Case Studies

Software Testing : Desktop Scientific software

The Client is a leading supplier of discovery, collaboration, and knowledge enterprise solutions, desktop software, scientific databases and consulting services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and chemical industries. The Company provides Enterprise solutions, desktop software, scientific databases, and professional services for biotechnology, drug discovery and chemical research, including software, databases, and web sites which enable customers to create, analyze and communicate chemical, biological, and scientific information more effectively.

Company's products are used primarily in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and chemical industries, as well as in higher education and in academic and government research. The company's principal software offering Chem & Bio office suites which includes molecule sketching tool for biology and chemistry entities, Chemistry and bioassay related databases and Electronic Lab Notebook is the de facto standard and primary communication tool on the chemist's desktop used for the analysis and property predictions of the chemical and biological entities. Chem & Bio Office Enterprise, an enterprise implementation of Chem & Bio Office desktop, enables research information organizations to deploy application and information solutions using Internet, intranet, and extranet technologies.

The business requirement of the client was to develop a test strategy, test plan and management system to test the Desktop Products on different platforms and turned to Q3 to execute the same. The product had to be tested on Windows as well as on iMac OS. To test the product, testers with the domain knowledge were required.

Working closely with the client, Q3 developed a reliable test strategy and test plan for the entire range of Chem and Bio office desktop suites. Q3 deployed resources to meet the needs of the client and identified and assembled an agile team consisting of one test manager, one test lead and 4 experienced testers with domain expertise and QA exposure.

Deadlines for planning, start and completion of the projects were achieved for Alpha, Beta and System levels of testing, on time. The applications tested were molecule sketching and visualization tools, Molecular modeling and Property calculation tools, Biology and chemistry database interfaces, Electronic Lab notebook.

• Exploring the products and their functionalities, developing and writing the effective Test Cases as per requirements.
• Manual regression testing cycles, Exploratory or Ad-Hoc testing on various flavors of Windows and Mac operating systems were employed on various builds.
• Effective defect reporting, categorization and tracking were done with the help of a customized bug tracking tool.
• Alpha, Beta and System level testing were covered with effective test coverage on all flavors of Windows OS and Mac OS platforms.
• Developed a managed metric system to measure and analyze testing phases with effective test coverage and defect management system.
• Weekly meetings were conducted with Client to discuss the status, updates and strategies of testing for new releases.

• Entire testing was done by the Q3 Team in a supporting 24*7 work environment. The client benefitted by the low cost of manpower.
• The bugs entered were realistic since testing was done in user’s view.
• Q3 Team was engaged again for testing the customized product for different clients.
• Talent and quality was appreciated by Client which was shown by involving Q3 in Sales meeting after the release of the product.
• Strict quality adherence standards for testing resulted in fewer problems for endcustomers.
• Q3 was a contributor to the product sales which increased up to 40% considering the quality parameters and stability of product.