pakistan for any of its core products?
QA outsourcing falls under the value added or knowledge outsourcing category which is one of the harder pitches to make to large US based clients.
The big deal is that an idly pidly little company from Lahore (40 people now guys?) was able to bring in a big name validating the need for their product as well as proving the concept.
For a startup any customer is a big news. With Microsoft the news just got bigger.
February 26th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Started with 2 and now a team of 20 Jawwad! More power to them I say!
February 28th, 2008 at 1:42 am
Thanks people. Alot more to be done infact and we definitely need your support. Working on lot of innovative ideas to promote QA in the Pak Industry. Advocating QA is in the lineup infact. Keep your fingers crossed, some exciting tasks coming for you as well
Jawwad and Mo, we are missing your TT table and interesting ideas generated during the game!!! need a recap soon……
February 28th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
I’m still waiting for my answer!
February 29th, 2008 at 7:05 am
haha , were you getting one?
March 20th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Hey.. I just found out about this. Congrats to the Kraysis team!! Both Jamil and Khurram have been good mentors and its great to see their company thriving!
March 27th, 2008 at 11:11 am
congrats guys! its really an amazing effort! and the work you guys are doing is commendable.
i’m also fighting (almost on a daily basis) with clients on the need of QA and not just testing, so i know first hand how difficult it is to sell the service
kudo’s!
April 3rd, 2008 at 2:36 am
farzal,
why should they thank their wives?
firstly, its because the wives let their husbands spend hours pounding away on the keyboard, to expound a virtual life that has no bearing or interaction or contribution with what is, gasp, REAL.
secondly, its because some of the wives used to be gamers themselves before THEY got married, but have no time or energy to indulge in frivolous activities post-marriage. but they still allow their husbands to indulge.
thirdly, it’s because the wives are NOT thwarting this form of testosterone release. The outlet used to be hunting, but of course that other uses as well. these days going jogging or playing squash would still be preferable, but hey, what ever takes your fancy.
fourthly, its because gaming comes at the expense of spending time with your family. Statistics would prove that its important to spend time with your family. as opposed to spending time with 1’s and 0’s, and where MMORPG’s are concerned, with unknown faces.
i can go on really. there are studies done on this.
if it is allowed the allowance should be lauded.
November 9th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
[...] global and local industry customers. We have been watching Kraysis and have covered it before here and [...]
November 10th, 2008 at 12:21 am
[...] global and local industry customers. We have been watching Kraysis and have covered it before here and [...]
October 21st, 2009 at 3:32 pm
[...] Kraysis, being the first of its kind in Pakistan, can fill this gap. The company also entered an agreement with Microsoft in February that enabled the company to test and maintain the quality of Age of [...]