Software Quality Assurance Case Studies and Solutions

The Client

A leading United Kingdom-based provider of software products and services that help connecting the Internet / IT domain and the Telecom domain and enable the telecom companies to offer a wide range of new services

The Business Challenge

The Network Gateway is an essential element that connects disparate networks and makes them work seamlessly together. It accomplishes that by providing a network abstraction layer that sits horizontally across network platforms such as switches, messaging systems, charging/rating systems and HLRs, and provides a common, standardized set of northbound APIs that simplifies the process of new services launch and delivery across multiple network protocols and platforms from different vendors. Services that are developed using these APIs are network-agnostic, i.e. the same services can be deployed across fixed and mobile networks, as well as within and between circuit-switched “legacy” networks and packet-based IP / IMS networks.

The client was faced with a tough delivery schedule for a new version of Network Gateway. At the same time, the rapid market expansion has strained the company’s resources to the limit. The decision was made to look for an outsourcing partner who possessed the required expertise, had excellent track record and was located in a similar time zone. Following thorough evaluation process, a number of Eastern and Central European vendors were selected. Finally, Luxoft emerged as a leader, thanks to its strong telecom expertise, impressive portfolio of accomplishments and geographic proximity.

Client is a world leading travel agency, offering the best rates on airline tickets, hotel reservations, car rentals and more. In order to meet expectations of the travel price-hunters, the client’s system has the following components:

• Functional web interface to search, book and advertise trips, based on a particular trip requirement;
• Back-end systems to manage deals and other business-related data;
• Interface for the suppliers’ to fill in their offers.

Rapid growth and market expansion strained the company’s in-house IT resources, while the need for technology upgrades and new architecture solutions continued increasing. Outsourcing the professional services became an obvious solution, allowing the core staff to stay focused on critical projects. The outsourcer had to meet tough professional skills criteria and to have a proven track record.

Hotwire, Inc. is a world leading provider of online travel deals. Hotwire leveraged relationships with over 10,000 suppliers to launch an innovative new website, www.travel-ticker.com – creating an opportunity for rapid, expansive growth. In order to build the new website, a complex back-end system for salespeople and suppliers had to be created, along with a brand-new Content Management System (CMS). With insufficient internal resources, Hotwire decided to outsource the project.

• Luxoft was selected, based on a successful pilot project, involving two engineers over two years.
• Luxoft’s commitment and dedication helped establish mutual trust.
• Luxoft’s excellent track record and financial stability further reinforced Hotwire’s choice.

During the development cycle of a L2/3 Ethernet Switch, the product verification takes up a considerable part of the overall project time. It starts in the early stages of the project with the formulation of the test strategy, test planning and continues with the execution of the test plans, defect analysis and risk assessment. The Product Verification (PV) team works closely with the development team to understand and validate the requirements and come up with the appropriate types of testing, test environments requirements, key milestones etc. The PV team starts working after the unit testing is completed by the development team and certain criteria are met, as specified in the test strategy. The stages of the verification comprise the functional testing, system testing, regression testing and other non-functional testing like performance, scalability, stress etc. The progress/productivity reports are generated on a weekly basis to monitor the quality and risks as well as meeting the milestones. After each feature of a product is verified against the specification files, provided by the development team, and the existing standards, it is very important to test the system interaction of all the features that make up a client solution under normal and overloaded traffic conditions. Luxoft was selected to work jointly on developing the testing setups for the product verification process.