Retail: iLAB Serves as the Core Testing Team for One of the Largest SAP Clients in the World

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Introduction

The client’s stakeholders include various Business units, Business Engagement Managers, Project Managers, Delivery Managers, and various development teams whose primary focus is to ensure seamless implementation, maintenance, and enhancement of legacy, core, and new systems.

iLAB Role

  • iLAB provided the core testing team and lead System Integration Testing (SIT) and User Acceptance Testing (UAT). The core testing team also handled defect management.
  • iLAB contributed Software Quality Assurance expertise, assisting with project planning and execution, as well as identifying and mitigating risks that could jeopardize the project.

Project Challenges

The client has a complex IT architecture; one of the largest SAP clients in the world, the client’s systems include a heavily customized SAP ERP system to suit its operations. Their SAP ERP system is complemented with other solutions for various other business activities. Challenges faced by Shoprite include but are not limited to:

  • Delayed deployments due to many manual testing efforts to execute their regression packs
  • Regression packs do not run given time constraints and the pressure to release to production
  • Releases into production of poor quality due to missed defects during the testing phase
  • High costs of reworking due to inadequate code
  • Business losses and low productivity due to failing IT systems
  • Meager user experience and customer satisfaction
  • Lack of confidence in IT solutions from business units as solutions were delayed or deployment was not always of the expected quality.

Project Successes

iLAB proposed a tailored test approach based on our iTEST© Methodologies to suit Shoprite’s software development lifecycle (SDLC) methodology and address their issues. With dedicated experts supporting the client’s testing strategy, iLAB implemented a custom, easy-to-maintain test automation framework. Given the complexity of Shoprite’s systems, iLAB proposed a single framework with utilization ability across teams for easy reporting and reducing maintenance costs for easier end-to-end regression runs. iLAB took the fail-fast approach to reduce the time taken for deployments and production comebacks by incorporating its resources into different development teams, promoting early testing, and building regression packs for stable code.

Conclusion

The results cultivated from the implementation included:

  • Regression runs that took close to a month using the client’s manual test resources are now run within a couple of hours using iLAB’s automation framework.
  • Regular regression runs and reporting on alarms where attention is required.
  • Increased data permutations, test coverage, and close to no missed defects and comebacks from production.
  • Improvement on deployment process with the clients making several hustle free deployments frequently.
  • Improved business confidence in IT systems with stable code now being promoted regularly to production.
  • Proactive identification of issues before the Business or their customers experience such in production.
  • Customer surveys indicate improved user experience and customer satisfaction.

When your reputation is on the line, partner with iLAB to implement quality software that both performs and impresses.

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