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Testing Enterprise Applications helps to satisfy
Customer Needs

Customer

Providing financial services to institutional investors requires IT systems that run seamlessly while performing complex tasks. Idexcel client, a leading global financial services organization, serves institutional customers through a group of applications that authenticate and enhance each customer's data according to the customer's own course logic. The data is then stored in an electronic warehouse where it is accessed by the firm's customers and adapted to their needs.

It is an elaborated system, made up of 11 applications that the client uses to control the daily transactions of several world- famous banks and insurance companies. The applications include trade order management systems, transaction managers, trade reporting systems, data repositories, accounting and general ledger systems, a data warehouse, auditing and ETL (extract, transform & load) tools.

The flagship application is a portfolio record keeping system (RKS) that Idexcel had done some development effort on for one of the client's business groups. RKS records and accounts for all investment activity in a portfolio and interfaces with other systems for data entry & export. Shortly after it was constructed, it was transferred to the SQA (software quality assurance) department.

Recognizing Idexcel's expertise with RKS and more prominently its functionality, the client asked the company to train the SQA workforce on the application. As the training progressed, the client was so impressed with Idexcel's implementation that it assigned the company the task of testing customer requirements & enhancements that the client had made to RKS and some other applications. Subsequently, the client expanded the project to cover the testing of all 11 applications.

The Challenge

The number of processes and environments to be tested in the assigned timeframe presented a challenge. Besides, the firm's customers had varying requirements for each application and needed their data to conform to different sets of rules. This added more layers of complexity to the project.

As the applications had been created over a period of time and then transferred to the SQA department, documentation was inadequate. Idexcel therefore reverse engineered each application and studied the output to comprehend the roles of different scenarios in reaching preferred results. Further, for end-to-end and spot testing, Idexcel had to engender valid business data to replicate real-world conditions.

Finally, several customers tainted their timelines as their requirements changed at various stages of the project. This led to revisions in setup dates for testing, which affected the overall project plan.

Idexcel's Solution

Idexcel applied its expertise of software testing methods and tools, using its sophisticated project management systems to restructure workflows. Its services covered functional, regression, user acceptance, performance and automation testing.

To save time, Idexcel ran its testing cycle parallel to its software development. The company used its proprietary test management tool, which facilitates process compliance across several testing projects and teams. Idexcel also drew on its suite of test cases and ready-to-test business scenarios of order and trade management systems for testing futures, options, forwards, swaps and foreign exchange contracts.

Equally important, Idexcel's project team included professionally certified domain experts with hands-on experience in the investment and security fields. Their rich investment banking history helped Idexcel gain a deep understanding of key client processes, including those of the flagship RKS.

Client Benefits

Idexcel's ordered approach reassured the client that the testing was methodical and that the client was supplying robust systems to its customers. The client's confidence in and knowledge of its processes increased and it was better able to respond to its customers requirements & delivery schedules. In particular, the client obtained new insights into its RKS operation and into data exports from RKS to its electronic data warehouse.

Idexcel moved 90 percent of its tasks offshore, saving the client 20 percent in project expenses. The time difference between onsite and offshore locations sped up the project's delivery. With 60 team members supporting the client, Idexcel has full responsibility for the testing operation. The client spends little or no time on supervision. In addition, the client now has Idexcel available to test new customer requirements as they come up. This has enabled it to save on personnel and training costs.

Technologies

Rational Robot, XML, proprietary tools for business-level functional testing.