OneCompany® - ValueLabs

End-to-End Case Study

Geo location

US (Central)

Platform

Web & Mobile

Engagement

8 Years

Industry

Travel

Challenges

This global US airline has a suite of more than 500 digital properties, with 15-20 major fortnightly releases. Their development process relied on manual testing, which created bottlenecks for product releases. While bringing QA to aviation, we adapted to the client’s requirements and took their challenges head-on, offering solutions that enabled our partnership to grow.

Inefficient software testing

Expensive manual processes

Slow software testing

Disconnected insights

The client relied on well-qualified staff to manually test a small percentage of their major fortnightly releases.
These tests had to be manually generated each time, and results could not be compared easily.
The client was looking to engage with a partner who would take on challenges as their own.
They needed support with quality assurance and defining application portfolio-level test strategies to combat slow product releases and inefficient delivery systems.
We knew our software testing services for this airline would need to include a robust test automation framework.

Our Solution

We began with one portfolio and delved deeper into the client’s applications, gaining insight into their domain and functional knowledge. We combined that with the client’s business goals and requirements and introduced automation, test data management, and CI/CD into their workflow. While building scriptless functional test automation, we also integrated ALM and test data management tools, introducing QA in aviation tech flows.

Solution Impact

30%

Cost & effort reduction

Since we adopted the client’s goals as our own

70%

Time reduction

By introducing test automation into the aviation industry test preparation process

Multimillion-dollar savings

Invested in several early automation processes through our ‘VC in Us’ approach

Our Approach

Our approach always starts with research and a clear definition of the client’s needs and business goals. In keeping with the ethos of OneCompany®, we took on our client’s challenges as our own and found effective solutions, without delay. For this client, that meant introducing a new test automation framework and embedding a culture of QA into the complex app development process. However, we did more than just research, suggest, and implement things for the client. When we discovered how much time was being taken up by test data generation, for example, we used our “VC in Us” approach to fund an RPA-based application to automate that process.

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From one project to a five-year partnership delivering software quality engineering to the airline industry

Since the inception of our five-year journey with the client, we’ve distinguished ourselves through our proactive approach, thought leadership, and client-focused mindset. In keeping with our OneCompany® ethos, we have consistently taken on our client’s challenges as our own and found swift and effective solutions.

When our client started to run out of floor space for our growing team at their offices in downtown Chicago, we leased a floor in the building opposite theirs and had it up and running in under a month. Furthermore, when COVID-19 hit the airline industry and we had to ramp down our teams, the remaining team members worked around the clock in shifts to ensure vital passenger-facing functionality went live with no defects.

We took every opportunity to gain deeper insights into the client’s applications, in turn elevating our solutions and improving future delivery quality.

Tech Stack

Shifting from quality assurance to Quality Engineering

As we got more involved with this client, we took on projects that included applications, test automation, and infrastructure testing. Beginning with the client’s 50–60 core apps and then extending to 450+ other applications in their estate, we introduced automation tools and practices that saved huge amounts of time and effort and minimized the number of defects released into production.

Our automation work has not only improved the quality of software releases but also facilitated the client’s strategic transition from a waterfall to an agile model, in 2017. Test automation has now been integrated into every stage of the CI/CD process, from initial test design through to regression testing – which is now 70% automated, with timescales down from days to hours.

Shifting from quality assurance to Quality Engineering

Taking on more responsibility and proving more value

Our software testing services for airlines, combined with our legendary customer service, proved invaluable to this client. We took over the entire CapEx applications portfolio from one of the client’s vendor partners. Surpassing applications and portfolios, we added new service lines such as release automation, test environment provisioning, and mobile testing to the mix. We began delivering all QA and QE services for applications and standardized and automated test processes across the testing lifecycle.

Our relationship with the client has now grown into a truly strategic partnership, with the client having evolved from manual quality assurance processes to a culture of continuous quality engineering across its entire software delivery organization in five years.

Taking on more responsibility and proving more value

Business Impact

Since our initial project, we have increased efficiency, cut costs, and streamlined processes through test automation for our client. We also embedded a culture of quality engineering into the process by integrating testing alongside development, and we enabled staff to maintain and even improve these systems by upskilling testers into engineers. We utilized The ‘VC in Us’ mindset to implement some of these solutions because we knew that automation would prove its value to the client, and that is what the OneCompany® model is all about.