Local News Releases

Corporate News Releases

Customers in Action

Increased Application Quality, Reduced Risk and Compliance to Regulations Ensures Calm Waters at Oyster Bay Systems

Compuware QACenter has enabled specialist software house Oyster Bay Systems to maintain a focus on quality assurance, automated testing and delivery of robust applications.

It is widely acknowledged that application testing is a critical process because if failure does happen, it can lead to a significant loss in both productivity and revenue. However, for companies that specialise in software development, testing is fundamental to the success of the business itself. At a time when development and deployment risks have never been higher, with increasing numbers of components, platforms and applications being required to work together, such companies are looking for solutions that can guarantee the effectiveness of their testing.

It is for this reason that Oyster Bay Systems has utilised Compuware QACenter: a unique solution of automated testing tools designed to validate applications running in the full spectrum of environments. Getting it right the first time is crucial to Oyster Bay Systems as its customers are commercial and consumer finance organisations whose businesses rely on heavy and highly accurate data capture, calculation and processing. Compuware's solution has enabled the company to improve the quality and speed of application delivery.

"Compuware QACenter has allowed us to launch Web applications with a renewed confidence, as it has given us a safer, more reliable way to identify application breakpoints quickly, and prior to production," said Shouaib. "Repeatable load tests and detailed analysis reports enable us to confirm that our applications are robust. It has offered us top quality performance testing, realistic production simulations and comprehensive results for analysis"

Premier Software and Services Provider to the Finance Industry

Oyster Bay Systems Ltd is a specialist software house with over 20 years experience of supplying high quality software, training and support to the finance sector. Since it was established in 1983, the company has experienced consistent and steady growth and has built a strong reputation for delivering business benefits through effective software-based solutions in a timely and cost effective manner.

The company's experienced development teams have a detailed knowledge of the finance industry with considerable emphasis on three areas: online proposal management, vehicle finance management and preparation of finance company accounts. Its customer base is geographically diverse and consists of businesses ranging from the SME to the large enterprise.

Putting Applications to the Test

Oyster Bay Systems' many applications are constantly evolving and required to work in diverse environments. Its flagship product - Vienna - is a Web-based application that utilises low cost Internet communications to service multiple locations from a single computer system. The fast paced world of finance demands that new features be added to Vienna on a continual basis and it was becoming increasingly difficult and time consuming to manually re-test the complex application before new features could be integrated. The company realised that to reduce the time it took to carry out testing and to improve the overall quality and re-usability of these tests, it needed to identify a solution that could automate and manage the process. Oyster Bay also needed to ensure that its applications comply with regulations and standards such as the forthcoming Consumer Credit Act, Sarbannes-Oxley and Basel II.

Under the terms of the Consumer Credit Act for example, due for introduction in May 2005, all early settlement calculators needed to be re-written from scratch. To re-test all parts of the application before and after the calculations had been altered, Oyster Bay Systems needed a solution capable of functional and regression testing that could enable quick turnaround of upgrades for its customers.

"Our aim is to produce quality software and products and, as part of that commitment to our customers, we needed to be proactive in the implementation of a top quality testing solution," said Ala'a Shouaib, Testing Manager, Oyster Bay Systems. "Software will fail if the implications of change are not fully recognised or if that change is improperly tested before, during, or after implementation. We have to take a stance to ensure this does not happen to our software so that customers enjoy the highest quality delivery."

Making the Correct Purchase Decision

After reviewing the market for available products Oyster Bay Systems selected Compuware QACenter, a unique solution of automated testing tools designed to validate applications running in the full spectrum of environments, isolate and correct problems and ensure that systems can handle anticipated load before applications go-live. The solution consists of the following components: TestPartner for automated functional and regression testing; QADirector for Risk-Based Testing; Reconcile for requirements management and TrackRecord for defect and project tracking. There is also the option of File-AID/CS for test data management.

"Of the four products that made it to the final stage of our evaluation, only Compuware appeared to have the capability to deliver all the elements that we needed," said Shouaib.

Compuware QACenter has not only enabled Oyster Bay Systems to automate its testing, but also to align testing with its business requirements. This risk-based approach to testing has improved the quality of Oyster Bay Systems' applications, has maximised resource utilisation and also supports on-time deployment. The methodology is designed to address the quality issues that cannot be resolved by point solutions during the test phase of the project and greatly improves the quality of applications.

"It has helped us to focus on overall quality assurance and not just our testing issues. It has enabled us to fine tune testing efforts based on accurate and up-to-date information, improve our testing repeatability and obtain the kind of in-depth metrics that supports real decision-making," commented Shouaib.

Oyster Bay Systems are also now able to address the ever increasing demand for supplier compliance and accreditation within the Finance industry. Automation capabilities quickly and productively create and execute test scripts, verify tests and analyse test results. Software is continually tested throughout the development cycle so that tests can be run through to the very latest build. This fulfils the test 'early and often' maxim of testing experts who advocate that it is significantly cheaper to remove a defect as early as possible in the development process.

Compuware QACenter also ensures that testing is synchronised with accelerated release cycles and consequently customers are able to receive timely upgrades and the high quality applications they have come to expect from Oyster Bay Systems. This has enabled Oyster Bay Systems to maintain its market-leading position.

Long Term Benefits

"Testing is an ongoing process; with new products, changes and enhancements to existing products happening all of the time. It's just not possible to ever do enough testing, but by prioritising it according the risk of failure, we are able to make the right go-live decisions," said Shouaib. "Thanks to Compuware QACenter we can ensure that our software is always up to date and we have real confidence that the software we provide to our customers is always of the highest quality."

Managing Director Michael Breach adds to Mr. Shouaib's comments: "Our customers have been so impressed by the efficiencies and quality gains we have achieved that they have now themselves committed to using the same technologies within their own User Acceptance Test (UAT) programmes."