SQA2 Case Studies: E-commerce
Client Background
The client is a leading brand commerce solution provider offering tools designed to enhance revenue, optimize customer journeys, and protect brand margins. Their core products include a digital shelf analytics solution for optimizing share of search and product pages and a monitoring tool for managing and enforcing online pricing compliance. They partnered with us because of the high regard their Director of Engineering holds for our expertise in QA. Their previous perception of QA emphasized its necessity but lacked effective processes to handle critical challenges efficiently.
Project Overview
The main objectives of this project were to implement automation solutions for the client’s key platforms and develop a comprehensive suite of test cases. The goal was to minimize the number of bugs in pre-release builds, ensure seamless API and UI performance, and introduce improved requirements and process quality in sprint meetings. This initiative aimed to elevate the client’s quality assurance processes to match the complexity of their platforms and customer expectations.
Challenges
Prior to our involvement, the client faced several critical issues, including:
- Reliance on Production Data: Both development and testing processes exclusively used production data, increasing the risk of jeopardizing live client information during QA efforts.
- Inconsistent Requirements and Designs: Story tickets often lacked clarity or detailed designs, leading to confusion and inefficiencies in the development process.
- Last-Minute Changes: Frequent last-minute feature injections into releases introduced significant risks and delays, compromising build stability and causing rushed testing.
- Resistance to Change: Efforts to create a dedicated staging environment were resisted due to budgetary restrictions and previous failed attempts at database migrations, which resulted in significant financial losses.
These issues led to inefficiencies, reduced product quality, and delays in delivering stable releases.
Solutions Implemented
To address these challenges, we introduced a series of improvements tailored to the client’s needs:
- Risk Mitigation for Production Data Usage: We mitigated risks associated with production data by introducing a dedicated test client for QA purposes. On rare occasions when live data testing was required, stringent safeguards were applied to protect client information.
- Requirement and Process Quality: We enforced a robust process to ensure tickets met the definition of “Ready for Development” before being included in sprints. This involved verifying clear acceptance criteria, designs, and detailed descriptions during sprint planning and grooming sessions. Discrepancies between designs and ticket requirements were identified and resolved early, reducing confusion and delays.
- Automation for API and UI Testing: Our team implemented JavaScript-based automation solutions for the client’s platforms. These solutions covered critical functionalities, including API and UI tests, and were executed during pre- and post-release builds to ensure stability.
- Enhanced Reporting: Easily detectable bugs in pre-release builds were tracked using the “QA-Smoke” label in Jira. This metric was presented to the Director of Engineering in detailed reports, providing visibility into testing effectiveness and areas for improvement.
- Streamlined Release Management: To address last-minute injections, we provided risk assessments and advocated for delayed releases when necessary. This ensured that high-risk tickets did not jeopardize build stability.
- Tool Optimization: We leveraged tools such as Zephyr for test case management, Postman for API testing, and Datadog for monitoring errors. Additionally, tools like Kafka and Kibana were utilized to query and analyze JSON data from web crawls.
- Cost-Effective QA Resources with SQaaS: Our Software Quality as a Service (SQaaS) model provided scalable QA resources at competitive rates comparable to offshore solutions. By integrating an embedded team member with a flexible pool of SQaaS resources, we ensured comprehensive testing coverage while optimizing costs.
Outcomes and Results
Our efforts resulted in transformative improvements for the client:
- Improved QA Processes: With well-defined requirements and a focus on process quality, the client experienced fewer bottlenecks in development and testing workflows.
- Automation Success: Automation implementation significantly reduced manual testing time and increased efficiency, enabling faster and more reliable testing cycles for pre- and post-release builds.
- Replication Across Teams: The success of our QA processes on specific projects led to their adoption across the client’s other projects, including the replication of our automation framework, test case storage methods, and agile processes.
- Faster Client Onboarding: Our automation framework streamlined the onboarding process for new clients by efficiently verifying dashboard configurations and data accuracy.
- Long-Term Partnership: The positive impact of our solutions fostered a strong, ongoing relationship with the client. Our team expanded over time, reflecting the client’s trust in our expertise and commitment to quality.
Client Feedback
The client’s leadership consistently expressed their satisfaction with our work:
- The Director of Engineering provided a glowing testimonial, featured on our website, praising our professionalism, expertise, and dedication to quality.
- Positive feedback was shared regularly during meetings, with the development team and product owners recognizing the value of our contributions to automation, manual testing, and process improvements.
Lessons Learned and Best Practices
This project highlighted several key takeaways for QA in the eCommerce and brand monitoring industry:
- Consistent Requirements: Ticket designs and requirements must align to avoid confusion and inefficiencies. Discrepancies should be resolved during grooming sessions.
- Avoid Production Data for Testing: Relying on production data poses significant risks to data integrity and should be avoided whenever possible.
- Streamlined QA Reporting: Labels and components in tools like Jira should be standardized to enable efficient tracking and reporting of test cases.
Conclusion
Through our comprehensive approach to QA, we addressed the client’s challenges and delivered a scalable, cost-effective solution that improved operational efficiency, reduced risks, and enhanced product quality. Our SQaaS model provided flexible resources at competitive rates, enabling the client to maintain high standards without exceeding budget constraints. By aligning QA processes with agile methodologies, we ensured consistent performance across all projects, helping the client meet their business goals with confidence.
Contact Us
If your organization is seeking a scalable, cost-effective QA solution to elevate product quality and optimize workflows, contact SQA² today. Let us help you implement innovative QA strategies that deliver tangible results while meeting your unique business needs.
