How does automation improve quality for a business travel company?

Productivity
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Introduction

We specialize in automation and have experience with multiple applications. Let’s start by discussing our experience with a client—a company specializing in travel business tool management.

At present, the company is experiencing growth, with a workforce of 50–60 employees. Upon commencing our collaboration, we identified that they were grappling with extensive manual tasks. Their application deployment was entirely manual, and they conducted manual testing for every aspect of the application, from booking to payment processing. This laborious process consumed considerable time and occasionally led to overlooked testing, resulting in subsequent issues requiring repetition of the entire process.

While working on certain features, we encountered challenges due to our reliance on their processes. The entire process of implementing features, conducting manual testing, and then deploying typically requires a minimum of 3 to 4 days. Each step is interdependent, meaning we cannot proceed to the next task until the previous one is completed. Moreover, a significant portion of the work is manual, which inevitably extends the time needed to complete the entire process.

We then proposed the implementation of CI/CD to automate the deployment process and suggested automating testing to eliminate the need for repetitive manual testing. They found this recommendation highly beneficial and sought guidance from us. We subsequently initiated the process of implementing these solutions. After implementation, they experienced a 50% reduction in manual workload.

Next, we will discuss each step individually: the challenges they encountered, our approach to implementation, and the subsequent benefits they obtained.

Challenges before Automation

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They encountered numerous challenges prior to automation. We’ll address each of these challenges individually. Here are some common challenges faced by transport companies:

  1. Manual Testing Overhead: The company relied exclusively on manual testing, which proved to be time-consuming and prone to errors. This approach resulted in delays in identifying and resolving issues, leading to slower release cycles, elevated risk of human errors, and increased testing expenses. This whole process of testing any feature takes a minimum of 2–3 days.
  2. Lack of Test Coverage: In the tale of the company’s journey, relying solely on manual testing proved to be a risky venture. It was like trying to navigate a winding road with only half a map. We soon realized that this approach left crucial parts of our transport tool untested, creating blind spots in our quality assurance efforts. Unfortunately, undetected bugs and glitches began to surface in critical functionalities, tarnishing the overall reliability and effectiveness of our tool.
  3. Long Release Cycles: They encountered a challenge with their manual testing procedures. These processes often cause delays in releasing new features or updates, hampering their agility and responsiveness to market demands. The deployment process for any feature typically requires a minimum of 1 to 2 days.
  4. Human Resource Dependency: As the company grew, so did the demands on our testing procedures, leading to rising labor costs and challenges in finding enough skilled testers to keep pace with the workload. Despite our best efforts, the risk of human error loomed large, threatening the integrity of our testing outcomes and the success of our endeavors. The whole process for any feature typically requires a minimum of 3 to 4 employees for manual testing and deployment.
  5. Lack of Continuous Integration: The team was grappling with a problem that seemed to be hindering their progress: the absence of Continuous Integration (CI). As a result, the development cycles stretched longer than anticipated, and the team found themselves battling an increasing number of deployment failures. It was clear that without CI/CD system in place, their journey towards seamless development and deployment was fraught with obstacles. This process was repeated sometimes 2-4 times due to deployment failures.

Solution Offered

As the company grappled with numerous challenges, including excessive manual work that proved time-consuming, we proposed two solutions to address these issues:

  1. Implementing automated testing will eliminate the need for manual testing.
  2. Adopting CI/CD to streamline and automate the deployment process, reducing the reliance on manual intervention.

Selenium is a widely used open-source automated testing framework primarily used for web applications.

Robot Framework, on the other hand, is a generic open-source automation framework for acceptance testing, acceptance test-driven development (ATDD), and robotic process automation (RPA).

GitHub Actions is a feature provided by GitHub that enables you to automate tasks within your software development workflows. GitHub Actions provides an integrated CI/CD solution that allows you to build, test, and deploy your code directly from your GitHub repository.

Upon their positive reception of the proposed solutions, we promptly commenced their implementation. Dividing our efforts, we established two distinct teams: one dedicated to testing and the other tasked with deployment (both teams converting manual processes to automated ones). Following thorough discussions, several key points emerged.

  1. We opted to deploy automated testing utilizing the Robot framework and Selenium.
  2. We also decided to deploy CI/CD by leveraging select AWS services and GitHub actions.

Our teams possessed proficient skills in Robot Framework, Selenium, AWS services, and GitHub actions. Once discussions concluded and tasks were allocated, they promptly initiated implementation. Within a few weeks, they successfully completed the entire process. Additionally, we diligently maintained documentation for all these procedures to facilitate assistance for others in the future.

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Benefits after Automation

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Here are some key advantages:

Faster Release Cycles

After implementing CI/CD, the company discovered that the release and deployment processes were completed in few seconds automatically, eliminating the need for manual intervention. This newfound efficiency led to significant time savings. This reduced developer time by 50%.

Enhanced Test Coverage

When they decided to embrace automated testing. It was a game-changer. Suddenly, every edge case and every complex scenario were covered with precision and efficiency. Our team could breathe a sigh of relief knowing that the risk of undetected bugs was significantly reduced. Our customers could trust that their journeys would be smooth and seamless, thanks to the improved overall reliability brought about by this innovative solution. This resulted in a complete elimination (that is, reduced to 0%) of the process repetition, which was initially caused by failure.

Cost Savings

The implementation of automated testing. With this innovative solution in place, the company saw a remarkable transformation. No longer were their skilled employees burdened with repetitive manual tasks. As a result, the company witnessed a significant reduction in manual work—a staggering 50% decrease, to be precise. This newfound efficiency not only saved precious time but also translated into substantial cost savings.

Increased Confidence in Deployments

They implemented automated testing and CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment), ushering in a new era of reliability and predictability in their deployment processes. As a result, the risk of service disruptions plummeted, and the team could breathe easier knowing that their users would experience minimal downtime during updates. With automated testing and CI/CD by their side, company continued to innovate and deliver value to their customers with peace of mind.

Early Detection of Issues

In our company’s journey, the introduction of automated testing and CI/CD became the guardians of our development process. They worked tirelessly, scanning every line of code as it journeyed through the pipeline, ensuring that any issues were caught and resolved swiftly, long before they had a chance to see the light of day in production. As a result, our users experienced a smoother, more seamless journey through our products, leaving them with a positive and satisfying experience every step of the way.

Conclusion

In our company’s journey, the decision to integrate automated testing and CI/CD into our business travel management tool marked a pivotal moment. It wasn’t just a technical upgrade; it was a transformative shift that reshaped how we operated in the ever-changing world of transportation technology.

As we embraced automation, we witnessed a profound change within our organization. Tasks that once demanded extensive manual effort became streamlined and efficient. Our team found themselves freed from the shackles of repetitive testing, allowing them to focus on more strategic initiatives.

With CI/CD in place, our deployment process became smoother and more reliable. Gone are the days of unpredictable releases and last-minute fixes. Instead, we adopted a structured approach that ensured every update was thoroughly tested and seamlessly integrated into our system.

This transformation didn’t just enhance their internal operations; it also improved the experience for clients. With faster release cycles and fewer errors, they could rely on our platform with confidence, knowing that we were committed to delivering the highest standards of service. We’ve cut developer time by 50%, tripled our release efficiency, and achieved a 30% reduction in costs. Also, the number of days spent on the whole process was almost reduced by 50%.

In essence, the integration of automated testing and CI/CD wasn’t just a technological upgrade; it was a catalyst for change. It propelled us forward, enabling us to navigate the complexities of the transportation industry with agility and innovation.

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The views are those of the author and are not necessarily endorsed by Madgical Techdom.

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