Sonae MC.
Quality Chapter
Quality chapter for food retail operations
- Industry
- Retail Conglomerate
- Service
- Quality Engineering
- Stack
- CI/CD · Test Automation
Sonae MC is the food retail arm of the Sonae group and Portugal's largest food retailer. It operates the Continente banner across hypermarkets, supermarkets and convenience formats, together with a growing digital and e-commerce operation, and is one of the country's largest private employers.
Challenge
Sonae MC, a retail leader in Portugal, faced the complexity of managing dozens of product teams and a digital operation spanning e-commerce, physical stores and data platforms. The diversity of systems and delivery models made it hard to maintain consistency and predictability in quality. Testing was concentrated on regression, with little integration into the development cycle; QAs got involved late and environments were unstable. Non-standardized acceptance criteria, a lack of quality metrics and a culture where quality was seen as the QA's responsibility alone limited accountability across Dev, PM and other roles.
Solution
DBServices led an intensive one-month diagnosis, with collaborative in-person workshops involving more than 30 professionals. Each phase of the development cycle was mapped, identifying practices, tools, roles and bottlenecks. The analysis resulted in detailed AS IS reports and the joint construction of a unified, cross-functional TO BE vision. The action plan was structured around five fronts: Automation & Quality Engineering, Environments & Test Data, Governance & Technical Chapter, Metrics & Observability, and Product Culture with shared responsibility.
Result
Clear quality criteria were defined and integrated into the CI/CD pipelines, and automated suites were restructured. Environments were standardized and test data began receiving automated refreshes. A cross-functional Quality Chapter was created, strengthening governance and spreading good practices. A unified quality vision was consolidated with an evolving roadmap and quick wins, promoting alignment across streams and repositioning Sonae MC toward a continuous improvement model.
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"The collaboration we had with DBServices was extremely valuable for us at Sonae MC, as they brought their decades of know-how and experience in the field of Quality, allowing us to reach a whole new level."
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