Original Software’s robust approach to software quality helps Vermont Information Processing reduce release bottlenecks and improve customer support forecasting
Vermont Information Processing (VIP), IT solutions supplier to the beverage wholesale industry, has utilized Original Software’s end-to-end testing solution to increase its software quality. Even with an intensely accelerated development schedule, VIP has improved its customer upgrade experience and reduced pressure on its support team. This in turn has enabled the business to respond effectively to the complex requirements of its customers during volatile market conditions.
A period of market consolidation had caused significant growing pains for VIP. As its customers’ operations increased in complexity, the software that they relied on to manage their business needed to be able to handle much more complicated processes. VIP’s old development cycle just didn’t fit this new development schedule. Putting out new releases became painful, not just for customers and its development team, but the support team was also beginning to feel the repercussions.
With the help of Original Software, VIP was able to develop a much more robust approach to software quality. The company has completely turned around its QA process and overcome its customers’ cautious attitudes to upgrades. VIP has now transformed into a software testing center of excellence with happy customers who are keen to upgrade to new releases.
Since implementation, VIP’s QA department has increased the scope of test coverage, taking control its test environments, comprehensively unit testing and running full regression tests on all system updates. Previously customers went on average three years before updating systems, creating a bottleneck in the upgrade process, now 97% are running a recent version of the software. The team has also vastly reduced the strain on support. Fixing a single bug could save support around 80 hours; it takes a lot less time to run the regression suite now, which on average turns up 10-12 similar bugs. This equates to five and a half months of support time per release!
VIP moved from having one major update release every three years to producing major releases once a year, with numerous maintenance builds in-between. The old eight month-long beta testing phase was too time consuming for the business with its new rapid development schedule and it could no longer afford to do this. With the crunching development cycle, quality was becoming an issue for VIP. “Our customers were really frustrated with us,” explained Bobby Erwin, Quality Control Analyst at VIP. “To get a new feature, they’d also get all these other problems to boot. This would become a strain on the support team too, as they’d spend hours on the phone going through problems.”
“Our main business drivers were to reduce the level of risk by increasing the scope of test coverage. Original Software was the ideal choice” said Erwin.
VIP purchased the solutions from Original Software in May 2007 and once they’d had the initial training it took two or three months to develop their first regression capabilities. They’ve been developing and building on these tests ever since. “Prior to this we conducted no regression testing at all – just a month or so of acceptance testing by customer service and then the beta tests. Now we have a battery of tests we perform every time we release,” imparted Erwin.
“We are providing a much more robust and better product to the end users,” said Bobby Erwin. “Our support and customer service teams are delighted. Our builds are just so much better now, and we can also tell them exactly how risky a release is, and predict the levels of support that might be needed.”
“The regression tests help us manage our exposure: improving experience for the customer, decreasing support needs for a given update. Testing gives us a feel for how stable the build is. It’s a known entity. If the build looks good in testing, we can install with greater confidence. If we find problems, we get a better idea of the support resources needed,” confirmed Chris Boucher, Support Manager at VIP.
It's not a bug, it's a feature! Apple: 'Hold your iPhone 4 differently'
Apple and the iPhone 4 feature in today’s topical entry to the Testing Hall of Shame. As reported by computerandvideogames.com, ‘The geniuses at Apple have put their heads together and come out of the lab with a simple fix for the iPhone 4′s bizarre reception issue: hold your phone differently.’
This week saw the release of most sought after smartphone on the planet, the iPhone 4, but a fatal flaw was quickly discovered – that holding the gadget in a certain way kills reception, which means making phone calls or downloading games is rather difficult.
Here’s a video of the issue, courtesy of TechRadar –
Apple’s statement brushes off the defect as a common issue that is found in most devices.
“Gripping any mobile phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas,” it says.
“This is a fact of life for every wireless phone. If you ever experience this on your iPhone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases.”
So, if you’re having problems, hold the phone in a different way or spend more money to fix the issue preventing the device from performing its primary function. That’s that then.
TechWorld reports that ‘One user saw a boost in signal strength after wrapping the phone in a Ziploc bag, call it a super-cheap alternative to Apple’s $29 bumper. Another post on Apple’s forums recommends covering the sides of the phone with InvisiShield tape. But as one official Apple forum-goer noted, “Apple needs to fix this problem, we should not have to rig a fix for a brand new phone.”’
Thorough testing should have uncovered this bug, but how are Apple now going to appease the thousands of customers who not only queued up for up to 32 hours to get the buggy phone in the first place? One speculation is that Apple are going to release a propeller for the iPhone 4 so that it can hover next to your ear while you make a call!
Blasting away market frustrations
Today we are officially launching Qualify to the world. Our brand new Quality Management solution aids business agility and unifies the software delivery process.
A recent independent report highlighted a huge amount of discontent in the market, with 84% of those surveyed stating that current products did not meet their functional requirements. Built with the purpose of directly answering these needs, Qualify unites all aspects of the software development lifecycle from requirements through to release. It is also fully integrated with Original Software’s manual and automated test execution solutions for the user interface and database layers.
Qualify encompasses requirements, planning, scheduling, resource management, test execution, defect management and reporting in one platform, ensuring collaboration and communication throughout. The methodology agnostic, entirely code free Quality Management solution, even comes complete with a smart phone interface, allowing instant access to cross-project information from just about anywhere.
Businesses now have a much better option than Quality Center from HP. One that really answers today’s business needs. Colin our CEO had this to say about the launch - “With more complexity in IT projects and a need to respond faster to changing markets, development teams have had to adapt the way they work, requiring processes and technology to support the dynamic nature of their businesses. The absence of a holistic solution for ensuring quality when managing the Software Development Life Cycle has been a bone of contention with the customers we speak with.”
We really think it’s quite brilliant and hope you do to. Check out our brand new Qualify page http://www.origsoft.com/qualify, where you will find links to some great resources including datasheets, a comparison document, analyst reports on Qualify and a new whitepaper with a great Star Wars theme entitled ‘What Yoda can teach us about Quality Management’
Having a Holistic View of Your Application Quality
We hope you have had the opportunity to enjoy our series and would like to invite you to join us one more time for our final educational webinar topic: “Having a Holistic View of Your Application Quality”.
Your applications are no doubt essential for running the business, and as such you need to ensure that you manage their quality throughout the software development lifecycle. Join us on this webinar as George Wilson, COO of Original Software, explores the importance of having a unified view of the application quality function.
If you haven’t already registered, make sure you register today to learn how you can improve your business agility throughout the application lifecycle: http://www.origsoft.com/webinars/
