In a previous article, we dealt with the work initiated in 2009 to industrialize automation of the test repository for our clients, ICDC (the IT center of the French company Caisse des Dépôts).
Today, we are going to have a look at the implementation process of Squash TM as a tests management tool to replace HP QC - what are the main arguments and changes when choosing Squash TM?
The implementation of this new tool and the choice for tests strategy reconfiguration come along with a need for skills improvement. Thus, Henix has been asked to allocate human and material ressources in order to coach the testers and bring its expertise on Squash TM.
We asked Odile HAULER CHAU, in charge of the project and consultant for Henix, to give us her feedbacks on the matter.
What was your position in the process for the installation of Squash TM?
I have been part of the project since the end of January, 2016. My responsibility was to manage the installation and configuration of Squash TM in order to replace the previous tool, HP QC. Obviously, this also included to take into consideration necessary change management.
The initial deadline of June 2016 for this project was reviewed for May 2016.
First, I needed to inform the different teams impacted by the changes, to help them with the process of migration (data mapping), and train them so they could quickly be efficient.
What was the context of your mission?
The first reason to install Squash TM was to replace the existing test management tool HP QC in order to set up a global and complete integrated toolkit fully dedicated for the project teams (Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket, test automation with Squash TA and Mako).
Which teams have been trained to use Squash TM?
The concerned teams were project managers, project ownership teams and functional testers. In the end, any individual involved in the production and validation process of the application was trained. The different teams were spread between Paris (5 locations), Angers and Bordeaux.
What was mainly at stake in this process of change management?
The most important was for all teams to quickly be an expert of Squash TM.
Squash TM is an easy tool to adopt because it is user-friendly and ergonomic.
Thus, the main challenge was to educate the teams to one unique procedure to well manage enquiries. Also, because of the different management of the teams and the different locations, there were some difficulties to implement the strategy of training.
What kind of support has been implemented to train the different teams?
We built our program with different materials, available for all teams :
2 formats of training in order to respond to everyone needs and availabilities: 1) 2 hours tutorial to quickly handle Squash TM 2) 1 day training to go deeper in the use of Squash TM and its functionalities
Contact points for support by email and phone
Online documentation: FAQ, user guide, glossary
Can you give us some key indicators on the project?
The installation of Squash TM to replace the previous tool, along with the migration of the existing test repository met the deadline. Training has been pursued for some time afterwards. By the end of June, almost 400 people had followed one of the 57 tutorials given and almost 80 people had followed one of the 11 training days. After one year of using Squah TM, feedbacks are positive: 31,000 tests have been executed and saved in the tool over the past year and we now receive new demands to update the tool and download new functionalities.
How good is that? Congratulations to all the team for the accomplished work and thank you Odile for this testimony.
You can find other success stories about the challenges of functional quality with the interview of our clients Globaz.