From Bug Tracking to Time Tracking: The BetterQA Product Suite

Most companies build one product and focus on growing it. BetterQA builds multiple products, each solving a specific problem we encountered running a software quality assurance consultancy. This seems inefficient until you understand the common thread: every product emerges from real operational needs, not speculative market research.

BugBoard: Where It Started

BugBoard was our first product, born from frustration with existing test management tools. We needed software that could handle complex test scenarios, track bugs across multiple environments, integrate with various issue trackers our clients used, and provide clear reporting without requiring a PhD to interpret.

Existing tools either oversimplified testing (Trello-style boards that couldn't handle test complexity) or overcomplicated it (enterprise test management platforms requiring weeks of training). We built BugBoard to sit in the middle: powerful enough for serious testing, simple enough that a new QA engineer could be productive on day one.

BetterFlow: Solving the Time Tracking Problem

As our team grew beyond 20 people, time tracking became painful. We worked across multiple client projects simultaneously, needed accurate billing data, wanted to track leave management, and required integration with the tools we actually used (Jira, GitHub, Slack).

Every time tracking tool we evaluated either simplified to the point of uselessness or demanded administrative overhead that made people avoid using it. So we built BetterFlow with the same philosophy as BugBoard: powerful capabilities without complexity burden.

Access: Authentication as a Service

As we built more products, we noticed a pattern: every product needed user authentication, role-based permissions, team management, and audit logging. We were rebuilding similar authentication systems for each product, which was inefficient and created security risks.

Access is our single sign-on and access management platform. It provides authentication services for all BetterQA products, allows customers to use one login across the entire suite, and centralizes permission management.

Flows: Workflow Automation

Flows is our newest product, still in beta. It emerged from watching customers manually connect our products through complicated workarounds. Someone would complete a test run in BugBoard, manually create issues in Jira for failed tests, then log the time spent in BetterFlow. This worked but was tedious.

Flows provides no-code workflow automation connecting BetterQA products to each other and to external tools. Common workflows include:

• When test fails in BugBoard → create issue in Jira → log investigation time in BetterFlow
• When leave request approved in BetterFlow → update team calendar → notify project managers in Slack
• When timesheet submitted in BetterFlow → generate invoice data → sync to accounting system

The Integration Advantage

Building multiple products creates network effects. Each product becomes more valuable when used with others:

BugBoard users get better time tracking when they adopt BetterFlow because time can be logged directly against test executions. BetterFlow users get better project insights when they use BugBoard because they can see time spent relative to test coverage and bug density.

Access provides seamless single sign-on across products. Flows connects everything together with automated workflows reducing manual data transfer.

The Data Advantage

When customers use multiple products, we can provide insights impossible with single-product data:

• How much time is spent on testing versus development versus project management
• Which types of bugs consume the most resolution time
• How team capacity changes affect test coverage and bug detection rates
• Whether automated testing investment reduces manual testing time over time

Why This Strategy Works for BetterQA

Building multiple products is risky. Each product requires development resources, customer support, documentation, marketing, and ongoing maintenance. Most companies struggle to execute one product well.

BetterQA can pursue this strategy because:

• We use our own products: Every product solves a real problem we face in our consulting work.
• We have stable revenue: Our consulting business generates consistent revenue that funds product development.
• We have domain expertise: Fifteen years of QA consulting means we deeply understand the problems these products solve.
• We share infrastructure: Access, Flows, and shared design systems reduce the overhead of maintaining multiple products.

Product Comparison: When to Use What

Use BugBoard when: You need structured test management, bug tracking integrated with test cases, test automation result analysis, or comprehensive quality reporting.

Use BetterFlow when: You need accurate time tracking for billing or project costing, leave management, productivity insights, or integration between time data and project management tools.

Use Access when: You want single sign-on across multiple tools, centralized user management, or enterprise identity provider integration.

Use Flows when: You need to automate workflows between BetterQA products or connect BetterQA products to external tools without writing code.

Conclusion

BetterQA's product suite reflects our belief that interconnected tools solving real problems create more value than isolated point solutions. BugBoard handles testing, BetterFlow handles time and productivity, Access handles authentication, and Flows connects everything together.

Each product is valuable independently, but the suite creates compound value through integration, shared infrastructure, and cross-product insights. Whether you use one product or all four, you're getting tools built by people who understand quality assurance operations deeply and who depend on these same tools to run their own business.