KEY CHALLENGES

• Replacing an obsolete retail back office, head office & point of sale system that was to be rolled out across Poland & the Netherlands & then a number of additional countries by a trio of integrators on behalf of a major petroleum company, none of the integrators had mature or dedicated testers or business analysts, or believed they needed them.
• As far as QA was concerned they were completely green field.
• Poorly documented excel based requirements with no traceability.
• No tooling to facilitate a single view of the development & test progress.
• No test assets at all.
• No clear vision of what was required to be tested by whom & in what order.

Key Requirements for SQA

• Create a Programme Specific Test Strategy, Policies and Procedures
• Create, Manage and Deploy a Programme Specific Test Approach underpinned by an MPP
• Setup and manage the end clients test management tool of choice
• Upskill internal graduate resources teaching them how to document requirements, create and execute test scripts, raise defects and adhere to quality gates
• Create and Manage Test Environments
• Augment Test Team with QA SME’s on a build Operate and Transfer Model
• Manage all Phases of Testing

SQA PROPOSED SOLUTION

• Test strategy & approach created denoting accountability & responsibility targeting, unit & component integration, vendor integration test, product testing, smoke/link testing, system integration testing, non-functional testing, security & penetration testing, operational acceptance testing, user acceptance testing, business process testing, cut-over testing & certification testing.
• Microsoft project plan created to underpin all test phases across both countries.
• Customised ALM test management framework created.
• Requirements static tested, re-engineered & uploaded into ALM.
• Requirement relationship linked to aid impact analysis.
• Multiple workshops conducted to educate resources on how to construct modular reusable test scripts, e.g., login, navigation, function – thread together to exercise business process.
• Estimation models created.
• Client resources trained & supported in correctly & fully utilising all of ALM’s features.
• Resources from SQA Consulting mobilised to own & lead multiple test phases.
• Continuous client resource mentoring & support throughout the programme lifecycle.
• Real-time MI providing a single view of overall/test phase coverage, defect density, daily targets & achievements.
• Interviewed new client hires for permanent roles within the test team.
• Self-sustainable test teams created.

SOLUTION BENEFITS

• Career testers created within client environment.
• Accurate test estimates can be created relating to business, functional & technical requirements.
• Uniform test processes continuously improved via lessons learned to support new projects.
• Resources can now be seconded to support test phases irrespective of country or client.
• Self-Creating MPP’s via test management software.
• Automatic creation of daily execution targets.
• Able to conduct true risk-based regression based on impact analysis.
• Test asset re-use between phases & across projects.
• Single real-time view of test phase or project can be ascertained on demand.
• 30% Change request reduction due to continuous static analysis.
• Measurable cost savings through reduced collateral damage & script execution times.
• Defect trending has improved coding.
• Comprehensive test creation capability legacy.
• Client recognises trust is not a substitute for testing.
• Client is now increasing permanent test staff.
• There is a benchmark in place to measure quality improvements.

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