Automated Web Application Testing for a US-based SaaS Provider

Customer

The Customer is a US-based SaaS company providing executives and managers with cloud-based software that gathers information about industries and companies from reputable media. The Customer then sends this data to their clients in the form of daily or weekly briefings.

Challenge

Seeking to streamline editing of the briefings prepared for their clients, the Customer turned to ScienceSoft to test a briefing editor web application developed for in-company use.

The project set several challenges for testing:

• A stack of small features was deployed daily, so the testers had to work within a tight project timeline, writing the relevant test cases, running them, and submitting reports several times a day.
• At the same time, the Customer started CRM migration, so the testing team had to ensure the briefing editor worked as required with the new CRM.

Solution

To ensure efficient work within a tight time frame, the testing team decided to use automated testing for:

• Web application testing. To test code against business requirements and thus ensure better traceability, the team first developed test scripts in Cucumber, a behavior-driven testing tool that allows writing testing steps in simple English. These steps also allowed the testing team to have a clear picture of the test scripts to be developed and to detect the failed scripts swiftly.

• As the web application was developed in AngularJS, the testing team used the Protractor testing tool, an efficient solution for AngularJS-based web applications. All in all, the test suite comprised about 90 scripts.
• The team also ran automated regression testing to make sure code changes didn’t alter or break the functionality in place.
  • Integration testing. The testing team ran a set of scripts to make sure the new CRM and the briefing editor integrated well.

To ensure detailed reporting, the testing team used GitLab CI. Automated testing engineers combined test reports with Cucumber test steps to deliver to the Customer exhaustive information on testing results, including the scripts that failed. Thus, the Customer could have comprehensive information about the application quality at any given moment.

Results

ScienceSoft’s automated testing team successfully tested the briefing editor web application for the Customer. As a result, the Customer got a fully functional briefing editor web application deployed on time and seamlessly integrated with the new CRM.

Technologies and Tools

AngularJS, JavaScript, Protractor, Cucumber, GitLab CI.