By Silicus Technologies Inc

12/02/2010 Client - Data Backup & Recovery Software Company
Services Performed - Software Quality and Testing (Compatibility Testing)
Domain - Data Backup & Recovery
Line-of-Business - Enterprise IT Software
Partnership Model - Project Outsourcing
Project Size - 2 man months



About the Client
The client is a leading vendor of online backup software and remote backup services. The Company's Backup solutions help companies fully automate their daily data backup and restore function. The company was gearing up for a release of the latest version of its flagship product.

Challenge
The client has multiple variations of its products and each product could run on multiple platforms of Windows, Linux and UNIX. One of the challenges of the client was making sure that the new versions were compatible on all platforms. For this, the testing was needed to be conducted on all variations for all the platforms. This was the major business challenge that the client wanted to overcome.
The client had the following objectives during testing:

• Ensure that the 'to be' released version meets functional requirements as defined
• Ensure that the new version is compatible on all relevant platforms

Approach

For compatibility testing, Silicus QA engineers first drew up a test matrix that captured the various product versions and the OS on which they needed to be tested. The configurations were assembled as per the test matrix, and the results of the test cases were logged in the defect tracking and reporting system at the client end.
Apart from compatibility testing, Silicus QA engineers also checked for application functionality and security.
The entire set of testing activities was done manually.

Testing involved the following activities:

• Test Planning
• Test environment and VMWare Setup
• Installation and Sanity Testing
• Functionality Testing
• Security Testing

Technologies Used

• Platforms - Windows (32 and 64 Bit), Linux (Debian, Fedora Core, SuSe, Ubuntu and RHEL), Unix (FreeBSD) and Apple MAC
• Defect Tracking and Reporting - OnTime
• Test Case Management Tool - Team Foundation Server (TFS)
• Environment – Network Based (Client/Server), Windows and Web based

How Silicus Helped

• Faster time to market
• By partnering with Silicus, the client was able to achieve its QA objectives much earlier that what would have been accomplished in-house. This helped the client to have a commercial release of the new version even before the planned launch date.
• The quick turnaround that Silicus provided to the client for a 1 month project was instrumental in ensuring that the new version release was made before the planned launch date.
• Open Source platform testing
• The product needed to be tested on various flavors of UNIX including BSD, Fedora etc. Silicus systems expertise ensured that all Operating systems were installed correctly and the testing process was smooth and incident free.