Alejandra Viglietti, Operations Manager for almost 2 years, is the new Chief Operations Officer (COO) of Abstracta, replacing Federico Toledo, co-founder and partner of the company. Thus, Viglietti joined the company’s C-Suite. Federico held the position for more than 5 years and has now taken over as Chief Quality Officer (CQO). 

By Matías Reina

Operations, Sustainability, Growth, Innovation, Culture, and Marketing are the areas that made up Abstracta, a world leader in software testing with almost 15 years of experience and offices in North America, Latin America, and Europe. In 2023, we added a new member to our C-Suite: Alejandra Viglietti, as COO, and created the Chief Quality Office role, assumed by Federico Toledo.

Each area has a theme for which it is responsible, and we work in a coordinated way, in a network. This means that we are all responsible for growth, operations, innovation, culture, caring for people, telling the story of what we do, and sustainability.

“The operations area is the engine that moves a company, especially one with a strong service-based component like ours. To a large extent, it is what makes Abstracta possible,” outlined Federico. “The role of Chief Operations Officer is demanding, and I have always been aware of how and why to do it. I am very grateful to have been able to carry it out as part of a network. In recent years, living in San Francisco, I have been exploring other roles, for which Ale was an excellent ally.”

“We created a very good team, and she was able to gradually take on new responsibilities that allowed me to change my role as well. She worked together with the leaders, growth and support areas, and generated a work network that we believe in and want to continue supporting. With her work and effort, she has been co-constructing the new role of COO, and has taken us to another level of maturity as a company, so that today this change of role is natural for us,” he continued.

“While it was something that was naturally on the horizon as part of my career plan, the appointment surprised me – very pleasantly indeed! As you go through your career and grow in seniority, it is normal for the different roles to last longer because the growth curve becomes less steep: the greater the responsibility, the longer you are expected to be in the role, either because of learning or because the tasks and objectives usually involve longer processes,” Alejandra said.

“I’m a woman, I’m over 40 years old, and I work in technology. This is a great opportunity in my life, and it is also a way to show how we do things at Abstracta. Being able to witness and show this inclusivity and impact from first-hand experience, inside and outside the company, makes me extremely happy and empowers me to continue growing and contributing, doing my part,” she said.

As Chief Quality Officer, Federico will continue to collaborate with different areas:

– Operations team: to help deliver projects with best quality practices.
– Growth team: to help develop offerings that meet the quality needs of new customers.
– Marketing team, to continue to share knowledge in various media to strengthen the communities in which we work and promote the growth of our discipline. This point involves capitalizing and sharing knowledge and building bridges with other people and companies to collaborate in the co-creation of world-class software. 

What does Abstracta’s Operations area do? Find out its main objectives and challenges, in the voice of Alejandra Viglietti.

Objectives

Operations is in charge of everything related to the service provided by Abstracta to its clients from the point of view of its execution. This is a key job for the operation and growth of the company. 

When there are new opportunities, either with a new client or an existing client who needs a new assignment, we do very important work to achieve the match between the project requirement and the people who will carry it out.

We consider multiple variables to accomplish each assignment: from the requirements and context of the project to the growth opportunities for the team members. In addition, their skills, their personal needs, past experiences with people they have worked with or would start working with, ambitions, and interests, among others.

Some of the things this implies are: 

✔️Fully understand the current and future needs of the client’s project and team.

✔️Know the capabilities of our current team and the interests and potential of the people who are eligible for the project in question.

✔️Design the hiring profile in case we do not have the right people at that moment.

✔️Consider the combination of profiles to form diverse and high-performance teams.

✔️Provide the team with the necessary resources for the execution of the project.

✔️Provide the necessary training to best meet the challenge.

✔️Be informed about the development and processes of possible recruitment.

In short, Operations evaluates different scenarios and makes the best possible decisions, with the support of the Growth, Sustainability, and People Care network. 

To this end, the following are taken into account: 

✔️The current needs of each client and their strategic potential for Abstracta.

✔️The needs of the people in the team, their ambitions, and personal development projects.

✔️The growth opportunities for Abstracta as a training company and thought leaders. 

After the assignments have been made and the project has started, the area provides ongoing support and advice in order to add value at all stages and ensure optimal experiences for all the people involved. 

Our work does not end with the completion of the assignments; in fact, it is only the beginning. We follow up on each project to achieve maximum value at all stages and make adjustments when necessary. 

We focus on the people working on the different projects to enhance their skills, promote their professional growth and learning opportunities, take care of the work-life balance, exploit all growth opportunities, and, ultimately, ensure the best possible experience for them.

Challenges

One of our greatest challenges is to be able to distribute responsibilities clearly so that everyone knows who to rely on at all times and in every need. Both in technical and non-technical aspects. In the same way, to avoid overexertion, to understand what each person in our team needs, and what their motivations and growth objectives are.

Making a match between this and what the client wants is fundamental in our work, but even more so to contribute to what they really need, beyond what they ask for, to accompany them in their success. 

We work with attention to every detail to make people feel comfortable with the assigned tasks and their leaders, and to make our clients feel that they have the best team to work with.

Another great challenge is to anticipate future needs and have the right people for the opportunities that may arise. With this, we seek to minimize customer waiting times and at the same time keep people motivated, in a market whose demand is greater than supply and which has a very high turnover.

In the future, we intend to take on the responsibility of collaborating with Abstracta’s Innovation area in cases where customers require new solutions. For this, we have to consider our partner network and evaluate if it is necessary to create new technologies. Achieving innovations in software testing is crucial in Abstracta’s path. In this article, you can find more information about the innovations in testing made by our company.

Did you know that Abstracta was distinguished in the “Clutch 1000” of 2022? Find out in this article.

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