Establishing a software testing team to increase the quality of products

Client

Parkdean Resorts is a UK-based holiday park operator with 66 parks located across the country. They offer a variety of accommodation options, including caravan holiday homes, lodges, apartments and camping pitches. With a strong focus on delivering exceptional experiences for guests, Parkdean offer a rich assortment of exceptional amenities, such as rejuvenating swimming pools, thrilling adventure playgrounds, state-of-the-art sports facilities and live entertainment. Every aspect of their parks is thoughtfully designed to offer a relaxing holiday experience.

Background

At the time of reaching out to Audacia, Parkdean Resorts had just launched their new website and booking platform. With the anticipated surge in demand that accompanied the launch, the organisation recognised the need to work with a trusted testing partner that could meet their objectives.

At the core of this objective was a shared commitment to collaboratively work together to transition towards agile working practices. This strategic initiative would not only allow the client to manage the initial surge effectively but also set the stage for a robust framework to support ongoing growth.

Parkdean Resorts did not have an in-house software testing team at the time and, therefore, required software testers with experience of working with agile who were capable of seamlessly integrating testing processes into the larger development framework.

Experience across all testing types, spanning from functional and regression testing to performance and security testing, would ensure a holistic and robust approach to software testing for the organisation.

The overarching objectives were therefore as such: to enhance and extend the existing team, working as a single team with a collective focus on achieving shared outcomes. This approach aimed to both create a dedicated test team, cultivating a culture of collaboration, while simultaneously working towards enhancing agile working practices within the organisation.

Solution

Parkdean Resorts worked in partnership with Audacia as part of a team augmentation project to establish a software testing team within the organisation. The partnership has also actively pursued the enhancement of agile practices across the entire development process. These combined efforts have solidified a foundation for effective testing practices while also setting a trajectory for improving and reigning agile methodologies.

Audacia established a new test strategy that was accommodating to modern, agile software testing practices. This strategy encompassed testing chapters as well as regular UI and API automation testing. The latest, industry-standard technologies were used including automation testing framework, Playwright.

Leveraging their extensive experience across diverse testing approaches, Audacia's dedicated Test Engineers contributed substantially to refining testing guidelines and reporting within the organisation.

These QA engineers also took an active lead in all the in-house testing for the project teams, with responsibilities including sign-off testing for all test employees, including those from various third parties. This comprehensive approach underscored the project’s technical precision and showcased the close partnership between Audacia and Parkdean.

One main challenge for this project was making sure that the strategy and agile practices would work effectively for the client and their testing team, both when they started and in the future.

Results

Audacia has helped to create a collaborative test team that is robust and encompasses agile testing practices. One key result is the implementation of an automation test strategy where automation testing runs nightly which ensures the consistency across the testing of all products.

These efforts have led to a substantial increase in the quality of the products developed by Parkdean. This improvement is thanks to comprehensive execution of the new test strategy, along with the thorough use of automation testing. By using these methods, the organisation can catch potential issues early in the development process and fix these areas quickly.