Vodafone Qatar

Significantly, Vodafone Qatar is one of the first operators in the world to go live with 5G commercially and the first to have connected customers to 5G in the country. This comes after having achieved strong progress in rolling out its 5G network across the country since switching it on in August 2018. Vodafone Qatar’s vision is to connect today’s ideas with the technologies of tomorrow by pioneering digital innovation and becoming people’s first choice in telecom and digital services.

Problematic manual testing process

Doha-based Vodafone Qatar, a major telecommunications and data services provider, manages operations from a modern complex at the Qatar Science and Technology Park. The headquarters accommodate an IT department that regularly generates new applications to support an ever expanding business. High average-revenue-per-user, an increasing uptake of 4G technology and fibre services as well as multiple-device ownership drive the market.

Vodafone Qatar traditionally employed spread-sheets to track test cases and manage defects during the application development process. Typical software developments include the billing & charging system and subscribers’ mobile phone applications.

“As business expanded and our IT team grew, testing became more complicated without robust testing software,” explains Shinu Thulaseedharan, Senior Test and Quality Manager, Vodafone Qatar. “Manually maintaining thousands of test cases and defects on spreadsheets proved difficult. We also lacked real-time reporting about each tester’s work as they operated in isolation.

“Lack of change tracking and version control exacerbated this situation while manually generating daily reports became very time consuming,” continues Shinu. “These circumstances degraded our knowledge base, lowered software quality, increased time-to-market and impacted costs.”

To streamline the testing process and support multiple IT projects, Vodafone Qatar required a more structured approach to maintaining test cases and defects followed by a shift from manual to automated testing. “We decided to deploy advanced software solutions in two distinct phases,” says Shinu. “We’d initially provide a testing repository, a defect management capability and real-­time updates. After a period of stabilisation, we’d introduce some automated testing.”

Overall, we’ve seen a drastic increase (up to 30%) in the efficiency of testers along with a fall of defects over a period. This significant quality improvement is a result of having a more structured testing process with ALM on SaaS.

OpenText (formerly Micro Focus) offers local support and cost advantage

Vodafone Qatar consulted with OpenText (formerly Micro Focus), who had supported previous testing projects. The business drew upon Shinu’s long-term relationship with the partner and his experience with solutions such as OpenText Quality Center.

“Compared with other testing software in the market, an upgrade from Quality Center to ALM/QC on Software as a Service (SaaS) satisfied all our requirements, came with excellent local support and offered a distinct cost benefit,” declares Shinu.

ALM/QC software provides a powerful, single repository for Vodafone Qatar’s testing team to plan, build and accelerate the test delivery of reliable, high-quality applications with high-­performance functionality. It is further enhanced by local Customer Success managers fully committed to ensuring customer excellence.

Increased software quality

Today, the IT department simultaneously manages several projects and operates an efficient testing process with a team of more than 40 testers. During busy periods, the number of testers frequently rises to 50 with each person typically handling an average of 12 test cases per day, depending on application complexity.

“Deploying ALM on SaaS has made a significant contribution to improving our testing process,” comments Shinu.

“Important data within the testing lifecycle is now in a single place and we have access to the live status of every test. Overall, we’ve seen a drastic increase (up to 30%) in the efficiency of testers along with a fall of defects over a period. This significant quality improvement is a result of having a more structured testing process with ALM on SaaS.”

Compared with other testing tools in the market, an upgrade from Quality Center to ALM/QC on Saas satisfied all our requirements, came with excellent local support and offered a distinct cost benefit.