User Acceptance Testing for MSN.com

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Overview

Challenge

Microsoft needed to deploy changes and new features across the extensive suite of sites on MSN.com. Wimmer Solutions was tasked with testing online content and functionality to ensure technical excellence the high level of quality that Microsoft is known for.

Wimmer’s team brought together expertise in software testing, project management, technical documentation and UAT to debug, troubleshoot and document problems in web services and servers, which included a test team that performed core functionality testing and provided regular status reports.

Our resources worked cross-functionally with program managers, developers, support analysts, and other testers to perform production activities and to establish processes to keep properties running smoothly and efficiently using automation and monitoring solutions.

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Solution
Innovation

Challenge

Microsoft partnered with Wimmer Solutions to deploy changes and new features across the complex suite of sites under MSN.com. The duties included testing of technically sophisticated online web content, data-driven interactive content, customized information retrieval with focus on ensuring technical excellence and the highest levels of quality, and testing of functionality to ensure that development implementations matched what was documented in design and functional specifications.

Solution

Wimmer resources were tasked with the writing of detailed problem reports (bugs) to proactively ensure that problems could be understood, prioritized, investigated, fixed, and deployed with a minimum of confusion or misunderstandings. Success in this effort required Wimmer Solutions’ team to have a comprehensive understanding and ability to manage a the group’s web service environment build-out process, which required debugging and troubleshooting of web services and servers. The engagement also required extensive schedule planning, test specification creation and review, and test case development.

In order to achieve the above deliverables on schedule and in a quality manner, the Wimmer Team utilized the following technical skills:

  • Software testing
  • UAT (User Acceptance Testing)
  • Project management
  • Technical Documentation

The team Wimmer Solutions built to support this effort was well-versed in all aspects of the SDLC and featured subject-matter experts in Bedrock, Omniture, and iDSS platform technologies; XML data manipulation; SQL tools; web services; website performance; classic web design; and deployment/installation. Wimmer’s test team performed core functionality testing on a per request basis, including feature, development and testing documentation reviews and managing test passes.

Specialty areas included localization/globalization testing for MSN.com sites, automated test and script development, and test tool development. Our team leads provided weekly and monthly status reports and managed the team’s day-to-day tasks and orchestrated its ability to meet deadlines for specifically defined engineering tasks. Emergency-related tasks included providing hourly updates for critical/urgent related issues.

Innovation & Impact

Beyond the initial scope of the project, the evolution of this effort included participation in the architecture of automation and monitoring solutions and the design and development of tools to accomplish automation and monitoring. Our resources worked with program managers, developers, support analysts, and other testers to perform production activities and to establish processes to keep properties running smoothly and efficiently.

The Wimmer team either met or exceeded schedule, budgetary and quality client targets.