IMPROVING A MICROSOFT-BASED PLATFORM
FOR CORPORATE SERVICE MANAGEMENT
During 2 years of cooperation, Operaio engaged MobiDev to handle various tasks related to their software products. In particular, we created and implemented a new testing strategy and performed a partial redesign of one of Operaio’s key products, the ITSM Portal. The Operaio team received an updated UX/UI design tailored to the portal's specifics. The testing strategy has delivered strong results, supporting the product’s evolution to better meet end-user needs. Additionally, the provided documentation laid the foundation for ongoing QA activities by the in-house team.
Consulting, dedicated development team of 5 experts
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KEY FACTS:
Country
Switzerland
Industry
Services
Cooperation period
2020-2022
Cooperation type
Consulting, dedicated development team of 5 experts
WHAT THE CLIENT SAYS
Thanks to MobiDev we were able to develop a comprehensive testing system and since then we have been able to increase the quality of our software enormously.
We were always satisfied with the work and thanks to short-term resources we could meet our schedules. I especially like the good and open communication with MobiDev. Despite a great distance, the support was always very personal and highly professional.
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Adrian Probst
CEO at Operaio GmbH
THE STORY BEHIND
IT service ticket management saw a significant increase in 2020, compared to a rise of only 3-5% in pre-pandemic scenarios. That year, Operaio entered the IT service management market, offering customized Microsoft-based solutions to streamline service management processes. From the very beginning, the company focused on a high level of customization, making Operaio products versatile tools that meet specific industry and business needs.
MobiDev was engaged to help create and implement a testing strategy and partial redesign of the Web Portal for System Center Service Manager, one of Operaio’s key software products.
INDUSTRY CHALLENGES
Unsettled processes and the lack of a convenient ecosystem for service management often lead to delays in resolving requests and a decrease in overall productivity. Additionally, unexpected disruptions or service failures can cause downtimes, which is harmful to business operations. Businesses seek solutions with intuitive and accessible interfaces for service requests and issue resolution, to maintain an accurate and up-to-date record of IT assets and their relationships. These are the key capabilities of Operaio’s ITSM Portal.
Performed design audit and highly customizable redesign
To cover a partial design update and ensure it would seamlessly interact with the current design of the portal, the MobiDev team started with the tech consulting stage and conducted a thorough UX/UI design audit. The primary focus was on improving the user experience (UX) and making the design more intuitive and user-friendly while ensuring it could handle the complexity of the highly customizable interface. Upon completing the audit, the dedicated designers moved directly to the redesign.
2
Implemented combinatorial testing
Within the ITSM Portal, users deal with a huge number of field type combinations that have variable configurations depending on the customer’s business specifics. Thus, we chose a combinatorial testing method. This approach is commonly used in medical and rocket engineering to handle vast amounts of data in different configurations. Combinatorial testing provided reliable results, ensuring that all types of fields with different mixed configurations interacted properly.
3
Boosted pairwise testing with the ACTS tool
The next step after deciding on a combinatorial testing approach was to determine the most suitable testing method in terms of accuracy and time efficiency. We recommended pairwise testing since it covers all possible pairs of parameter values with at least one test. According to NASA research, pairwise testing detects 93% of failures, compared to 98% for triplewise testing. Given the project requirements for timeline and accuracy, pairwise testing was confirmed to be the best fit.
To conduct pairwise testing, we needed to determine particular pairs for testing. Manual calculations for this task could have taken dozens of hours, significantly increasing the project budget. To streamline the process, we utilized a specialized tool called ACTS, developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. We created a respective equivalent of classes that represent the project’s functionality and incorporated it into the tool. It took ACTS a few seconds to calculate all the combinations required for testing the project. As a result, instead of performing thousands of possible combinations, we achieved high test coverage with only 37 test cases, which allowed the client to significantly save on budget.
4
Created high-level documentation for the in-house team
As part of the testing strategy setup, the MobiDev team created detailed documentation on both manual and automated testing that also covered Test Plan Azure DevOps and ACTS. Following this documentation, the Operaio in-house team will seamlessly implement our testing strategy for future versions of the ITSM Portal.
TECHNICAL DETAILS
Frontend
HTML5, CSS3, Angular
Backend and DevOps
developed by the client’s in-house team - System Center Service Manager (SCSM), Azure DevOps
Testing
ACTS tool
OUTCOMES
Upon MobiDev completing the transfer of the scope results, the Operaio in-house team continued using the provided materials for extensive quality assurance and evolving its product to meet the needs of end-users. Operaio is expanding and currently serves the government administration (Kanton Zürich) and enterprises with over 160 years of history that operate in IT services & consulting (Abraxas Informatik AG), rail transportation (BLS AG), education (Digicomp Academy and ETH Zürich), manufacturing (Herrenknecht AG, Vetropack Group, and Maxon), oil & gas (PETRONAS), and media & telecommunications (SRG SSR).
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