Manual and Automated Testing for a Database Management Solution

Challenge

The client contacted us when they were finishing working on another update of their product with a request to perform comprehensive testing of the whole solution, test the tickets supplied by the development team, and then perform complete regression testing of all basic functionality, even if it was not affected by the changes in the code.

One of the main challenges of the project was the fact that the solution works with a large variety of databases (including SQL and MongoDB-based ones), which meant that knowledge of the database technology was integral for testing the product correctly.

Moreover, there were over twenty databases deployed on the client’s side, which sometimes posed an additional challenge for us because we couldn’t quickly access those databases in case there were any hiccups in their operation. Our productive cooperation with the client’s team, including the Product Architect, helped us overcome this challenge by establishing a fast response procedure for these situations.

Solutions

Part of the client’s request was to create new test coverage, which meant we had to write new test cases to ensure that. In the duration of the project, our team created 150+ test cases from scratch, as well as worked with the existing ones.

To overcome the challenge of multiple databases and complex technologies required for all-encompassing testing, we selected members of the team who specifically had experience with databases to work on the project.

The types of testing used on this project included:

• Exploratory testing
• Functional testing
• Regression testing
• Smoke testing
• Build verification testing
• Acceptance testing
• Cross-platform testing

To speed up the testing process, increase test coverage, and improve the efficiency of testing, we employed the services of automation testing engineers. They also helped create and test scenarios that relied on the knowledge of software code to be successful.

In an effort to better meet the client’s technical and business needs, we used a dynamic team setup, expanding and downsizing the team as needed. Overall, the team working on the project consisted of:

• 1 QA Lead
• 5 to 8 Manual QAs at different stages of the project
• 2 Automation QAs

Despite the fact that our testing team and the client’s development team were located in different time zones, we managed to make it work by establishing an effective collaboration process with a combination of synchronous (including weekly calls) and asynchronous communication.