Portfolio
a1qa provides high quality of three telecom software products
A global provider of telecommunication IT solutions reached out to a1qa to ensure quality and accelerate time to market of core software products.
Overview
…We thank the a1qa team for their professionalism, client-oriented and individual approaches. We recommend the company as a reliable partner and look forward to further fruitful cooperation.
CTO
The company is a global distributor of telecommunication IT solutions for large service providers, telecom operators, and their partners – turned to a1qa to provide quality and accelerate time to market of key software packages.
The a1qa involvement was related to ensuring the quality of three software products:
- A convergent billing and customer service system designed to offer a universal line of services for various types of networks.
- A comprehensive self-service system that simplifies the process of managing services for subscribers, ensures their round-the-clock availability and helps operators build omnichannel marketing.
- An integration platform that allows operators to deliver end-to-end services to subscribers by creating their business-oriented solutions and integrating with other customer’s systems.
Services offered
Functional testing
Test automation
Training the client’s team
Project scope
To help the client attain their business goal, a1qa assigned the team of QA engineers who supported the following high-priority QA directions:
Automated regression testing
When a1qa’s team joined the project, they were automating new features applying Python programming language only after completing functional verifications. All the retests were manual and sometimes took long time to complete.
To turn the tide and help the client deliver new functionality faster, test automation engineers offered another approach — to start the development of automated tests prior to finishing functional testing. In the case of changes in product logic, the team was able to run already created tests to briskly localize and fix defects if any. Thus, the engineers helped reach one of the core client’s business goals — decreasing time to market.
To increase QA efficiency even more, a1qa initiated a range of process improvements.
Initially, a1qa’s team was creating and running tests in a separate testing environment. However, collecting and analyzing the results of test runs for estimating overall software quality was challenging due to additional efforts that should be allocated to support this environment.
Therefore, it was necessary to integrate new automated tests into the entire testing ecosystem where the large-scale regression scope was run. The vast number of already existed automated tests represented the major challenge, as inaccurate modification of settings within one functionality could cause test failures for another feature. However, a1qa’s vast expertise helped integrate new tests without detriment to quality and simultaneously release the client’s team time that later they spent on solving other high-priority objectives.
In addition, the engineers upgraded the client’s test automation framework by developing special models that provided a threefold reduction of code within automated tests, which simplified their application and eased code reuse.
Primarily, a1qa’s test automation team was receiving test scenarios that were impossible to automate as is because of the missing steps or the ambiguity of the core parameters. To tackle the issue, a1qa’s test analysts were bridging those gaps and then passing the scenarios to test automation engineers.
Over time, the automation QA team’s expertise in the tested systems increased, and now test analysts are rarely engaged in that activity as test automation engineers master this task on their own.
Functional testing
Originally, functional testing support was only a partial QA practice. However, to deliver high-quality features on a general basis, the client turned it into an obligatory process step on the way to quality improvement. Thus, a1qa’s team developed test models, manual functional tests, and performed testing of new software versions.
It didn’t take long for positive feedback to emerge. Half a year after the joint work of a1qa and the client’s team, top-tier functionality made it to the market with no defects detected during the acceptance testing.
Noteworthy was a1qa’s input into enhancing the quality of a large block connected with high-priority functionality — joining subscribers from multiple locations into groups for providing discounts on monthly communication fees. Due to ongoing a1qa’s contribution, this functionality is growing continuously with no deterioration in quality.
Training the client’s engineers
To help client’s specialists delve deeply into manual testing approaches and automation practices, a1qa’s team held several training courses and working sessions onsite. Thus, the company’s proactivity and investment in knowledge transfer resulted in the fact that the range of the client’s test automation engineers that attended tuition outperformed the rest team members.
Creating a cross-functional team
Years of ensuring the impeccable performance of diverse client’s telecom products helped the team accumulate vast expertise in the slightest nuances of their operation. Thus, instead of scaling the team in the case of increased workload, a1qa smoothly balanced cross-functional engineers so that they could strengthen QA support within any client’s solutions depending on the requirements.
Overcoming a project challenge
Process transparency means a great deal when it comes to establishing a strong relationship of trust with the client. Building the awareness of what activities lie behind a certain testing task creates the overall understanding of time allocated for their performance.
Therefore, to demonstrate all the aspects related to creating an automated test, a1qa agreed on a system of KPIs outlining the time required for communication, detailing, automation, code review and a weekly in-depth report. Thus, a1qa’s engineers provided the client with a comprehensive understanding of the test automation process.
Adjusting to a global context
To ensure business continuity within the pandemic, a1qa’s team switched to a remote working mode with a focus on all-inclusive cooperation between teams and with project stakeholders. Planning meetings, retrospectives, and other sessions contributed to quick problem-solving and increased process transparency.
Due to a1qa’s involvement and a responsible approach, the client curtailed time to market and fulfilled all the core activities within convergent billing, thus, a1qa’s team was reduced fourfold. The partnership continues until now, and the client can be confident in receiving professional QA assistance whenever they need it.
Technologies & tools
- Allure
- SOAP
- Windows
- Oracle
- Jenkins
- PyTest
- Linux
Results
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The a1qa team has met the targets, which allowed ensuring the quality of three software packages.
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Time to market was reduced due to holistic test automation approach, which guaranteed timely releases of client’s products.
In numbers
3.5
years of project duration
24
QA engineers were engaged during the peak load
3
software products were tested
5,796
automated tests were developed