CASE STUDY

CA Agile Requirements Designer at a.s.r

2 | CASE STUDY: AGILE REQUIREMENTS DESIGNER AT a.s.r.

CLIENT PROFILE Industry: InsuranceCompany: a.s.r.Employees: nearly 3,900Revenue: € 3,8 billion (2014)

Introduction:An a.s.r. test data engineer discusses the critical role CA Agile Requirements Designer played in allowing their test team to deliver under a tight deadline. Having been given just two weeks’ notice, flexible flowchart modelling, automated test case design and test optimization meant that they could deliver rigorously tested software on constantly changing requirements. Flowchart modelling is now fully adopted in the business line, while the business now approaches the test teams much earlier to include them in the requirements gathering process.

100% Functional Coverage of all Requirements

Future changes to requirements or processes can be easily supported, with an immediate understanding of their impact. This allows testers and the business to stay in control of constantly changing requirements with ease.

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3 | CASE STUDY: AGILE REQUIREMENTS DESIGNER AT a.s.r.

A project manager approached me, asking if I would be able to set-up an automated test framework for his project, and execute it—all within two weeks. As a tester, my initial reaction was, “Why did you not approach me sooner?” I am convinced that this issue happens in most, if not all, companies around the globe: tomorrow, the software needs to be delivered, and, oh yeah, it needs to be tested too… Sigh.

An important question to ask before attempting to execute testing correctly is, “Where are the requirements and how well defined are they?” In this case, it turned out that the requirements were actually still being updated so we knew upfront that the test set-up needed to be flexible. The project manager also wanted to know if it would be possible to test everything.

The Challenge

Business a.s.r. is one of the largest insurance and financial services providers in the Netherlands. Dating back to 1720, a.s.r. has adapted to the digital age, from providing online banking to offering a “Drive Safely” android app. Software is now integral to delivering an innovative and relevant customer experience.

ChallengeUser needs and business requirements are constantly shifting, whatever the industry. At a.s.r., this meant that the test teams frequently found themselves being given projects at very short notice, while the requirements themselves were still evolving. In this instance, they had two weeks to deliver a fully tested application, while having to reckon with constant change.

SolutionCA Agile Requirements Designer provided the functionality and flexibility required to deliver fully tested software that reflects constant change on time and within budget. In four hours, existing requirements were mapped to a flowchart model which allowed test teams to quickly and easily understand the changing requirements. Test cases which provided 100 percent coverage were then derived directly from the model. The model was flexible so that the tests could be quickly and automatically updated.

BenefitThe flowchart provided a single point of reference for the business and IT so that test teams immediately understood changes made to the requirements. Once generated, the optimal set of test cases were executed in just three days so that the fully tested software was released on time, with no incidents. Since introducing CA Agile Requirements Designer, the business approach testing teams far earlier, while test preparation time has been practically reduced to nothing.

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I asked the project manager if he was okay to approach the project a little differently from how it was usually done within a.s.r. so that the QA department could actually deliver on his request. After explaining my proposal, and discussing the positive impact it could have in the short and long term, he agreed to the approach. The approach was built on four steps:

Step 1: Ask: What is actually requested/desired?

We started with the business requirements, asking “What do they want to achieve?” The challenge lay in quickly, but reliably, advising on how to achieve the required quality in the upcoming project. It was a matter of, as a tester, quickly getting the information needed to build a complete picture of the desired functionality, without leaving anything to assumption (the “mother of all defects”). In short, the goal was to create test sets that test all changes quickly and rigorously, assuring full coverage of the functionality being delivered.

Step 2: Design: Make the test flow model.

As there was no single, well-defined requirements document, I decided to draw a graphical model of the desired functionality to serve as a single point of reference across testers and with the project manager. We used CA Agile Requirements Designer, which we had procured a year earlier, on top of our existing HP ALM toolset. In CA Agile Requirements Designer, requirements are graphically depicted in a flowchart: a simple, easy way to read and understand a system’s logic, with clear paths through it.

4 | CASE STUDY: AGILE REQUIREMENTS DESIGNER AT a.s.r.

The Solution

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5 | CASE STUDY: AGILE REQUIREMENTS DESIGNER AT a.s.r.

It took four hours to map all the requirements to flows. I then discussed them with the business to verify that I had understood the requirements correctly. The initial response was immediately very positive. It enabled us to talk about the desired functionality much more succinctly, quickly making the flows unambiguous, complete and correct. They were immediately approved so the design phase was complete!

Proud of the quick results, I posted the flowchart as a poster on the wall, making it visible for all the project team members. The changes being made to the project requirements were immediately clear to everyone involved from then on.

Step 3: Production: Generate test cases and test scripts.

This step will be very interesting for testers, as CA Agile Requirements Designer automatically generates all the test cases needed to fully test a system with a single press of a button. Not only that, it will generate them with the smallest amount of tests yet still retain maximum coverage. This is unique and very welcome functionality and proved invaluable for the project as we only had two weeks to fully test the system. The test cases also synchronized directly from CA Agile Requirements Designer to ALM which made it very easy to use within the existing systems at a.s.r..

Step 4: Execution: Happy testing.

After a week of work in CA Agile Requirements Designer, all flows and test cases had been generated. It would have been even better if the execution could have been fully automated, but that was not possible at the time using CA Agile Requirements Designer. However, this ability to export the optimized test cases as automated tests is now offered, via the TMX plugin. After two business days, we had executed all 137 test scripts with 100 percent coverage and zero defects found—a result to be proud of.

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The Solution (continued)

“After two business days, we had executed all 137 test scripts with 100 percent coverage and zero defects found. A result to be proud of.”

6 | CASE STUDY: AGILE REQUIREMENTS DESIGNER AT a.s.r.

In a little over a week, all the processes had been documented, with the accompanying test cases generated, and all with 100 percent test coverage. All test cases had been executed within just three days of further work. This time gain allowed us to complete the automated testing of the insurance premium calculations successfully and within the two week deadline. The project manager responsible described how, “thanks to the support of CA Agile Requirements Designer tooling in improving the QA process, we have been able to succeed and deliver in such a short timeframe.”

As of the time of this writing, a couple of months have passed since the above results were achieved, and, with hindsight, we can say that the release of the software was a great success. No incidents occurred; the customer was happy and the testers were overwhelmed with compliments.

One of the greatest effects of adopting CA Agile Requirements Designer, outside of the testing process itself, is that we are now asked much earlier by the business to participate in the requirements gathering process. The use of the flowchart as a means of improving internal communication is now fully adopted within the business line. As a result, changes in requirements (and hence testing) can be made very quickly and easily. The time we now require to prepare tests has dramatically decreased, with test preparation virtually non-existent.

The next step will be the addition of automated creation of anonymized test data (as provided by CA Test Data Manager, which integrates with CA Agile Requirements Designer), and the automatic execution of the test scripts.

The Benefit

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7 | CASE STUDY: AGILE REQUIREMENTS DESIGNER AT a.s.r. ca.com

The Advantages of CA Agile

Requirements Designer in a NutshellIncrease clarity between the business and IT:• Drastic improvement in requirements and test case quality.• Based on the requirements or the intake screens, processes can be visualized,

eliminating ambiguity and providing clarity across teams.• No rework is required during the development and test phase.• CA Agile Requirements Designer is dependable and gives transparency.• Projects are delivered on time and are predictable.• In agile teams, before development has started, the requirements can be validated

upfront, eliminating late rework.

Automate test case design and optimization:• At any moment, test cases can be generated directly from the requirements,

including for individual unit tests.• Get 100 percent functional coverage of all requirements.• CA Agile Requirements Designer achieves maximum coverage in the minimal

amount of test cases compared to manual testing where the coverage tends to be much lower.•Test cases can be matched to existing test data. Using CA Test Data Manager, anymissing data needed to execute tests can be generated, further assuring fullcoverage for the best possible testing.

Testing can keep up with the pace of constant change:• Future changes to requirements or processes can be easily supported with an

immediate understanding of their impact. This allows testers and the business tostay in control of constantly changing requirements with ease.

The Benefit (continued)

“TCO achieves maximum coverage in the minimal amount of test cases, compared to manual testing where the coverage tends to be much lower”

8 | CASE STUDY: AGILE REQUIREMENTS DESIGNER AT a.s.r.

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