NETRONIC Inside: Quality Matters
| 14. October 2011 | Posted by Martin Karlowitsch under Company News, VARCHART JGantt, VARCHART XGantt |
NETRONIC Inside is a new feature within our blog. The purpose of this feature is to eventually introduce NETRONIC people, processes and functions to you. With the first feature, we’d like to share with you, how we make sure that the Gantt chart components that we deliver to you match with our claim software made in Germany.
In addition to the standard developer testing, all our VARCHART components are checked by automated regression testing. Thus we make sure that all features of our products keep on working while also avoiding that new erros creep in with new versions.
Whenever we add a new major feature to a VARCHART component, we develop a full-blown test application containing this new feature. In doing so, we check the behavior during correct and incorrect use. The created test cases are documented and recorded for future repetition by a capture & replay tool. Before delivery, a test suite repeats and evaluates all test cases. Currently, we apply far more than 3,000 single automated test cases for all our VARCHART components.
In addition to this, we also make sure that errors do not also occur as late as during the graphical representation. Hence, we create – among others – screenshots of the test applications during the test run. These screenshots are being checked automatically for deviations from normal conditions by a graphics comparator. This way, even “genuine prints” (PDFs) can be checked automatically.
If – despite our thorough testing – a customer reports a relevant error, we do things the other way round: Of course, we remove the bug and provide a new Build of the product. In parallel, we create a test script that would identify the removed bug. This script is added to the test script library. Once the bug is fixed, we apply all automatic scripts to the new Build to ensure that all known potential bugs have been eliminated. What we also typically do is to analyze if there might be similar bugs as the one that has been identified. We then also create test scripts for these so that we can also apply pro-active quality management techniques.
All this is done by an ISTQB certified employee, who works fulltime on performance, maintenance and enhancement of our regression testing, and who uses advanced state-of-the-art testing tools.
“Currently, there we apply far more than 3,000 single automated test cases for all our VARCHART components.” – Impressive!