Table of Content Background Objective Challenges Project Execution Flow Communication Protocol Solution BACKGROUND Our client’s businesses encompass a broad range of financial services asset management, banking and consumer finance, credit and charge cards, insurance, investments, investment banking and trading and use diverse channels to make hem available to consumer and corporate customers around the world. Our client is largely organized into five business groups. A third party application for mutual fund accounting is being implemented at one of the business groups. The 3rd Party Fund Accounting Application is completely multi-currency, multi-language, multi-compliance and real-time. The system is very rapid and supports very large volumes. Its mission critical architecture and use of leading-edge industry standard development tools ensure almost limitless scalability. Extensive use of user-definable parameters guarantees continuity of operations in a developing environment and adaptability to various country legislations. It is based on the Oracle standard relational database management system RDBMS, and associated Oracle tools. OBJECTIVE The 3rd Party Fund Accounting Application is currently being customized for UK implementation. The vendor of the application releases two version every year and the site specific changes need to be retrofitted into the newer version and a complete UAT cycle needs to be executed before the newer version is promoted to production. The client has decided to automate the UAT process for a shorter UAT cycle and faster promotion to production. By partnering with Xoriant, the client has realized a number of benefits, including: Reduction in the time spent by key business users on the UAT cycle Reduction in the cycle time of the UAT cycle up to 50% Creation of the test automation scripts that are data driven that are easy to scale and maintain Creation of the test automation scripts that are independent of location and they can be easily adapted to a new location Creation test scripts that are standardized and consistent CHALLENGES The client wanted a complete test automation solution including test management process based on industry standard technology approved by the client. The initial evaluation suggested that Mercury Interactive’s TestDirector and WinRunner were ideally suited to meet these requirements. The first challenge was formation of good project team with relevant skills in these technologies. Infrastructure challenge to support the test automation team & provide good performance during test automation cycle was key factor. Project management was identified as critical success factor to meet the aggressive delivery timelines. The challenges were detailed task planning for optimum resource utilization, communication between onsite/offshore team & risk management considering the project complexity. The Xoriant team implemented to well-defined testing methodology that helped successful completion of project. Test Automation methodology was meticulously planned to address the needs of the project. Every delivery (internal or external) stage involved a succeeding review and testing stage to ensure better throughput with expected quality and schedule. One more important challenge was to minimize the learning curve on domain of the 3rd Party application and on the client’s technology standards. PROJECT EXECUTION FLOW COMMUNICATION PROTOCOL Xoriant and our client jointly took a well-defined approach for tracking progress for successful completion. This involved the following activities: Query resolution process with well-defined escalation mechanism Centralized knowledge repository for benefit of the entire team Weekly status updates to all stakeholders Weekly conference call for progress review, issue resolution and risk mitigation Monthly management reviews SOLUTION Xoriant setup a team with a combined strength of individual technological expertise, domain knowledge of Funds Accounting as well as considerable experience of working on Unix deployment environment. Xoriant was responsible for entire test automation of the 3rd Party application. The client was responsible to provide all relevant inputs for test automation such as manual test scripts. The client was also responsible for test automation sign- off & production promotions. Xoriant also fully utilized its existing stable and secure infrastructure to establish VPN connectivity to the client’s servers, as all the test script development & testing was done directly on the client’s network. Xoriant also deployed on-site test lead to act as a bridge between the client and the offshore development team, to facilitate the execution of tasks as well as take advantage of time zone difference. Xoriant also deployed on-site business analyst to understand the functional requirements and provide the domain knowledge to the offshore test automation team. Xoriant used their management expertise during regular customer project reviews to resolve issues & mitigate any risks. Close interaction with customer with appropriate escalation mechanism has helped to ensure that project progressed on schedule. Xoriant implemented CMM level 4 processes during the entire project execution cycle, which included regular project audits to ensure compliance. Peer reviews, peer testing, and scope definition, was done on regular basis to accommodate updates in the project task-lists. SQA team was responsible to provide helpful inputs for improving the test automation process.