Portfolio
a1qa provides long-standing QA assistance to the research center in the USA
The client contacted a1qa to orchestrate quality assurance of the entire complex IT ecosystem.
Overview
…I’d like to mention the a1qa team’s willingness to adapt to our needs quickly and effectively: despite the significant time difference, the team is virtually always accessible and ready to tackle any urgent task and fulfill any unplanned request within hours.
The company is an asset to use when it comes to delivering quality products against tight deadlines.
Deputy Executive Director
The client is a leading public research center specializing in data analytics and technology-driven solutions for economic and workforce development.
The client built numerous software solutions, including:
- The job portal aimed at identifying and implementing technological solutions for service delivery and economic development in the state. The client has identified, designed, and implemented technology and software for the coordination of economic and employment service delivery across the region.
- A web-based system to facilitate the process of calculating tax credits (benefits) that employers can earn for a federal program. Rebates depend upon the target group of the individual hired, the wages paid to the individual in the first year of employment, and the number of hours the individual worked.
- A group of applications to provide a wide range of public assistance programs, social services, and support for children, low-income individuals, and families. The applications are based on federal programs.
- Mobile applications for Android and iOS platforms that allow the citizens to search and apply for jobs, build an employment profile, see job match information, find the nearest Job Center for in-person services, and more.
Initially, the client had no QA process in place. Therefore, a1qa was contacted to provide full-cycle QA assistance on all existing projects.
Services offered
Functional testing
Mobile application testing
Test automation
Performance testing
Accessibility testing
Documentation services
Cybersecurity testing
Project scope
The state boasts a population of over 3 million, making it crucial to introduce solutions that cause minimal disruption and require limited support to secure public trust.
a1qa adheres to a core principle: defining test criteria and identifying necessary tests at the earliest stage. This proactive approach avoids wasting efforts on rework and ensures the development of effective, purpose-fit business solutions. In this project, a1qa conducts a comprehensive range of testing activities.
- Functional testing
a1qa focused on the test coverage by applying both positive and negative scenarios to increase it and carry out checks involving its different levels.
As soon as the first version of the application was delivered to the QA team, the engineers performed a full functional test. Ensuring quality of subsequent app versions was supplemented by new feature testing, defect validation, and regression testing to make sure the introduced functionality worked as intended. Bug-tracking software guaranteed high transparency while handling the issues and streamlined the teamwork on the project.
The results were reflected in a detailed report containing the data on the quality of testing and personalized recommendations from the a1qa experts regarding the steps to strengthen the solution quality.
- Mobile application testing
Further on, the a1qa specialists proceeded with carrying out the analysis of the widely applied devices in the client’s region. Based on the statistics and considering the preferences of end users regarding screen sizes and OSs, the most popular items were selected as the basis for testing.
Leveraging an extensive lab with numerous mobile devices, a1qa performs testing solely on real devices. Although, the engineers are always ready to use the client’s items if required.
In the scope of the project, the QA team also applied several verifications under specific circumstances like screen rotation, low battery, or memory shortage.
- Test automation
Due to the rapid development of the client’s projects, the QA team had little time to cover the regression scope manually. To fulfill all tests qualitatively and ensure just-in-time delivery, the engineers could choose between two options – either involve more team members or implement test automation. The second variant was introduced.
By implementing test automation, the a1qa engineers fulfilled the extensive regression scope saving time significantly. To optimize the test management process and eliminate the need for manual reporting, the a1qa team introduced an add-on for Jira that later was integrated into the majority of the client’s projects.
It helped increase transparency for the client and allowed monitoring the relevant status of automated tests in real time to always stay informed of the project scope.
For instance, in just three days, automating 800 scenarios saved each engineer 20 hours of manual testing, accelerating the process and reducing client costs.
The tailored test automation approach proved highly effective. Over the course of two months, a single project saved up to 500 hours of manual testing.
Test automation was subsequently introduced into other client projects.
- Accessibility testing
Since the customer works in a governmental industry, the products must comply with particular governmental standards, including those in accessibility. They require that software developers must avoid creating access barriers to people with special needs and develop the products that are compatible with assistive technology. a1qa fulfilled accessibility testing to check software compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and WCAG 2.1 standard. Therefore, timely accessibility testing carried out by a1qa makes the software usable for every citizen.
- Performance testing
Performance testing fulfilled by the a1qa experts allowed:
- Ensuring the software would handle the desired load
- Making sure web pages response time would remain within the range
- Verifying the application API would cope with the expected number of requests per unit time (minute/hour/day)
- Determining the maximum number of simultaneously working users wouldn’t affect system operability
- Identifying the number of users necessary for the optimal application server load, in particular, CPU load of the database
- Assessing the influence of the increasing data on database performance
- Detecting defects related to system functioning.
Client-side testing helped detect and resolve the following bottlenecks:
- Non-optimal resource utilization (HTML, CSS, JS)
- Browser caching
- Compression.
Overcoming those client-side issues helped decrease the load time of web pages significantly allowing end users to access the desired services faster.
Most of the applications under test have complex logic and target different types of users. Periodically, the client made requests to develop user guides for these applications. The a1qa technical writers worked closely together with the QA team to thoroughly investigate the functionality and create high-quality manuals. 10+ detailed documents were developed.
Since the client was committed to providing top-notch protection for sensitive data, it adhered to a special plan for conducting research and development responsibly and ethically. At the client’s request, a1qa performed security and penetration testing.
Cooperation with the client began nearly a decade ago, and a1qa proved to be an indispensable software testing partner, ensuring the quality of numerous projects related to government social programs, data systems, and document management.
Technologies & tools
- Apache Directory Studio
- dbForge Studio, Oracle
- DevTools
- Android SDK, iTools
- Bamboo, Jenkins
- JUnit, TestNG, Cucumber
- Jira, Xray
- SoapUI, Postman
- Statuspage
- Git
- Mobizen
- Apache JMeter
- Selenium WebDriver/Grid
- Smart Framework
- JAWS
- Standard: WCAG 2.1
Results
-
Provided 3 million citizens with high-quality IT products in the areas of education, workforce, and economic development, thus fostering economic development in local communities.
-
Ensured the software can be successfully leveraged by people with diverse needs.
-
Accelerated time-to-market and optimized costs due to automating extensive regression testing scope.
In numbers
10
years of cooperation
30
completed releases (9 websites, 6 mobile apps, and 15 web apps)
1000+
hours of manual testing saved by test automation
14
extensive manuals created by the technical writers