SQA2 Case Studies: Health Tech
Overview
Our client, a pioneering healthcare startup, focuses on revolutionizing patient care management by providing seamless access to critical patient data for healthcare providers. Their platform identifies and collects vital patient data to optimize clinical decision-making, streamlining healthcare operations and enhancing patient care delivery by ensuring timely access to essential information.
Project Background
The client’s main objective was to ensure comprehensive test coverage across their platform, which had been hindered by manual testing due to budget constraints. As the platform expanded and onboarded new customers, a scalable QA automation strategy became essential to meet customer-specific testing requirements efficiently.
Challenges in Healthcare Software Testing
- Manual Testing Bottlenecks: Manual testing became a bottleneck, delaying feature releases and compromising scalability for new customers.
- Production Bugs Impact: Manual regression testing allowed bugs to occasionally slip into production, disrupting customer workflows and generating support tickets, negatively impacting the client’s reputation.
- Limited Testing Coverage: The lack of automation meant that customer-specific configurations were inadequately tested, increasing the risk of undetected defects affecting critical functions.
Implementing Cost-Effective Automation for Healthcare QA
To address these challenges, we implemented a comprehensive QA automation framework:
- Blended QA Model: A QA Architect designed the framework, while cost-effective SQaaS (Software Quality as a Service) team members focused on test case creation and automation tasks. This approach ensured high-quality results without the need for expensive SDETs.
- Technologies Used: Python for scripting, Playwright for browser automation, Behave for behavior-driven development, and Docker for consistent testing environments.
- Page Object Model (POM): We structured test scripts using the Page Object Model, making them scalable and easy to maintain.
- Custom Configuration Files: Configurable test files allowed the automation suite to adapt to customer-specific settings, reducing the need for manual intervention.
- CI/CD Integration: Smoke tests were fully integrated into the CI/CD pipeline, enabling immediate feedback and faster issue resolution.
- Efficient Test Execution: A suite of critical tests, optimized to run in under 10 minutes, provided developers with rapid feedback, accelerating the release process.
Automation Results: Enhanced Test Coverage and Reduced QA Costs
The deployment of the automation framework significantly improved the client’s QA processes and platform quality:
- Enhanced Test Coverage: Automation now covers all critical platform functionalities and customer-specific configurations, ensuring thorough testing.
- Reduced Testing Time: Regression testing time was cut by 35%, with smoke tests for multiple customers executing in approximately 20 minutes.
- Improved Scalability: The framework’s scalability allowed the platform to onboard new customers with minimal adjustments. Parallel test execution reduced time and resource consumption.
- Continuous Improvement: Nightly automated test runs monitor various environments, catching potential issues before they escalate.
- Developer Empowerment: Developers can now run smoke tests in the dev environment, identifying bugs earlier and improving overall software quality.
- Cost Savings: By leveraging our blended QA model, the client saved on the cost of hiring expensive SDETs while ensuring high-quality results with the SQaaS team’s flexibility.
Client Feedback
The client expressed significant satisfaction with the automation framework, emphasizing its role in reducing production issues and improving the onboarding process for new customers. During testing, the automation framework caught a configuration change in a lower environment that had been overlooked by the client. This reinforced the value of automation, as the client noted, “Automation tells us things we wouldn’t know otherwise.” The transition from manual to automated testing played a key role in increasing platform reliability and reducing customer support tickets.
Contact Us
Looking to implement cost-effective automation without hiring expensive SDETs? At SQA², we specialize in delivering high-quality, scalable QA automation solutions tailored to your unique needs. Whether you’re aiming to reduce production bugs, improve test coverage, or accelerate release cycles, we can help.
Contact Us today for a free consultation and discover how we can optimize your QA process, improve platform reliability, and save costs with our flexible QA solutions!
