The client is one of the largest mobile network operators and internet service providers in the U.K. and the largest 4G provider in Europe.
The client was focused on branching out internationally to provide support for their traveling customers while roaming. Their main concerns involved the challenges associated with the time frame and logistics of testing this system. The client had cost and time frame concerns with the prospect of sending test teams to foreign countries to conduct the testing of their international services. Another challenge lay in addressing device and firmware fragmentation for their customers who would be trying to access their cellular service.
Qualitest set the client up with uTest, a crowdsourcing software which helped them test their system within their international zones on various user firmware and software permutations. This allowed them to run over 1,200 test cases during a period of 2.5 weeks at a drastically reduced cost from initial estimates. Without the use of crowdsourcing, the client would have had to either hire limited international teams from the workforce within the test zones or send their own teams to countries as far away as India or Australia. Either solution would be tremendously prohibitive in time and monetary expense, and would have required the company to support and deploy a minimum of 12 additional resources, on top of their own on-site support.
QualiTest employed a variety of service models to help the client avoid these unnecessary costs. First, the client made use of Qualitest’s Managed Testing Services, which provided Right Shore Testing and fixed pricing. Senior consultants with multi-sector experience also performed predicament consulting to help optimize the client’s internal capabilities and solve specific problems related to the project. Finally, the project also utilized fixed-price test labs, which organized the necessary people, technology, and devices on the QT premises for remote, efficient off-site testing.
As timing was one of the client’s main concerns, special care was taken to complete testing within as short a time span as possible. The project started in early July, when formal information was finalized as to the project’s range. Testing itself began in mid-July, after shipping SIMs to the zones in question, and finished in early August, with the Test Exit Report issued around mid-month. The total testing effort was confined to only 2.5 weeks.
By utilizing both small off-site test teams of Qualitest employees as well as crowdsourced test teams worldwide, the client was able to complete their mobile testing much more quickly than, and at around half the cost of, tradition testing methodologies. Immediate benefits include those to customers who can begin receiving better roaming service soon, as well as further expedience in the process on the company’s end.
