1st Software develops financial and client
management software that is easy to use, but leaves them with little time for high
level testing. 1st uses TestComplete to quickly perform these high level tests and
to deliver a quality product.
Overview
Their Adviser Office product is the preferred choice for half the UK’s leading financial
advisers. Adviser Office offers unrivalled functionality for the professional adviser
dealing in financial planning, portfolio management, protection, retirement planning
mortgages and corporate benefits, and it is integrated with a complete client management
system.
"With the next generation of adviser tools in planning and under development, less
and less time is available to perform the level of testing required", says Gavin
Trevett, QA Analyst from 1st. "1st is committed to delivering quality products,
so to achieve this, the Quality Assurance team must become smarter in the way testing
resources are employed."
"Our situation lends itself easily to the use of automated testing as we have a
large but stable application that will evolve over time rather than be redeveloped.
The task of regression testing, prior to quarterly releases, is massive and with
such a large client base it is fundamental that the application operates properly
upon release."
Automated Tool Requirements for 1st
Automation projects are notoriously difficult to get started. The initial outlay
of expense, effort and slow progress make the task hard to justify for 1st. Their
automated tool requirements were two-fold:
1) A tool that is affordable.
2) A tool that is easy to use.
"First, we needed a tool that was affordable, an expense that could be digested
with even our development budget! Second, we needed a tool that was easy to use,
even by users with no previous automated test scripting experience. Our strategy
was to identify areas of the application that are used most frequently and presented
the least complexity to script. This would allow us to prove to ourselves the usability
of the tool and demonstrate to others the massive potential of automating test scripts."
Gaining Experience
This strategy has proved successful for 1st and they have now assembled a baseline
of scripts for testing. "Everyone on the team has been able to gain some exposure
to TestComplete and experience producing automated test scripts, something none
of us had previously done. These scripts are now run back-to-back as a Project suite
and form the basis of our overall regression suite."
Challenges Met
1st faced a major challenge of completing a vast amount of planned regression tests
prior to each product release. "By producing automated test scripts we have cut
the time it takes to perform our regression testing suite. We have chosen to spend
this time performing more regression scripts, increasing our level of confidence
still further and improving the quality of the application, rather than reducing
our timescales."
Using TestComplete to perform regression testing has improved the quality of their
procedures. More regression tests are being performed which is providing a greater
level of confidence in their released application, freeing up additional time to
test more complex areas of the application and increasing their test coverage.
"The process of creating a suite of automated test scripts has meant reviewing parts
of our regression suite and improving certain aspects. It has also allowed members
of the team to learn new skills and techniques and gain valuable automated testing
experience."
TestComplete Provides Confidence
"TestComplete allows us to run our suite of automated tests under different environments
in order to provide confidence. We have the potential to run the same suite of tests
against each flavor of the application, against multiple Operating Systems and against
different application databases. This is a huge laborious and time-consuming activity
to perform manually but once completed provides a significant level of confidence
in the application prior to customer release."
At 1st, automation is still in its infancy. "We currently do not have designated
time allocated in the development schedule to write automated test scripts. Our
next step is to get time allocated into future project plans so that more scripts
can be produced. Scripts are being produced to plan, following to prioritized order
of functional areas. The ultimate goal is to build up a fully automated suite of
regression tests."
Their automated test suite is run at least twice for every application release.
"The first time the automated test suite is run, is at the beginning of the regression
test phase, once all new functionality for the release has been implemented. This
ensures that time is available to fix and retest any uncovered bugs before release.
The remainder of the regression testing is then performed manually. The second time
the automated test suite is run is against the final software build, prior to release
and is just a final check, for confidence, prior to formal release."
Gavin states that, "perhaps the most useful function we have found so far with TestComplete
is the ability to import data from another source like Microsoft Excel. This allows
us to create many different test cases in spreadsheet format to perform data driven
testing for fields within the application. This simple function provides such an
effective method of data driven testing."
1st Recommends TestComplete
"TestComplete is a cost effective tool for automated testing for organizations that
are looking to implement automation within their business. The tools interface is
easy to use, ensuring scripts can be produced quickly, executed cleanly and test
results recorded clearly. A vital factor when purchasing any software solution is
the quality and responsiveness of the support function. The TestComplete support
team at AutomatedQA is first class. They consistently provide timely responses to
varying levels of questions, ensuring any problem that affects progress is not an
issue for long. In short, I would have no hesitation in recommending TestComplete
to anyone as a cost-effective and easy to use solution for automating test scripts."
1st, has always believed in giving users
value for money through continual product improvements, backed by a reliable and
high level of service. Every year, new features are released free of charge and
this has played an important part in their growth – they now have over 1,400 Firms,
over 1,650 sites and over 11,000 licensed users.
In the last 4 years 1st has made over a thousand amendments to the Adviser Range.
Many of these have been large scale developments such as Needs Analysis, Document
Enablement, Integration with Microsoft Outlook and CGT calculators. This has been
achieved because they firmly believe that a smaller team of highly skilled software
engineers can take on and deliver more complex projects with a much greater chance
of success.
Combining the strength of their business understanding and technical excellence
also means the product will always meet your day-to-day needs and many of the future
needs that you probably haven't even thought of yet.