About UNX

UNX is a brokerage firm providing advanced trade execution services to institutional investors. The UNX portfolio includes a comprehensive suite of trading tools which cater to varying objectives of their customers.

Background and Business Drivers

Considering the number of solutions offered by UNX and frequency with which newer releases are made available, the management team at UNX made a strategic decision to automate their testing process to ensure quality and reliability of the solutions.

Automation ensures that the application under test is subjected to extended test coverage in a shorter period of time as compared to manual testing. Several factors are instrumental to successful automation of the testing process, such as –

• Domain knowledge as well as a thorough understanding of the solution under test,
• Expertise with tools and technology being adopted for development of the solutions,
• Understanding of the testing methodologies, processes and tools used to automate the same,

Considering time and cost factors UNX was looking for a vendor who would compliment the in-house team on the automation task and identified AppPoint as a suitable candidate for the same.

About AppPoint

AppPoint is a technology company focusing on providing solutions and services to help our customers automate their business processes. The leadership team at AppPoint is comprised of individuals with over a decade of experience in designing and developing enterprise solutions such as Rational Robot, Rational Functional Tester, Rational ClearQuest, etc. AppPoint′s portfolio includes an extensive library of solutions to enhance testability of applications developed using diverse technology. Collaborating with industry leaders such as IBM, Rational Software, Microsoft and Agitar, AppPoint has been successful in addressing complex and unique problems with test automation in domains such as financial solutions, gaming solution, healthcare applications, etc.

AppPoint′s Value Proposition

AppPoint′s unique strengths, which complimented the skills of the UNX team on ensuring success with the automation project, were –

• An in-depth understanding of all phases of testing processes and tools – planning, implementations and analysis,
• Ready availability of a team having thorough understanding of technology and tools being used by UNX,
• Proven and cost effective offshore delivery model,

Test automation challenges and services offered by AppPoint

AppPoint and UNX team continuously worked together on addressing the typical challenges faced by any organization when automating their testing process, such as -

Ensuring availability of skilled resources

When initiating any automation project, organizations need to ensure availability of resources with expertise in domain, technology, tools, architecting automation solution, programming automation modules, analysts, program managers, etc. While UNX has extensive domain expertise and an in depth understanding of their test automation requirements, AppPoint with a team of experienced developers, test automation engineers, tools expertise was able to complement the skills to ensure execution of the automation project.

As in case of any engineering projects, test automation also requires a thorough understanding of the domain as well as the problem space so as to arrive at a suitable solution. UNX team conducted several knowledge transfer session using collaboration tools such as WebEX, GoToMeeting, and telephonic conferencing facility to the automation team at AppPoint. Training sessions were conduct all through the engagement starting with; those necessary to arrive at effort/schedule estimation, to those required to design and develop the automation framework.

	AppPoint team worked with UNX team on various aspects of test automation planning such as - Evaluation and identification of test automation tools which would offer the level of test coverage justifying automation efforts at an optimal cost. Identification of gaps in the test automation tools and possible resolution to these, AppPoint developed over half a dozen test extensibility solutions (Stingray Grid, Stingray Tab, ProfUI Tab, ProfUI Toolbar, etc.) to enhance reliability of the test automation framework, AppPoint developed a custom library to work with test data managed in Excel,
Analysis of over 4000 test cases to arrive at - Optimal modularization architecture for testing artifacts, ensuring maximum reuse and agility to cope with changes in the application, Designing test data harness to achieve higher degrees of test coverage and minimize changes to test scripts with change in application behavior. Defining Scripting standards, Defining test management methodology and architecture Rational TestManager was used to manage all phases to test automation. Test management and execution environment was replicated locally at AppPoint′s off-shore facility. Defining configuration management and defect tracking mechanism Microsoft VSS was used to manage all test artifacts and to track changes. A home grown defect tracking system developed using AppPoint′s Business Process Platform was used to manage and track defects in automation library. Changes made were locally validated before being replicated in the UNX environment. Arriving at an implementation plan Implementation plan was arrived at keeping in mind ongoing development activities, criticality of the test cases, dependency on test extensibility components, etc.

	During the initial 3 weeks, AppPoint and UNX team conducted a daily meeting to ensure smooth initiation of the automation project. AppPoint established a dedicated link to internet backbone to ensure continuous connectivity to UNX network over their VPN infrastructure. Weekly reporting and review plan was established in the beginning of the project and followed through the entire period.

Timely and efficient collaboration between the development and testing teams to ensure and enhance testability of the application,
	To cope with time difference, UNX team had round the clock access to AppPoint′s team over telephone and email. A telephonic conferencing facility was established to ensure continuous communication among team members.

Technology

Rational Robot was used to automate the tests, with scripts begin written in SQABasic. Rational TestManager was used to plan, organize and execute test scripts. Few libraries and utilities were developed using C++/VB/COM to ensure reliability and reusability of the automation scripts.

ROI

Rapid and dynamic changes in requirements combined with the speed at which software solution are delivered has resulted in tremendous pressure on the quality assurance teams. This has driven organizations to find newer ways to deliver higher quality software at a lower cost, of which test automation and structured test management has been a winning proposition.

While test automation aims at achieving extended test coverage with a shorter cycle type, eliminating human errors and optimal use of available infrastructure, test management enables organizations to manage overall testing process, covering activities such as requirement capturing, planning test methodology, implementation of test scripts, execution of test scripts, monitoring and analysis of test execution results, capturing any issues being identified during analysis phase, etc.

By way of automation and structured test management, UNX has been able to achieve greater test coverage in a shorter cycle time, covering 1000s of test cases in matter of hours. This has enabled UNX team to continuously test software that′s undergoing regular changes to cope with customer needs and handle parallel release with ease.

Powered by the test extensibility solutions offered by AppPoint, UNX has been able to achieve higher levels of reliability on the automated test scripts ensuring greater ROI on the automation efforts as well as on the test automation and management solutions from IBM Rational Software.

Leveraging the technology and tools expertise offered by AppPoint, UNX was able to focus on their primary business goal, while ensuring timely completion of the automation efforts.