This is a guest blog by our partner IntelliQA who engineers test automation solutions using the Abrantix Terminal Test Robot.
Blog by Paul Kaye, IntelliQA: Test is frequently a frustration of senior management. This is as almost as true today with modern agile delivery teams as it was in the past, though the challenge has changed. Test automation has been an enabler for years with continuous delivery, agile or any other iterative delivery style. Standard test automation is now common place, but there are still aspects that are still performed manually. These are typically aspects that include physically connected components, such as card terminals. Manual testing means that either the delivery stream is slowed, or testing is performed once, typically late in the cycle. Nobody wants to be the person to explain that a release date has slipped because a defect was detected in a last-minute manual test. I’m certain that this has happened.
So, what is the answer?
A good answer is to make the difficult possible and readily repeatable. This involves engineering a solution, break the problem down into its constituent parts, find the best solution to each part and then integrate. We did exactly this when asked by a leading payments acquirer to look at automating testing with card payments terminals. That was 18 months ago.
A search led us to the Abrantix PIN Entry Robots, these were devised for purpose and proven. Abrantix demonstrated their approach and capability by readily adding a REST API upon request. Card simulation was a second challenge, a similar approach led us to the UL Brand Test Tool with automation module. IntelliQA added a REST API to this to make its integration into a complete solution straightforward. Solid test automation capability completes the picture, with industrial strength private device labs such as Micro Focus Mobile Center enabling MPoS testing on a range of devices.
And the journey continues
A lot has been achieved over the past 18 months, the solid solution has been extended to include multiple robots and card simulators. Many, many hours have been spent developing, integrating, testing and refining to produce what is required, a highly reliable base to which an acquirer can use their automation capability to create the test cases that they need. The tens of thousands of iterations and transactions performed prior to leaving the IntelliQA provide confidence that the new robots will work well in India and continue significantly reduce the amount of manual effort required for testing, reducing weeks of work into hours.
But what has been learned of Abrantix? The same ethos that was there at the start, with the ‘we can do it’ and ‘it will be fun’ attitude continues. The technology is solid, which makes it a pleasure to work with, and the people are knowledgeable and engaged. Together we have produced a leading solution for one of the world’s leading acquirers. Let’s see what we do next.
Provide your challenges to paul.kaye@intelliqa.com.
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