End-to-End Automation for a Reliable Wheel End Products Manufacturer

Challenge

We were entrusted with automating testing the company’s custom NetSuite application used for order management, payment processing, and other operations. 

• Our client used only manual testing without applying optimization techniques or automation;
• We had to turn test cases shortly described in Word documents into a working test automation scripts system;
• Create and run tests for two separate environments;
• Foresee potential crash scenarios and bottlenecks, find and report bugs and critical system blockers.

Solutions

Automation testing diminishes manual intervention and allows for minimizing mistakes as well as speeding up the entire process. To complete our tasks, we have provided this project with two experienced auto QA engineers, who have accomplished the following:

• Created and implemented efficient UI, and end-to-end testing plan;
• Automated 100% of test cases, taking into account NetSuite peculiarities and business logic inherent to the client’s industry;
• Launched daily test runs that allowed us to find bugs and critical blockers almost immediately;
• Implemented CI workflow for more efficient communication, a better rapport with the client’s team, and reliable continuous integration;
• Ensured faster-debugging thanks to extended test coverage;
• Defined critical blockers causing system crashes and offered ways to improve system security.

Tools and Technologies

For this case, we have chosen a combination of tools and technologies for automation testing that allowed us to enhance efficiency and minimize time. 

• Selenium WebDriver: for scalability and robust support across various platforms and operating systems, as well as creating reusable test suits. 

• TestNG: for simplified management of test cases, all the benefits of parallel testing, the possibility of parameterized and dependency tests, as well as clear, “by default” reports. 

• TestRail: for more efficient test management organization and improved organization of testing efforts according to the automation tasks our team has faced in this project.

• Jenkins: to support continuous integration and enable efficient automation process within the scope of our immediate tasks and testing strategy.

Communications

We have entered this challenge following an executive director who was our client in one of the previous automation projects. Communication with a new team was predominently held through him, which had pros and cons. On the one hand, we always had inside reach and solved any issues fast and efficiently. On the other hand, when our trusted liaison quit taking a new position elsewhere, our communication with the client’s team was crippled, and we had to establish new processes hurriedly. 

Thanks to the on-point documentation we have been creating from day one and the seamless workflow our team honed on various other projects, the transition period was brief and didn’t affect our speed or efficiency. 

Impact

Methodology. Our cooperation was first based on the Kanban methodology. It didn’t fully answer the speed and efficiency demands of most of the automation tasks and bug-fix workflow. We have offered to try Scrum workflow, which proved to be more productive and, as to our knowledge, has been used by the client’s manual testing team till now  

TestRail workflow. Our QA implemented and established the TestRail workflow for the entire team. It included all the step-by-step supporting documentation and month-long training instructions for a current manual testing team and specialists that would join the company once our project was done.