Testing B2B E-Commerce Application by Testvox for Storilabs

CHALLENGES FACED BY STORILABS

The STORIMART ecosystem encompasses multiple web and mobile applications, each fulfilling distinct functions and tailored to specific regions.

Absence of an internal QA Team

Storilabs lacked an internal QA team for effectively managing testing efforts. The execution of software testing by software developers lacked the perspective of an effective testing approach, which could only be provided by proficient and experienced software testing professionals. This diminished their confidence in timely product release within the software market. Additionally, Storilabs had to establish testing processes from the very beginning, given that the product STORIMART was entirely developed in-house.

Competition with similar B2B Applications

Being a newcomer in the B2B market, STORILABS had to distinguish itself amidst well-established competitors. They were actively seeking software testers with advanced skills and extensive experience in testing B2B applications. Additionally, individuals with expertise in B2B marketing strategies and the ability to collaborate with software developers to create a product with exceptional user experience were being sought.

Customized versions to be tested efficiently

The application featured distinct customized versions, each carefully tailored to the specific requirements of different customers. These versions varied in terms of color themes, buyer options, different fields of the application, associated supporting Apps and other attributes. To ensure the perfection of each customized version, thorough testing was essential. Furthermore, the challenge of aligning the theme preferences of diverse customers with the feasible themes that could be practically implemented necessitated delicate compromise discussions.

Performance Issues

Prepared catalogs become visible to end users only upon publication. However, with a significant increase in the number of products and vendors, the time required for application publication grew considerably. This substantial delay began to significantly impact the application's performance. STORIMART's optimal performance needed to be guaranteed across a range of usage scenarios. Consequently, the need for proficient and experienced software testers capable of conducting performance testing became apparent.

Production Issue

Unforeseen issues were emerging within the live production environment. Since the system was completely interrelated and the application featured a substantial number of facilities, a bug at one location or the absence of data at a location resulted in numerous issues across other parts of the application. This led to the crashing of the mobile app, necessitating thorough testing to identify all scenarios that could lead to crashes.

Lack of Documents

Lack of documents describing the application's functionalities and numerous facilities and options was evident. This insufficient documentation led to misunderstandings and inefficiencies. Consequently, obtaining knowledge about functionalities and operations for the necessary team members became challenging. This, in turn, created difficulties in offering training for new hires, who faced struggles in understanding the application's operations as well as its various features and facilities.

Deployed experienced software testers.

Testvox provided a dedicated team of experienced QA professionals specialized in testing B2B applications. This eliminated the challenge faced by STORIMART in hiring and training a full-time QA team. The software testers from Testvox created comprehensive test plans, strategies, and methodologies tailored to STORIMART's requirements. Testvox established a systematic testing procedure ensuring comprehensive coverage of the product's functionality. The test cases created by software testers from Testvox were shared with business analysts and software developers at Storilabs for verification to ensure better clarity. Bug management and reporting were handled using Jira.

Implementing Strategies to win the competition

Software Testers from Testvox conducted market analysis and competitor benchmarking to identify unique selling points for STORIMART. As a result of Testvox's diligent analysis, STORIMART gained insights into market trends on B2B transactions, enabling them to refine their product's features and marketing strategy for better competitiveness. This analysis led to the development of innovative features by STORILABS, such as Offline Salesman, Synching App, Catalog manager, and many customized mobile and web apps, all of which were tailored to meet the demands of the B2B market. Testvox served as a bridge, facilitating communication and ensuring alignment among the sales, development, and testing teams to successfully implement these features in a comprehensive manner and as per market trends.

Strategized testing of Customized versions

STORIMART's unique features, such as color themes, various fields and application options, different associated Apps and diverse attributes, underwent comprehensive validation to minimize the risk of defects in these critical areas. Testvox developed customized testing strategies for each unique feature, including exploratory and scenario-based testing. After every release deployment, all customized versions were thoroughly tested. The software testers from Testvox also analyzed the limitations of the themes proposed by different clients. Following these assessments, discussions were held to reach a final decision on the themes to be selected, ensuring maximum compatibility with the requirements of these clients. Web App Testing, Mobile App Testing and API Testing were executed on all customized versions of the application. Cross-browser testing was done using the cloud-based tool LambdaTest. Integration testing was given high priority due to the complexity of the application and the extensive data dependencies among its various modules.

Performance Testing

Testvox conducted performance testing, load testing, and stress testing to identify performance bottlenecks in the application. Performance testers from Testvox suggested several methods to minimize bottleneck issues and maximize the application's load capacity for various functionalities. They created different testing scenarios involving large amounts of data, such as creating a catalog of 10,000 products, establishing 5000 buyers, assessing the time taken to publish a catalog into a group, and having multiple buyers in a group access a large number of products simultaneously. Issues identified during these tests were reported. Subsequently, the performance testers from Testvox provided strategic information regarding how performance was affected in different scenarios. After these tests and analyses, they identified the maximum load that the application could handle for each change made. As a result of these efforts, STORIMART achieved significant performance improvements, ensuring a smooth user experience even during high usage.

Addressing production-related issues

Upon detecting an issue in the production environment, Testvox's Software Testers initially confirmed its presence there. Subsequently, they replicated the same scenario in the testing environment by copying the latest application release from production. They documented the issue and the steps to recreate it, reporting their findings. After the Software Developers from Storilabs rectified the issue, the new release underwent rigorous testing before being deployed into the production environment. This comprehensive testing approach prevented mobile apps from crashing due to unexpected scenarios, utilizing validation messages. Testvox's Software Testers identified numerous unexpected scenarios and rarely occurring issues, enabling software developers to correct them and exercise greater control over their occurrence in the future.

Documented the Project

Software Testers from Testvox collaborated with Storilabs to meticulously document all functionalities and features within the application, including test cases and procedures. They accomplished this by thoroughly studying the application's various functionalities and features through rigorous testing. Any doubts or uncertainties were effectively addressed through discussions with the managers at Storilabs. To monitor progress, daily status calls were conducted twice a day, and weekly sprint planning sessions were held facilitating quick adaptations to market changes in B2B trends. During this process, the testing scenarios were methodically transformed into comprehensive test cases, which were then fully documented and delivered to the client. The act of documenting the application greatly improved the organization of testing efforts, resulting in enhanced communication and understanding among the teams involved.

Case Studies

B2B E-commerce Application Testing

Product

B2B Ecommerce

Duration

4 Years

Team Size

4 QA Engineers

Type of Testing

Integration

Type of Testing

Cross-browser

Type of Testing

Performance

The STORIMART ecosystem encompasses multiple web and mobile applications, each fulfilling distinct functions and tailored to specific regions.

Absence of an internal QA Team

Competition with similar B2B Applications

Customized versions to be tested efficiently

Performance Issues

Production Issue

Lack of Documents

Deployed experienced software testers.

Implementing Strategies to win the competition

Strategized testing of Customized versions

Performance Testing

Addressing production-related issues

Documented the Project

Through their partnership with Testvox, Storilabs successfully addressed the challenges they encountered, resulting in a more robust and reliable B2B product.

Test Cases

Increased Competency

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