Credito Emiliano
Silk-driven test automation framework delivers central, shared, test repository to increase efficiency, productivity, and collaboration
Products and services
Outcomes
- 10% reduction in manual testing effort
- Clear and custom-made management and audit reporting
- Full visibility supports process analysis and risk mitigation
- Enthusiastic user adoption and executive sponsorship
Challenge
Introduce new software testing methodologies, guidelines, and automated testing solutions to deliver efficiency and effectiveness to the application development lifecycle.
As many financial institutions, Credito Emiliano managed its application development lifecycle by various means. Requirements gathering and functional analysis was done through documents, emails, and direct contacts. For the testing phase, Credito Emiliano used Excel to define functional and non-regression test cases. Performance testing was done with an Open Source solution, and defect tracking was managed through email. This model was not scalable, as Gianluca Tonti, Testing Competence Center Manager for Credito Emiliano, explains: “We did not have the overview we wanted, and it was extremely difficult to retrieve the metrics needed for our management and audit reporting. As our application landscape grew, we realized we needed more structured testing processes. Using Open Source software can be cost-effective, but for us the Open Source solution helped us define what we really needed; an enterprise-ready solution in a robust testing framework.”
This vision coincided with an IT restructure within Credito Emiliano, and a dedicated testing competence center was created to introduce new software testing methodologies, guidelines, and automated testing solutions. The team researched the market for a test management and defect tracking solution that could bring efficiency and effectiveness to the Credito Emiliano application development lifecycle.
With a complete Silk-driven test management and automation solution, we have full visibility of all testing processes. This helps us analyse and correct any inefficiencies, and mitigate risk.
Details
Solution
Credito Emiliano evaluated a number of testing solutions and found OpenText™ Silk Central and OpenText™ Silk Test to best fit its needs. A proof-of-concept was carried out to confirm the findings. Tonti comments: “We already had a good idea of our requirements and knew we wanted to customize the solution. Silk impressed us with its flexibility and innovation, and we collaborated with Micro Focus (now part of OpenText™) on a custom-made licensing model that worked well for us.
There was a natural resistance to change, and the team had to work hard to demonstrate the benefits of a shared testing resource and standard testing processes. Custom training sessions were hosted with OpenText to train all Credito Emiliano stakeholders, including users, testers, and test managers. Tonti explains the importance: “We knew having internal buy-in would be key to the success of our initiative. To achieve this, the solution had to fit our existing processes, rather than the other way around. We needed Silk to be flexible and adapt to the Credito Emiliano environment.”
Silk Central contains many standard reports, and Tonti and the team worked with OpenText Professional Services to develop another 30 custom reports, which exactly fit Credito Emiliano’s requirements. The reports are managed in Silk Central and they individually address every level of the IT organization, so a project manager has their own report, as they require a different level of detail from a test manager. This level of granularity helped win support for Silk: “Once we showed the Silk Central reports to our management team they could immediately see how this would support efficiency and effectiveness,” says Tonti.
All 250 Credito Emiliano applications are now managed through Silk Central and Silk Test. Any new applications are immediately linked to Silk Central so that they can benefit from automated testing processes. 37,000 tests are executed each year. Although the test cases themselves are automated, the majority of tests are still executed manually, as Tonti explains: “About 3,000 of our tests now run fully automated. We aim to increase this number significantly in the short term.”
Silk provides the visibility Credito Emiliano needed; a clear test status, and an easy path for test managers to move between projects, as Silk is used across the entire application landscape in a uniform methodology.
Results
Credito Emiliano aims to move towards a DevOps environment, where application development will take place in smaller, more agile, development sprints, to improve time to market and velocity. Test automation is key to support this process, and the team plans to expand the use of Silk Test to increase automated test execution.
Tonti comments: “We have already reduced our test effort by 10 percent, and can see the potential to increase this substantially. With a complete Silk-driven test management and automation solution, we have full visibility of all testing processes. This helps us analyze and correct any inefficiencies, and mitigate risk.”
He concludes: “The partnership we have with Micro Focus (now part of OpenText™) is as much a part of the success story as the software is. We worked together to bring test automation to Credito Emiliano and it gives me great satisfaction when colleagues ask me if they can use Silk. This means they understand the value it brings to their job which is exactly what this initiative is about. We continue to bring value to the bank as a whole, and our collaboration with Micro Focus (now part of OpenText™) supports this.”
“Once we showed the Silk Central reports to our management team they could immediately see how this would support efficiency and effectiveness.
About Credito Emiliano
Credito Emiliano S.p.A. has over 6,000 employees that serve customers through its 654 bank branches across Italy. The bank’s main activities are in commercial banking and wealth management and insurance.
