Portfolio
a1qa provides test automation support to a developer of cloud contact center software
Striving to reduce technical debt and accelerate time to market with test automation, the client reached out to a1qa.
Overview
The client is a provider of cloud-based software for inbound, outbound, blended, and omnichannel contact centers globally.
They developed AI-powered software that helps agents deliver exceptional customer experiences across phone, email, social media, video, and other channels. The product provides pre-built integrations with the leading CRM solutions, which enables faster resolution of support cases. Additional important aspects like dashboards contribute to providing transparency, automating system interactions, and optimizing the operations of contact centers.
Years of product evolution have resulted in a massive functionality scope that the in-house specialists were tasked with supporting via manual and automated verifications. The client sought to implement an automated approach across the entire project.
However, there were two major pre-conditions — high solution complexity and the lack of alignment between the workflows of the client’s numerous teams. These circumstances triggered the emergence of huge technical debt consisting of 3,000 voluminous test cases to automate. Therefore, a1qa was contacted to set up automated workflows and minimize technical debt.
Services offered
Test automation
Test documentation review
QA consulting
Load testing
Project scope
To help them cope with extensive technical debt and infuse automation, a1qa assigned a team of QA experts who conducted a pilot project and then got down to the principal activities.
Pilot project
6 QA engineers delved into the product specifics and infrastructure, automated 30 test cases using Python to pass acceptance criteria established by the client and presented a demo of newly written scripts.
a1qa conducted a retrospective analysis, during which they highlighted positive project aspects and defined room for improvement.
Key QA activities
The client was pleased with the results of the pilot project and decided to enlarge the QA team with 2 more engineers and a part-time manager.
The team proceeded with automating test cases that verify the admin panel, CRM integrations, telephony, internal voice response, average call duration, reporting and dashboards, and more.
The QA engineers faced a challenge: the application was deployed across 50+ virtual machines. Each time, a domain name for launching an automated test was allocated from a list of available items based on the set parameters. In some cases, general domain names didn’t match. So, the QA team offered custom built items and added domain name limitation to the script.
a1qa ensured high process transparency by providing detailed insights into the activities involved in automating each test case. This step helped the client get an accurate understanding of time allocation and productivity of their QA processes to successfully cope with technical debt within realistic deadlines. Each month the QA manager gathered metrics, generated reports, and placed this information in Confluence so that the client could assess the amount of work completed and the average time required to automate one test case. The QA manager also helped enhance Jira-based workflows to increase the efficiency of tasks within a project.
a1qa offered to perform test automation audit in several phases to make the enhancement implementation process smoother for everyone.
During the first iteration, the engineers recommended eliminating unused code and adding comments to some of its remaining parts to clarify their objectives.
a1qa wrote the requirements for creating automated tests. Numerous teams were involved in automation, but they followed different workflows, which created a fragmented process and impeded overall velocity. a1qa’s written requirements helped standardize the approaches to automating QA processes, which worked well for everyone.
Technologies & tools
- Python
- PyCharm
- Gitlab
- Docker
- Rancher
- VNC Viewer
- Kibana
- Elasticsearch
- JIRA
- Confluence
- Slack
- Custom-built framework
- Test Runner
- Test Results Viewer
- Dynamic Resource Manager
- Infrastructure for executions, which included TFM, DRM, LogViewer, nodes and domains
Results
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Aligned the process of writing test cases across multiple teams to ensure standardized test automation workflows.
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Reduced redundancies and streamlined the automation process due to a1qa’s expert who reviewed test cases upfront to determine whether automation was necessary.
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Significantly reduced technical debt and optimized the work of in-house QA teams, which freed up time for manual QA engineers to concentrate on other tasks.
In numbers
9
QA experts
1
year of project duration
620
test cases automated