Faster Software Production Delivered to FedEx

The new tagline at FedEx, "Don't worry. There's a FedEx for that^SM," promotes the broad range of shipping solutions the overnight delivery company offers. When it comes to software testing, FedEx doesn't need to worry. Compuware has just the solution for them—QACenter.

At FedEx, it's all about expediting the process. Even when it comes to software production.

That's why management created an internal consulting group a couple years ago—to facilitate a way to get software into production faster. The group developed a new process, "express load," which increased the number of times software is moved into production from three times a year to twelve times a year. The main approach FedEx used to expedite software production, according to Donald Smith, business applications advisor at FedEx, was introducing automation.

Smith leads the automation team, which is part of the consulting group. His team is responsible for testing key applications that go through the express load cycle. "Testing used to be a long, manual process, consisting of visual tests and using a variety of non-integrated products," says Smith. "We wanted to bring it all together and use one set of automated tools."

Smith's team also wanted to find a vendor who could support a variety of technologies end to end. "While other vendors supported Windows and Java, they recommended third-party vendors to support our mainframe side," says Smith. "We like the fact that Compuware is able to support everything in-house, without sending us to outside vendors."

Make Testing Faster, Easier

Ease of use was an important factor in selecting a testing tool, since many non-technical employees would be using it.

To compare testing tools, Smith's group created identical scripts for some of the applications. "We set Compuware's QARun scripts side-by-side with another vendor's scripts, and we had non-technical colleagues try to explain to us what the scripts do," says Smith. "In every case, they could explain everything the QARun scripts could do, but they could only report very little about what the other vendor's scripting language could do. That was a big deciding factor."

Since selecting and purchasing Compuware's QACenter suite of products, the FedEx IT automation team "has architected QARun in such a way that you really need to know nothing about our products," says Smith. "It's so easy, you just need to know what button to push."

In addition to scripting, the team also uses QARun as a validation tool for confirming that information used in managers' web-based reports is correct and timely. "Instead of manually going through thousands and thousands of test cases to find the cases that failed, QARun automatically finds those cases," says Smith. "QARun has saved several people in our validation group at least two days' worth of work each testing cycle. We can do more with less, and our reports are much more accurate since there's less chance for human error."

Speed Problem Resolution

The IT automation group uses Compuware's TrackRecord as a defect tracking tool during testing, which helps developers find and fix problems faster.

TrackRecord is also used as a change management tool. "If someone needs a script changed or a modification made in the database, they put that request into TrackRecord, and it gets done," says Smith.

Facilitate Swift Data Management

When Smith and his team need to manipulate data, initialize databases or create new tables in databases, they turn to File-AID/CS, a comprehensive test data management tool designed to help develop, test and support client/server applications. With File-AID/CS, tasks are performed through a common graphical interface, eliminating the need to write programs or scripts, code SQL or use multiple utilities.

The best feature of File-AID/CS—according to Smith—is that you don't have to be an expert in each database environment in order to use it. "There are non-technical people in our group, not DBA-type people, and they are doing DBA-type things," says Smith. "We've got it down to the point where we could literally grab somebody off the street today and say 'push this button' and they're doing DBA-like things."

Provide Immediate Service

Since Compuware offers an integrated set of tools in its QACenter suite, FedEx has a single point of contact in the event a problem occurs. Smith and his team no longer waste their time getting the run-around when they are calling for help.

"When we do have problems, the service level that we have received from Compuware has been really phenomenal," says Smith. "With other companies, they'd claim that something was not their problem, and send you to the third-party vendor. Then the third-party vendor would claim, 'it's the primary company's problem.' You would end up calling five different people to get something solved! With Compuware, we call one phone number and it gets resolved."

The FedEx automation team is so pleased with the results of QACenter's QARun and TrackRecord testing solutions that the group is currently implementing additional products from the suite. Reconcile will be used to link internal requirements to the overall testing process and QADirector will be used to schedule jobs during the middle of the night. That way, results will be ready for Smith's group to analyze the next morning.

"It's all about expediting the process and doing more with less, which is certainly important at this time, the way the economy is," says Smith.