QualiTest Case Study: Telecom Operator

Client Overview
The client is a Fortune 500 technology company which provides solutions that enable Telecom service providers, enterprises, and governments to deliver voice, data, and video communication services to worldwide end-users. The three-year project enabled this company to provide multi-vendor network integration services for the customer’s Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network. The scope of the project included end-to-end network integration and security services, including network design, engineering, deployment maintenance and the overall integration of operations, support and billing systems.

Business Needs and Objectives
IIn order to reduce the total cost of testing and in order to improve the communication between all parties, QualiTest was chosen as a QA and testing third party trustee to manage and control the entire Testing and Quality Assurance process. This structure allowed QualiTest to work as a professional, independent entity without having to deal with internal political issues. The objectives were to validate the system compliance to the functional design, to insure that all parties understand the needs of each side and to verify the system’s integrity.

Challenges and Requirements
Kicking-off operations at different locations led to various challenges including:

Understanding the current systems used by the customer
Build and maintain a Quality Assurance Testing Strategy
Building a Test environment to support the complex structure of the system and to simulate all the internal and external integrations to existing systems
Avoiding internal political disputes and focusing on the QA and testing work at hand
Bridging cultural differences between the end customer and the supplier (for example: lack of applicable documents)
Introducing new and comprehensive test techniques and methodologies to the project and to the organizations involved

Solution
QualiTest established and maintained three different QA and testing teams:

OSS team to validate the OSS, Mediation and Provisioning
BSS Team to validate the Billing, CRM and other BSS applications
System Test team to perform end-to-end testing

The project began in February 2004 and the last phase was delivered in the beginning of 2007. At the height of the project 120 people took part including 25 QualiTest employees. A new Test Center was established just 10 minutes away from the client’s headquarters which allowed for good communications between the different teams and gave the client a leadership position over the entire QA and testing process.

Benefits
The benefits to the customers were:

One centralized professional test team with full access to both the end-users and the supplier. This enhanced the understanding of the business and technical requirements and allowed full access to the supplier’s development resources.
Locating gaps and risks early in the process helped avoid bugs and project delays.
Independence from political pressures which usually come up as part of projects of this type.
Minimized testing cost and time.

Introducing new tools and techniques to both the customer and the supplier

Project Business Card
Industry: Telecom
Solution: Independent Test Center
Location: On-shore, on-site
Project Size: 25 QualiTest employees
Customer size: Fortune 500

About QualiTest Group
QualiTest Group is a leading global provider of Quality Assurance and Software Testing services. With over 800 Software Testing professionals, 10 branches and a strong presence in the USA, Europe, Israel and Asia, QualiTest provides services to global Fortune 500 companies, large and small organizations. The company is committed to improving quality by providing superior solutions to customers and partners worldwide as well as advancing QA and testing methodologies.
QualiTest offers a wide variety QA and testing services such as: Onshore testing, QA and testing outsourcing and flexible testing consulting & staffing. QualiTest expert services promote global practices such as: Test Process Improvement (TPI), KDT Test Automation, Load and performance testing, Scrum Testing, Exploratory Testing and Virtuology.