Tauranga Software Test Professionals Meetup

It is always amazing what gets shared at the Software Test Professionals community meetups. This time around, we were lucky to have two key topics presented from major organisations in the local community. Both were presented very well.

Our first session was delivered by Linda Castle – Senior Test Analyst for Mercury Energy. The presentation gave a worked example of testing at scale on a compressed timeframe for a key business initiative – acquisition and merger (complete with brand and customer migration) for the acquisition of TrustPower by Mercury Energy. More than just a (re) branding exercise, the project encompassed a pilot customer migration, call centre integration, combined invoicing and payment receipt, and single brand representation across all client communication across systems from two previously separate companies – each of a slightly different product mix and customer policies. The scope and scale of the testing was staggering. Referenced by the need to scale up the testing practice by 29 additional personnel to deliver in the timeframes set. Linda gave a very comprehensive overview of the work programme, the outcomes, and that ‘what I wished we did’. You can see her full presentation here <Link to Presentation PDF>.

Pictures from the August Tauranga Software Test Professionals Meetup

The second session changed tack just a tad. Less presentation. More interview. It was a conversation with Tauranga City Council’s Rodney Colvin on their approach to Risk Based Testing. Tauranga City Council is a complex business with a myriad of responsibilities that include the Food Hygiene Certification of businesses, managing noise complaints, Dog Registration (15,219 known dogs 😊), Building Permits, Social Services, Rubbish Collection, Town Planning and Rates invoicing and collection. The organisation's wide range of functions are supported by a number of sophisticated business support applications including SAP – their major Enterprise Requirements Planning (ERP) platform.

With this range of services and associated business support applications, managing the demands of software quality assurance in an environment that must maintain current software versions with tight release windows isn’t an easy task. Risk Based Testing is a necessity, and being a necessity, it needs to be done well. In the interview with Rodney, the meetup was taken through the why and how of Risk Based testing within the Council, the tooling that the Council relied on for their SAP platform to be tested successfully under a Risk Based testing regime, and the aspirational future of testing and test delivery within the Council. Did you know that their automated test suite can be triggered by just two clicks – with traceability of test cases, test results and defects back to business requirements? Nor did those at the meetup. The full transcript of the interview with Rodney can be seen here <Link to Transcript PDF>.

Huge thanks to Bay of Plenty Regional Council for the hosting of the event.