RATIONAL FOR ENGAGEMENT

A large-scale transformation of the Society’s change delivery model to an agile framework based on a squad model approach required the Testing Centre of Excellence to adopt and enhance test engineering principles. The scale and timeline of the transformation required specialist test automation expertise to supplement existing test partner capability.

 

Dragonfly was engaged to seed the new sprint teams with Senior Test Automation Engineers to review and design the test automation frameworks and support teams in augmenting their test engineering capabilities to deliver automation assets.

CLIENT PROFILE

  • World’s largest Building Society with 15 million UK members

  • Society-wide transformation initiative to develop a new change operating model that positions the company to adapt and compete at pace and create more member value

  • Restructuring of teams/departments into Squads and Hubs, comprising cross functional core capabilities

  • Test Engineering CoE required to define test engineering patterns and strategies for predictable delivery for agile developments

  • Limited automation expertise within existing test resource profile

  • Majority of testing still manual, GUI-based and inefficient

SOLUTION

  • Placement of Senior Test Automation Engineers in sprint teams within the Digital Squad

  • Creation of suitable automation frameworks to maximize API and minimize GUI testing

  • Implementation of Banking App gateway automation

  • Application of model-based tools and techniques to create reusable automation assets

 

  • Coaching and assisting squad members in the creation, modification and execution of automation assets

  • Training squad members and implementation of tools and techniques such as Specflow (BDD), GIT, Kubernetes, Docker, 3 Amigos, axe reports

  • Creation and maintenance of CI/CD pipeline

  • Creation of automated reporting

OUTCOME

  • Embedded an automation strategy that provides a framework for delivering tests that are stable and quick to build and run

  • Ability to run automated Banking App tests without using a physical device, which would have been problematic during lockdown, and resulted in faster and more accurate tests that take seconds rather than hours to run

  • 50% reduction in the number of test resources allocated across 12 teams, by replacing 2 test analysts with 1 test engineer

 

  • Cost savings from reduction in manual test effort

  • Automation frameworks in place for legacy systems that previously could not be automated, so that, for example, a set of 10 tests that previously took 60+ minutes to execute manually could be executed in less than 5 minutes using parallelised automated runs

  • Better management of source control, resulting in less duplication of code and fewer defects