Mariet Labuschagne, Business Systems Services Manager at ECU, explains how Planit provided services around performance testing of applications and systems for more than three years:
“High quality teaching and learning is underpinned by robust systems and services for students, academic, non-academic staff. Indeed, all university stakeholders.
“With the development and growth of the university, our testing requirements have increased to the point where we are transitioning from manual user testing to increasingly automated test cases.
A preferred testing partner
“I was a member of the evaluation committee that selected Planit as our preferred provider for testing services. They stacked up very well against the competition. We were also satisfied with the service they provided prior to the official tender requirement.
“For me, the decision to go with Planit was very much about the people. Planit provides long term resources to us as a client, with their employees being kept up to date with latest development and training within the testing space."
Mariet Labuschagne
Business Systems Services Manager, Edith Cowan University
“We had dedicated resources assigned to ECU, who have been with us for a while. They fit in so well they are considered to be a part of our project teams.
“The benefits Planit bring us include:
Adding value and sharing knowledge
“Planit will recommend a better approach if there is one, and things we should be testing that we hadn’t thought about. This proactive way of working is appreciated, and one of the main reasons why the professional partnership between ECU and Planit has been successful.
Automation
“Planit assisted us in selecting a test automation tool. We are now transitioning from manual user testing to increasingly automated test cases. As time progresses, more and more test cases will be automated.
“Planit provides the resourcing for the creation of automated tests, which are then handed over to us for long term usage. The immediate benefits of the test automation have been:
- Comparable, repeatable outcomes.
- Quicker turn-around time of testing.
- Technical teams being able to execute the tests themselves.
- Removal of the dependency on business users in terms of availability.
- With test results output and stored in a structured format, we have gained the ability to compare performance after incremental patching.
“With test automation being rolled out, we will be able to achieve accelerated delivery for future releases utilising test cases previously delivered. Expanding ECU’s automated test cases is an iterative process.
“The key objective is to embed efficiencies and quality control with the use of test automation where there is a high volume of change, therefore becoming a repeated requirement of testing. This means shorter time frames for the test effort and high reusability.
“We expect that the effect will be faster time to market and improved customer experience. It will also allow project resources to add value by expanding on the repository of automated tests, rather than repeating manual tests over and over.
Increased product quality
“The quality of Planit’s testing ensures products can be trusted to operate the way they should with acceptable response times. We have multiple stakeholders to keep happy – the schools, students, HR, finance, professionals, academics, services and administration in each of these. So far, so good.
Continuous improvement
“As an educational organisation, continuous improvement is our agenda. Planit works with us to identify projects that are suitable candidates for continuous improvements in the testing area for ITSC.
“This has resulted in the introduction of test automation. We appreciate this proactive approach taken by Planit.”
Mariet Labuschagne
Business Systems Services Manager
Edith Cowan University
Joondalup, Western Australia