Introduction
Amidst stiff competition, a Leading telecom company in Middle East has been a torch-bearer in the telecommunications industry since 2007. However, from an operational perspective, it faced a few challenges that pulled back its growth proposition. With Cogniwide’s integrated approach, they transformed its data management to the next level.
Competing in a digital world meant transforming both hard capabilities (the tech stack) and soft capabilities (the operating model) to create a business environment in which change can take root at scale and strategy is fully enabled by digital technology. Cogniwide’s approach helped they set a new standard of excellence.
Cogniwide identified four winning patterns tailored specifically to their digital ambition.
1. Laying down the digital foundation
In an increasingly digital industry, how they create a solid foundational infrastructure? – Cogniwide’s proven end-to-end framework supported by an expansive ecosystem worked towards rearranging foundational elements of the company’s digital infrastructure, which includes,
TPM (Test Portfolio Management)
Managing CRs has always been a laborious task for them, with a pile of test cases to be executed and updated daily. They had its test case portfolio in a scattered manner. There was a lack of a systematic, centralized platform with which managing CRs would become much more accessible. Cogniwide’s TPM solution within the QA automation initiative addressed several issues, as mentioned below.
- The solution identified test metrics and created dedicated dashboards to manage test cases. These dashboards helped streamline the process of updating and editing CRs independently.
- A test-case repository called Test Bank was created using a metadata structure. The repository enabled easy access to test-cases, saving time and effort.
- The creation and execution of test plans were automated for the CRs using metadata. This removed the necessity of manual intervention to create test plans for test-cases.
- Creation of a Defect Management System to manage and log defects in test cases.
The primary purpose of the TPM solution was to automate the entire E2E Test process from Test Bank Management to Test Planning to Test Execution to Defect Management process using JIRA and XRAY. The results were outstanding. TPM automation enabled a faster execution process, saving time and resources. Previously, they had all its test-case management done using very expensive licensed software. Additionally, we could create detailed traceability reports with native BDD support. Tracking of defects became less cumbersome. Cogniwide’s TPM solution is entirely based on open-source, which is not as extravagant as licensed software. Moreover, licensed software like Word and Excel were more complex in managing test cases than in Jira.
TAM (Test Automation Management)
Manual testing has been a barricade for growth for all companies, including them. With hundreds and thousands of test cases to be managed and updated daily, the process of assigning every test case to a particular team member and manually testing it was time-consuming. This wasted much effort that could have been invested in some other process. Also, they used licensed tools to manage test cases that cost a fortune for the company. Although it is a giant in the industry, with COGNIWIDE’ s open-source tools to manage test cases, it benefited at large for the company. With TAM, an end-to-end automated solution was provided to test it’s web, API and desktop applications, enabling better software functionality and early identification of bugs.
This is how it works – Whenever a test case was uploaded, or an existing test case needed updating, instead of assigning it to a team member, the automation software was executed and the task would finish within minutes without any bugs. This framework is called “Robot Framework” based on Python.
A report is attached with every execution stating whether the test case was executed error-free. Test execution report captured the following details.
- Execution Time at test steps.
- Overall test case execution time.
- Collect the log of execution.
- Include screenshots for each step.
- If execution time is greater than 10% compared to the baseline included in the report.
A repository of test cases was maintained in JIRA Xray for quick reference. The whole idea was based on the concept of “Zero Touch” automation wherein, every step of test case execution is automated without manual intervention. A big sigh of relief for their testing team! Isn’t it?
TDM (Test Data Management)
With more than 20 applications running on different environments, the need to manage thousands of test data is unavoidable. In such case, manually obtaining testing data from TPM and TAM and their execution to test whether they are valid for a particular use-case is tiring. For their infinite test case data, the best solution to manage the extraction and execution from TPM and TAM framework was the TDM tool developed by Cogniwide. For example, if they wanted thousands of unique email ids to test a particular use-case, without manual intervention, TDM could generate them within a fraction of a second, saving a lot of resources and time.
Procuring production data that is highly sensitive from the production environment and testing it in real-time is a significant challenge amidst telecommunication companies like them. A breach in the data-security of millions of their customers would be a disaster for their business prospects. TDM, without manual intervention, can collect and test data from their customer databases using a data masking technique to ensure cent percent security for all their customer data. Data security is ensured at all levels of test data management.
2. Integrating a fragmented digital landscape
TIM (Tools Integration Management)
Integration of various independent frameworks has been crucial to Cogniwide’s streamlined approach. Integrating different tools with the data hub using microservice architecture facilitates data for data analytics, reporting, and downstream activities.
As the term suggests, Microservices is a method to develop applications that focus on building single-function modules with well-defined interfaces and operations to become more Agile and move towards DevOps and continuous testing.
As the term suggests, Microservices is a method to develop applications that focus on building single-function modules with well-defined interfaces and operations to become more Agile and move towards DevOps and continuous testing.
- Independent development & deployment of services
- Small and faster deployment
- Speed, agility, and scalability
- Better code quality
- No technology/vendor lock-in
- Code created/organized around business functionality
- Increased productivity
For building such a robust integrated framework of all tools, Cogniwide developed nearly 20 procedures by using cutting-edge technology. The centralized server that holds all the information of all microservices tools is called the “Eureka server”. This server is like an umbrella, with all the info regarding every port and IP address. This makes it highly maintainable, testable, loosely coupled, and independently deployable. Also, no additional configuration is required for Docker-enabled microservices. Thus, it provides high-level sustainability and resilience to their applications.
DAR (Data Analytics and Reporting)
As data explodes in quantity and complexity, they found it difficult to unlock its full potential. Cogniwide’s comprehensive approach to their data challenges helped it conquer obstacles and become an analytics leader. Cogniwide assisted them in standardizing its data architecture, and cloud computing and created around 15 independent application dashboards by deploying user-friendly tools to the team members. This centralized monitoring system helped them to extract maximum value from all data assets.
Predictive analytics is another weapon that widened the aperture for predicting future of their test data. Our latest analytics techniques and tools helped them to generate insights that yield better, faster decisions. We could better predict functional and operational metrics by analyzing current and historical data. This DAR framework is increasingly accurate and is cost saving.
3. Launching the digital rocket
Cogniwide’s winning digital strategy helped them balance today’s needs with tomorrow’s opportunities. According to us, there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to digital transformation. We always measure our customer’s requirements and customize our solutions best suited for them. While retooling their test case framework, Cogniwide made sure to make changes quickly to stay one step ahead of the change.
