A conversation with the QA hero who built more than just quality, His team and he built trust.
Interviewer: Neha | Guest: Ashok Munnangi
Neha (smiling):
Ashok, fifteen years with Sathguru Soft, and in all these years, one thing has stayed constant, the incredible stability of our products. What is the secret sauce?
Ashok (laughing):
The only sauce I believe in is called “No Assumptions.” We treat every test case like it is going to production tomorrow because it is! But really, the secret is discipline, deep business knowledge, and the insistence that no bug is small enough to be ignored.
Neha: We often say our products have negligible support tickets. Some products even have zero. How did we reach this almost mythical state?
Ashok: Mythical only to those who have not seen how we operate! Here is the truth: Every time a user raises a ticket, we see it as an opportunity, not just to fix, but to learn. We do not just close tickets; we drill into them. What caused it? Why didn’t we catch it? How do we ensure it never happens again? And let me add, we do not just solve symptoms. We solve roots. We are root-cause specialists.
Neha: There is this running joke in our meetings about the “four-digit bug count” you once shared. Can you tell us the story?
Ashok (smiling):
Oh yes. That is one for the archives. Years ago, in a review meeting, I presented a backlog of over 4,000 bugs across products. People gasped, I joked, “Don’t worry, I’ll bring you chocolate when we hit zero.” And guess what? I did. We brought it down, not by hiding it, but by facing it, logging it, closing it. Today, our minor (no major) bug backlog across nine SaaS products is astonishingly low. For some products, it is zero. And chocolates still happen!
Neha (laughing):
What is your QA philosophy when it comes to building a new release or taking it live?
Ashok: Releasing to production is like sending your kid to space. You double-check everything. You verify every system interaction. You assume nothing. And you rely on your team, their eyes, instincts, and habits. We teach them to think like users. To question like a reviewer. To doubt like a sceptic. Our test cases do not just say “what happens”, they ask, “what could go wrong?” And we simulate chaos so real that actual production feels peaceful!
Neha: Your team is just five people, and yet you are managing QA for nine SaaS products. How is that even possible?
Ashok: Simple: ownership. Each of them does not “work on QA.” They own product quality. They know business logic. They understand database integrity. They catch ripple effects. We have built our muscle over time, yes, but more than anything, we have built our mindset. Also, we are very feedback hungry. Every go-live, every client demo, every support interaction, we log it, replay it, and ask, “What can we learn?”
Neha (grinning):
Your team is often praised for not just finding real bugs, but even imaginary ones, things that users may or may not do, but your team still checks. How do they get into this mode of creative paranoia?
Ashok (with a proud chuckle):
That is our superpower, we imagine the unimaginable. In QA, you do not test only for what the user should do. You test for what the user might do, even accidentally, or out of curiosity. My team thinks like this:
“What if the user clicks here before entering data?”
“What if they submit twice during a network lag?”
“What if they use the same screen in three tabs at once?”
These are not corner cases, they are real-world chaos. We train ourselves to think like users on Monday morning with low caffeine and high urgency. That is where bugs hide, and that is where we find them. The best part? My team does not stop until they break what looks unbreakable. They are young, sharp, and relentless, and I would not trade them for anything. I am so lucky I have very young and talented five soldiers who are solid to core.
Neha: Talk to us about the “Support Zero” initiative, how close are we to it?
Ashok: Let me say this: we are closer than most companies ever dream of getting. Some of our ERP products, Retail ViVA, SpinJenny, SugarCube, ViVAgen consistently report less than ten tickets per month across large user bases. Some have hit zero for multiple months consistently. Support Zero is not about perfection, it is about a culture where bugs are hunted before users ever meet them. We get there by enforcing Bug Zero, which means: no carryovers, no excuses, no escape. We support our support team to lead an easy life unlike other support teams who burn mid-night oil. Ask our support team how cool they are. We even joke that they will start playing Solitaire at office since they have to sit idle most days.
Neha: And what about that soft thriller, the dynamic between development and QA? Give us the inside scoop!
Ashok (grinning):
Ah yes, the classic! Development wants to move fast. QA wants to get it right. It is a tug-of-war, yes, but a healthy one. We debate, we escalate, we dig in. But ultimately, we are on the same side: the side of the product. And when a clean release goes live and clients love it, we all cheer. Because the hero of the movie, as you say, is the product.
Neha (genuinely impressed):
You have built a fortress of quality, a culture of discipline, and a pipeline of confidence. How do you stay inspired?
Ashok: It is simple, Neha. Every time I see a product go live without a single issue, I feel something no title or award can match pride. And every time a new joiner on my team catches a critical issue before it hits staging, we have planted the next generation of warriors. QA is not just about testing. It is about trust. And at Sathguru Soft, that trust is real.
Neha (with admiration):
Ashok, you have made “Bug Zero” a reality. You have made “Support Zero” not just a dream, but a trackable goal. And you have done it with just five people and a lot of heart.
Any last words?
Ashok (smiling):
Just this: “Every line of code is someone’s business reality. We do not just test features, we protect experiences.” And we will keep doing that… until even the word bug sounds outdated or removed from Sathguru’s dictionary.
In a world that celebrates product launches and flashy features, Ashok Munnangi reminds us of the quiet brilliance that holds it all together. With his mantra of “Bug Zero, Support Zero,” he is not just delivering QA. He is delivering peace of mind. And behind every stable Sathguru Soft product, you will find our QA team’s signature, unspoken, but unmistakably present.
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