Comprehensive consulting on development and testing processes automation

Provided servises

IT Consulting, Test Automation

Client

The European market leader in telecom management technology (Amsterdam, the Netherlands).

Business challenges

The customer is engaged in the development of several complex IT solutions in the telecommunication field. At the same time, the processes of continuous integration, testing and product delivery are not automated in the company. The team carries out a lot of manual actions, which results in loss of time and resources, as well as an increased impact of the human factor on key development processes. In addition, the lack of CI/CD is the reason why it is impossible to systematically test and stabilize the products. The customer cannot be sure of the quality of commercially important deliveries.

Project features

JazzTeam began working with this customer within the framework of services for test automation and development of one of the products. When starting the project, we clearly understood that in this case it was impossible to ensure high quality without the implementation of autobuild and CI/CD, as we did not have the opportunity to safely introduce changes in the system code and test the result of work locally, taking into account GDPR requirements. Therefore, we faced a more global task, which included the following activities:

  • To convince the customer and its team to invest in best development practices.
  • To implement CI/CD, test automation, Data Driven Testing approach.
  • To optimize and speed up development processes on the project.
Comprehensive consulting on development and testing processes automation

Approaches and solutions

Stage 1. Continuous Integration and Delivery Implementation (CI/CD)

As soon as our specialists learned that continuous integration and delivery were not implemented on the project, they began to tell the customer what value this approach would bring. Such an investment was psychologically difficult indeed : it required the introduction of new technological tools and a radical change in the processes on the project. Among other things, it was necessary to change the team’s way of thinking and convince them to switch to a new format of work. As agreed with the customer, we started the implementation of automated delivery in order to show the value of this approach in practice.

JazzTeam professionals implemented Jenkins, prepared all the necessary pipelines in such a way that they would completely repeat the product life cycle. The customer company managers could independently manage the deployment process and cancel the changes made. It all allowed technical specialists to save much time, eliminate the impact of the human factor on the delivery process and save a lot of money.

Based on the results of our work, the customer was convinced of the usefulness of this approach and decided to implement CI/CD not only on the current project, but also on all the future projects. Including the creation of small products. So, we were able to globally influence the change in the work approach in the customer’s company and introduce the culture of CI/CD.

Stage 2. Data Driven Testing implementation

While working on the customer’s project related to the storage of a large amount of telecommunication data, our team was engaged in product quality stabilization and bug fixing. When planning tasks, we realized that this was a nonstandard case that required the implementation of the Data Driven Testing approach. Such an investment was not at all obvious to the customer, so at the beginning our team conducted a series of consultations. To overcome the resistance of the team, we began to show the benefits of this approach in practice step by step. Finally, after several serious product quality problems at the production stage, the customer realized the seriousness of the situation and agreed to implement the DDT approach on the project.

We recognized that Data Driven tests significantly help stabilize the product operation at the very first stage by directing our efforts in the right channel: all previous tests were successful with correct and safe fixing of new bugs. So, we enhanced control over the application stability and made the process of bug fixing fast and efficient. After DDT implementation, our team conducted regression testing of all system production data and got the product quality under control.

In three months after DDT introduction, we completely stabilized the system in production. The customer received full control over the quality of the product. You can learn more about this project in our case on testing using the DDT approach.

Stage 3. Setting up the process of autotesting

Let’s get back to the initial task we began our cooperation with the customer: the need to implement autotesting on the project. This activity was impossible to implement successfully without the introduction of such approaches as CI/CD and DDT. In the course of the successful implementation of the activities described in stages 1 and 2, we received the customer’s full confidence and were able to organize the testing process. We also advised the customer on the following issues:

  • What autotests and in what quantity should be written on this project?
  • Is it required to implement regression testing at the level of autotests and how to carry out it most efficiently?
  • How to integrate autotests into the product lifecycle and CI/CD processes?
  • Is it mandatory to implement test management processes?

Outcomes and achievements

  • CI/CD culture was implemented in the customer’s team. The customer and all team members became convinced in the effectiveness of this approach and began to follow the processes proposed by our company. Thanks to the introduction of CI/CD on the project, it was possible to automate a large number of manual actions and reduce development costs.
  • Stable performance and high product quality were achieved. The applied approaches (CI/CD, test automation, Data Driven Testing) made it possible to completely stabilize the quality of the system and prevent bugs in production. This provided the customer with complete confidence in the performance and high quality of the product.
  • Test and release management processes became fast and optimized.
  • The necessary documents with technical manuals, diagrams, a description of the operation of applications (installation manual, video and audio tutorials for the quick immersion of new employees in the project) were created. Later on, the customer’s team was able to independently support the work of autotests, manage the integration and delivery process.

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    What happens next?
    1
    Leave your project request. We will contact you and schedule a call.
    2
    Signing of the NDA to ensure the project info confidentiality.
    3
    Negotiation of your request and the required services.
    4
    Team forming, coordination of workstages.
    5
    Contract signing and project start.