Background

A world renowned antivirus development company required a thorough testing of their antivirus and firewall combination application, both at functional and usability level.

Application was required to be tested on multiple platforms along with its communication with different networks as well as operating systems.

Antivirus application needed to be tested for its live updates from all the operating systems.

Challenge

• An antivirus and firewall application needs to be tested on several protocols
• Ensure the smooth running of the application on any operating system
• To ensure that communication between multiple platforms is working under all scenarios.
• Meet the defined timelines which were short due to time-to-market nature of the product.
• Reproduce the similar level of bugs on the testing as well as development side due to variegated nature of environments

Response

Our team initiated by doing analysis of the application and it's underlying architecture.

This included understanding its communication processes, its interaction with operating systems and also exploring deep into the communication protocols and their inner working.

After the exploration and domain understanding (through communication with the development team), the testing team started performing functional testing of the application.

While this phase was performed to analyze the stability of application, it was also essential to gauge the response of this application under different combinations of system interactions.

In order to assure the correct response, a sub-network was created to simulate the interaction of application not only within one network but also across different networks.

Analysis

Testing these applications by making sub-networks proved to be an efficient technique which ensured that multiple protocols can be tested which would not have been possible otherwise.

Data generated through the testing revealed the fact that some protocols which might have a lesser usability by the users were not properly performing their required functions.

Also there were less number of problems when application was running its processes within a network, however if it had to operate between networks there were significant issues identified and reported. Many problems were found while application was tested to verify protocol communications between same operating systems. Number of problems significantly increased when the communication was tested between two different operating systems.

Since there was time-to-market pressure and this project required significant understanding of protocols, a team was also dedicated to perform R&D.

The effort of this team was not charged against the time spent however the knowledge acquired was shared with the client.

Conclusion

The project was conducted successfully through the combination of greater domain knowledge understanding, thorough R&D and by creating different test beds for application testing.

This approach helped ensure that the client was able to launch its product in time with greater reliability and confidence.

Background

One problem with which a client approached us was to perform QA activities on one of their products.

The product was a web based e-biz portal built on latest web technologies.

Primary objective was to perform rigorous testing to make it ready for launch within a scheduled timeline.

Challenge

• Client wanted a cost effective and experienced input to boost their QA work while meeting aggressive timelines.
• Our team had to get domain understanding and product knowledge in the absence of any documentation.
• Establish a robust and efficient framework to communicate with the development team as the task was time critical.

Response

Our team gathered business domain knowledge and product understanding while spending rigorous two weeks with the development and management team.

The two week onsite and offsite effort included a communication framework development for bug reporting, bug fixing and build-update.
A web-based open source tool was selected for bug reporting purposes. This was essential to seamlessly integrate QA model developed by our team with the client�s development team to optimize work and time both.

QA team started off with the Functional testing while the development team got familiarized with the communication framework.
In little iteration, the cycle (bug report, bug fix, build update) was in flow and the testing paced up.
Each day QA activity included verifying the fixed bugs, looking for ripples and then looking for new bugs.

Test scenario development and test case development was also a part of the activity.
After eliminating the level 1 and level 2 bugs, the product was launched and development team kept on adding more features.
A Regression testing plan was set alongside the functional testing. As the product marketing and clientele started growing, our team started in parallel the Usability testing.

With this model working successfully, White box testing is the step ahead. Test scripts are being written in one of the free-ware automation testing tools to ensure the reliability across the application as new modules are being added to it.

Real strength in the model lies in its flexibility and seamless integration with the client activities and processes while completing the QA tasks and responsibilities remotely. This resulted in:

• Eliminating the fixed costs of having a complete QA department.
• Cost savings during the time when there is no testing activity as clients are charged for the amount of work done.
• Variable cost savings in QA dept. when the Testing cycle is inactive.
• Increased profits through these cost savings.

Resources vs. Cost Analysis

We employs resources with multi-dimensional thinking and are experienced, trained, and best suitable in software testing lifecycle.

We emphasize on constant training and grooming of their team from the viewpoint of clients business domains, emerging technologies, tools and strategies.

This culture facilitates them to remain updated through constant research and efficiently keeping in perspective the core objective i.e. client satisfaction.

This specialized QA platform with latest updates and experienced resources adds value like:

• Reducing the cost of grooming and maintaining high end technical resources.
• Reducing the cost in searching and hiring such specialized resources.
• Reducing the cost of management involvement through substantial time savings.
• Reducing the cost of training resources with the emerging tools, technologies and strategies.
• Increased margins and increased budgets for QA and other constructive development.

Conclusion

We provided seamlessly integrated software quality assurance services using innovative framework and latest standards.

By combining the testing expertise with the development expertise of client, various testing milestones were achieved effectively and on-time.

Our test engineers added substantial value to the product by suggesting improvements in process flow, business flow and feature usability.

Several bugs were located that were not a part of test plans and test scenarios. Identifying these ripple effects clearly indicates the benefit of experience, skill, multidimensional thinking and independent verification and validation.

Working with us resulted in Client avoiding cost overrun with an unmatched satisfaction level regarding both product quality and services.

Background

One of the clients approached us with a vague problem set of the different manual processes that he wanted to be replaced with the automated modules for his medium size hospital facility.

Challenge

• Need to find out the exact requirements of the client so that we could be in a better position to suggest him the best possible solution to his problem.
• Analysis of the requirements and the current work process, suggesting different inter-related and independent modules.
• Evaluating current information flow, controls and procedures. Designing and developing a comprehensive, cost effective and technology efficient solution.

Response

We adopted the step wise approach to target the client�s problem.

The team started with a visit to the hospital for requirement analysis and evaluating the current work process, information flow and controls. Through infrastructure evaluation helped in the process understanding in the OPD, labs, wards, rooms, out door, reception and other facilities present within the hospital.

Discussions were held with the in charge of each facility to understand their problems and pains. A detailed requirement set was gathered for further analysis and consolidation.

The team worked on all the critical points in the data flow between different departments to avoid any redundancies. A final report with detailed analysis of requirements was shared with the management for final approval. Once approved, the team opted for evolutionary SDLC model for implementation because client wanted an active involvement with the team in the development process. Java platform was selected for cross platform compatibility. A prototype system was developed within a month and a beta version was installed for user acceptability testing. After a successful deployment and post deployment training, the team supported the client online to provide support and maintenance.

Analysis

With the working model followed to target this problem, our team successfully ended up with another satisfied customer.

• A field visit approach helped in finding the real problems faced by the users.
• Cost savings during the time when there is no testing activity as clients are charged for the amount of work done.
• It helped in translating the exact problems into a comprehensive set of requirements that can be easily followed to design the architecture.
• Client was actively informed of the development and could easily add on his remaining requirements without bothering the existing architecture.
• Usability testing helped the users get acquainted with the system as well as report any anomalies.

Conclusion

Our team has successfully deployed the system to their client ensuring quality with creativity. The CAD team helped its client from overall business evaluation to the concrete level of solution implementation.