QualiTest Provides On-Shore Testing Services for a Tier1 Insurance Company

Client Overview
The client is Management Company of eight pension funds managing a total of over $20 billion. The company was established for the sole purpose of implementing the comprehensive consolidation of these fund’s existing systems into a single system, and for providing operational services for the eight underwriting pension funds.

Business Needs and Objectives
The client current information systems handle some 7000 users, 12TB of data, 6 million I/O operations per hour and produce at least 2,000 reports per month. The systems are linked to thousands of employers, banks and government ministries. These systems were developed through a continuous evolutionary process over the years since the establishment of the funds. Over the years the systems have undergone transformations and conversions according to the progress and availability of technologies. The computer systems are heterogenic and complex and include, among others, platforms such as UNIX, AS400, IBM- MF and Windows, as well as a range of databases such as DB400, UDB, DB2, MSSQL, Informix, Oracle and others. As result of the way in which the current systems were developed the customer is required to deal with many difficulties, namely:

• Eight different technological and operational infrastructures each requiring much support.
• Data consolidation was very costly along with long lead times.
• Outdated and inefficient work procedures.
• Low quality data in some of the systems.
• High operational, computerization and support costs.
• Insufficient customer service

The customer chose QualiTest to provide a full Test Outsourcing Solution for the entire development and implementation process of the new consolidated systems.

 

Challenges and Requirements
Kicking-off operations led to various challenges which were:

• Understanding the current systems used by the customer
• Highly Complex business cases and scenarios
• Understanding the end-user perspective of the system
• Testing consolidation of 40 year old code
• Consolidation of requirements of 8 pension funds
• Multiple interfaces
• Building Test Environments for both Load and Volume testing
• Training and Qualifying end-users to take pro-active part in the testing process

Solution
QualiTest establishes a Testing team on the customer site consisting of a senior manager, a Project Manager, 2 Team Leaders and 12-13 testers. QualiTest’s involvement in the project started during the project’s initialization phase. The first tasks included reviewing the design process using comprehensive Static Testing Techniques. The end-users were involved in the process from an early stage. The project included the following tasks:

• Defining the Test Strategy
• Building a Test Lab
• Developing Test Stubs and Drivers
• Test Planning
• Test Execution
• Load, performance and stress Testing
• Creating an automation infrastructure and implement as much of the regression tests automatically as possible.

Results

• All the milestones which were expected were completed successfully, on time and on budget.
• The testing automation infrastructure developed by QualiTest was extremely effective and cut down on the regression testing time by delivering close to 80% coverage of the testing done at each test cycle on the system's core functionality.
• Top users from each fund took part in the testing process which considerably increased the system’s compatibility with the funds needs and requirements, increased the system’s quality and greatly facilitated in the implementation process.
• Ramp-up of the QualiTest team was quick which allowed risk analyses, design review and some project management activities to be delegated to the team early and freed up the project’s leadership team to focus on other important activities earlier than expected.
• An emphasis on Load and performance testing at a relatively early stage of the project insured that the system’s performance and stability targets were met and exceeded.

Project Business Card Industry: Insurance Solution: Test Outsourcing Location: On-shore, on-site Project Size: 17 QualiTest employees Customer size: Manage 8 Pension Funds with Over $20 billion

About QualiTest Group
QualiTest Group is a leading global provider of Quality Assurance and Software Testing services. With over 900 Software Testing professionals, 10 branches and a strong presence in the USA, Europe, Israel and Asia, QualiTest provides services to global Fortune 500 companies, large and small organizations. The company is committed to improving quality by providing superior solutions to customers and partners worldwide as well as advancing QA and testing methodologies.
QualiTest offers a wide variety QA and testing services such as: Onshore testing, QA and testing outsourcing and flexible testing consulting & staffing. QualiTest expert services promote global practices such as: Test Process Improvement (TPI), KDT Test Automation, Load and performance testing, Scrum Testing, Exploratory Testing and Virtuology.

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