Federal Agency Uses TestComplete and QAComplete

Business Need

For application test creation, automation and management, the software development team at one of the US government’s most prominent agencies previously relied on IBM Rational and HP Quality Center. But when launching a new software development project for which new testing licenses would be required, the agency’s Lead QA Engineer found herself working with a limited budget: “Because of the budget limitations, we needed to find a way to retain the capabilities of the previous application testing tools we were using, but at the same time significantly lower the cost of those tools. We then began our search for tools that would meet these needs.”

One of the key criteria for the new testing tools was to give the agency software development team the ability to view all test cases in one system. This would help the team monitor testing progress and ensure new applications and application updates went into production when scheduled.

The federal agency conducted demos of multiple testing solutions and found the answer to their need from two SmartBear solutions: TestComplete and QAComplete.

Targeted Solutions

The SmartBear TestComplete platform enables software development teams to quickly create reliable, automated GUI tests across of a wide range of desktop, Web, mobile and packaged applications. Developers and testers have the flexibility to choose among JavaScript, Python, VBScript, JScript, DelphiScript, C++Script, and C#Script to create tests. The platform also provides support for Oracle Forms and many third-party controls and frameworks while helping teams maintain test versioning through integrations with source control systems such as Git, Subversion and Mercurial.

After creating tests in TestComplete, software development teams can then leverage SmartBear QAComplete to manage the test cases. Testers can easily define flexible custom fields as well as create custom roles and permissions; set up specific workflows and notifications; and change user-interfaces. The solution also improves visibility across development teams by using real-time reports and dashboards while integrating with requirement and defect management systems as well as more than 40 automation tools and CI tools, including JIRA.

“In addition to the SmartBear solutions costing us a lot less than the solutions from IBM and HP, the training our team required was minimal,” the Lead QA Engineer says. “TestComplete and QAComplete have a similar feel to other enterprise testing tools, and the capabilities they provide are just as robust.”

Benefits and Results

“Our software development teams appreciate that TestComplete and QAComplete can be used for many programming languages and from any browser,” says the Lead QA Engineer. “This is key because different teams use different languages for which they need testing support—Java, Java Script, Visual Basic and Visual Basic Script. We also do hand calling at an advanced level, a process that the SmartBear tools sync well with.”

As the manager of a software development team, the Lead QA Engineer also relies on QAComplete to generate reports that allow her to see the progress of each developer on the applications they are testing. And since TestComplete integrates with JIRA, the agency’s source control management system, it helps facilitate the overall software development lifecycle.

“In addition, the integration between TestComplete and QAComplete gives us traceability across different software development teams,” adds the Lead QA Engineer. “This includes tracing requirements, tests and defect mitigation.”

The federal agency now has one single view for the entire software development team, which makes it possible to efficiently manage the development lifecycle of all applications. Developers, QA testers, business analysts and project managers can all access real-time, accurate updates to know when each testing phase will be completed and to forecast when overall projects will be completed. They can also assess if all the requirements have been tested and if any defects need to be fixed.

“The SmartBear solutions present all the information very clearly,” the Lead QA Engineer emphasizes. “We can more easily see which requirements need to be tested and which requirements need to worked upon. We refer to the views that the solutions provide as ‘organized work’ since TestComplete and QAComplete enable us to complete our work faster.”

Software developer managers rely on SmartBear dashboards to monitor testing progress, which is very important during crunch-time deadlines. The managers can see which defects are fixed and which are not fixed to know how close the team is to completion, and to determine when to allocate more resources, if necessary, to keep projects on-time.

“Given the value that TestComplete and QAComplete deliver, they are among our favorite tools,” the Lead QA Engineer points out. “The automated test creation and test management capabilities greatly accelerate how quickly we can move applications into production.”

This in turn means that the agency’s end-user employees—more than 20,000—can be more productive in their jobs and contribute more effectively to helping the agency achieve its mission—serving the citizens of the United States.

• Launch new application project while reducing cost of supporting testing tools.
• Maintain previous software testing capabilities.
• Create single view into testing progress so entire team knows real-time project status.
• Identify new testing solutions that are easy for new personnel to use.

• Enables quick creation of reliable, automated GUI tests.
• Provides flexibility to choose from wide range of development languages to create tests.
• Integrates with source control, requirement and defect management systems.
• Improves visibility across teams by generating real-time reports and dashboards.
• Requires minimal training.

• Costs less than IBM Rational and HP Quality Center.
• Enables requirement, test and defect traceability across software development lifecycles.
• Provides entire software development with the testing status of all applications.
• User-friendly attributes facilitate training and high rates of adoption.
• Accelerates application production timelines so end users can work more efficiently.