Success Story

8x Faster Test Creation at Eljin Productions

Discover how Eljin Productions successfully launched a business-critical payments platform using model-based test generation and synthetic test data.

The need

As Eljin Productions were rebuilding their business-critical payment platform from the ground up, rigorous testing was imperative. Eljin required a rapid and automated test design methodology, capable of creating targeted tests from among this wide-range of possible payment scenarios.

The challenge

Development work for the new Eljin platform began in June 2020. Aware that rigorous testing must occur in parallel to rapid development, Eljin faced a challenge: How could they test the complex payment calculations rapidly, rigorously, and with an attainable volume of test cases?

The solution

Today, Eljin use Curiosity's Quality Modeller to auto-generate rigorous in-sprint tests from visual models that double up as living documentation for the complex payment system. Using Curiosity's model-based approach led to rigorous, measurable, and risk-based testing at Eljin.

The benefits at a glance

An initial 8x increase in test creation speed, using automated and optimised test generation.
An upgrade to test coverage that's as exhaustive as needed for fast, secure and bug-free releases.
The discovery of several major bugs before the first release of the Eljin platform.
A reduction in data privacy risks, using rich synthetic test data in test environments.
The creation of collaborative "living documentation" for testing and development.
A reduction in wasteful over-testing and defect remediation time.

Testing a business-critical payment platform

The largest payer of union audiobook talent in North America had to rebuild its business-critical payment platform from the ground up.

Highly complex payment test logic

The possible test combinations associated with the Eljin platform are vast. This combinatorial complexity is due to the rules associated with calculating talent payments. Exhaustively testing every change is therefore not a viable test strategy, given the pace of development and the number of possible test cases associated with Eljin’s payment system. Yet, under-testing the business-critical platform is simply not an option either.

The challenge of manual test design

Eljin required a rapid and optimised approach to test creation, rigorously validating a wide range of payments in the smallest possible volume of tests. This is why they approached Curiosity Software. Before Curiosity joined the project, test creation was being performed manually by Eljin’s development teams. Engineers used an Excel spreadsheet to formulate data-driven tests for the highly complex payment scenarios.

Models drive rigorous testing at Eljin productions

Eljin brought Curiosity into the testing process early in the project, testing before the first version of the platform went live.

Model-based test creation

Visual flows clearly map out the data variables and equivalence classes associated with the different payment scenarios. They replace the unwieldy Excel spreadsheet previously used by Eljin’s developers with an intuitive approach to rigorous test creation, while also providing a collaborative resource for understanding the complex system logic.

Rigorous test coverage

Quality Modeller's targeted test generation creates optimised tests automatically. Automated coverage algorithms then generate the smallest set of combinations needed to “cover” the modelled logic, creating a “rightsized” set of test data for de-risking system change. This data is consistent and compliant with regulations.

Automated test generation

For a typical test run today, the automated generation creates around 100 targeted rows of data. Each row represents a distinct test combination, reflecting a substantial advance on what Eljin’s developers were using previously. Quality Modeller has accordingly increased test coverage substantially, reducing the negative risk associated with under-testing.

A successful launch – and many more to come

Read the full story to discover how Eljin Productions successfully launched their business-critical payment platform with Quality Modeller.

Launching a business critical platform

8x increase in test design speed
Optimal test coverage for bug-free releases
Synthetic test data removed privacy risks

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Curiosity’s models ... ensured the reliability of complex connections between user types, so payments stay on target and private data remains secure … They identified minor and major bugs, so we could bring our product to market quickly—and guarantee our users a simple, worry-free experience.

John McElroy

President of Eljin Productions

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8x Faster Test Creation at Eljin Productions

The benefits at a glance