Agile testing: quick results, lasting impact
A financial services company that had never integrated testing in development needed to improve their existing FX Trading application. We built a better version of their app, with integrated smart testing practice.
A Scandinavian financial services company engaged us to deliver a replacement of their existing FX trading Java Applet application with a modern Single Page Application.
Building a better application
The application had to work across a range of devices, and be quicker and easier to use. It also needed to integrate with their research platform, to enable users to easily change their positions based on the market.
We wanted the app to look great and be simple and intuitive. The team at Scott Logic made things very easy for us – there was no cumbersome project planning, or long winded specification process.
Chris Whellams, CTO, Nord Pool Group
Agile testing and test automation
Working in two-week sprints using Scrum, we tested with agility. Having never integrated testing within agile development, the client was initially hesitant about our approach; they were concerned that testing would create bottlenecks and slow delivery. But the opposite was true – by having a dedicated tester on the front end development team and integrating testing from the beginning, we hit all project milestones, releasing the app on time and with no disruption.
We created an automation framework with an extensible and maintainable codebase, written in JavaScript. The automation was parameterised, to enable execution on three different environments.
The three environments were connected to real business services, causing stability issues as the data could change without notice. To improve reliability and to enable UI checks to run appropriately, we added mock services to the continuous integration environment.
Within each sprint we developed automated user interface checks for new functionality. At the end of the project, over 400 UI checks for regression were being executed in 3 minutes – this would have taken a full day if it had been done manually.
The results
The project was a success: the new app is more enjoyable to use, more powerful, and fully maintainable. We couldn’t have completed the project so quickly and effectively without smart testing.
Not only was the client delighted with the success of the project, they were also thrilled to see the impact that integrated testing practice could have.
We’re proud to have helped them transform their approach to testing – a shift which will have long-term positive benefits for their future projects.
This project resulted in Scott Logic being shortlisted as a Finalist in the European Software Testing Awards 2017, in the Best Agile Project category.
Delivered by Scott Logic
- Automation framework with an extensible and maintainable codebase, written in JavaScript
- Mock services added to the continuous integration environment
- Automated user interface checks for new functionality in each sprint
