Atena

Business Need

As Atena launched a new software development project to create a customized solution for one of its clients, senior management hoped to eventually productize the solution. One of the key elements of the project was API testing. The solution would need to integrate with other systems at this particular client.

The requirement of the new application was the possibility of automatic testing its modules during the development process. To bring the development project in on time, Atena needed to figure out a way to streamline and accelerate the testing process.

“We automated our tests many years ago but wanted to expand our testing capabilities so we could run more tests several times per day,” says Artur Muchewicz, Director of Software Development at Atena. “One of our key needs to achieve this objective was to run automatic testing directly—without using the GUI, which slows down the process.”

Atena also hoped to be able to transfer API tests between different development environments since the solution would eventually need to integrate with other varying client environments. Automating selected tests was another important attribute in cases where testers just needed to test a small set of APIs.

“Because our testers have varying areas of expertise, we also hoped to identify a tool that could be used with minimal knowledge about API test automation,” adds Muchewicz. “We wanted it to be easy for them to run the tests on their own at certain times, and we needed support for multiple users running tests of the same APIs at the same time.”

Targeted Solution

The Atena development team researched possible API testing solutions, and discovered the free open source tool, SoapUI. After seeing how easy the tool makes API testing -- and that it’s easy to learn -- Atena purchased the professional version from SmartBear, ReadyAPI.

For REST, SOAP and other API protocols, ReadyAPI provides comprehensive and easy-to-use functional testing capabilities. Based on open core technology proven by millions of community members, ReadyAPI also helps testers and developers ensure whether APIs perform as intended and if the APIs meet the business requirements.

“ReadyAPI makes it easy for several testers and developers to collaborate on API testing involving the same code,” Muchewicz adds “This is important for us because our team has a variety of coding skills—everyone finds the tool easy to use.”

ReadyAPI gives Atena the ability to immediately test the APIs of individual SOAP and REST services as well as specific sets of data. This enables the development team to ensure the application GUI layer works. The process also takes less time because the team can run the tests before integrating the app with the GUI layer.

Benefits and Results

SmartBear ReadyAPI was immediately embraced by the Atena testers because it’s so easy to use and allows them to focus on testing instead of learning new API skills. “ReadyAPI helps us deliver a dynamite product and it brings our testers and developers together in a collaborative testing environment.”

The SmartBear solution has enabled the Atena software development team to create tests once and then run them in multiple environments with different configurations. “We can run more tests so that we have greater assurance that our custom software is working well,” Muchewicz points out. “We now run above 1,000 test cases after each code release—about five times per day. Before, when we conducted manual regression testing, we could only run about 200 test cases once per day because they took about three hours.”

In addition to speeding up the regression process 25X—by increasing the number of test cases per day from 200 to 5000—ReadyAPI helps the development team communicate by bringing testers together on one API testing platform that they all understand. “The solution gets us on the same page, speaking the same language when discussing API test results,” Muchewicz explains. “The testers can more easily understand what the developers are doing with their code, and the developers can more easily understand the feedback they receive from the testers.”

When developers conduct their own testing, ReadyAPI reduces the amount of time they need to spend on testing. They just click a button and can see the quality of code right away. This allows them to focus more time on developing the code.

The feedback on the API tests has also helped the developers improve their coding. Over time, there have been fewer errors to fix, and the developers now have clearer feedback on the quality of their code in their environment, not the testing environment.  

“In the end, ReadyAPI is helping us produce better custom software for one of our most important clients” Muchewicz says.

Business Challenges

• Ensure GUI layer works for custom application developed for a major client.
• Streamline and accelerate API testing to run above 1,000 tests multiple times per day.
• Run automatic testing directly without using the GUI.
• Transfer API tests between different development environments.
• Enable testers and developers to test APIs with minimal knowledge about test automation.

SmartBear ReadyAPI

• Provides comprehensive, easy-to-learn testing for API protocols.
• Helps ensure APIs perform as intended and meet business requirements.
• Makes it easy for several testers and developers to collaborate on API testing.
• Enables immediate API testing of SOAP and REST services as well as specific sets of data.
• Allows testers and developers to create tests once that then run in multiple environments. 

Measurable Results

• Creates greater assurance custom software for a major client is working well.
• Increases API test cases per day from 200 to 5,000.
• Facilitates communication by bringing testers and developers together on one API testing platform.
• Reduces API testing time so developers spend more time developing code.
• Provides feedback on API tests that helps developers improve coding.