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A Leading scientific software provider

Q3's global sourcing model gives the maximum benefit to customers in terms of cost savings, improved quality, access to highly talented professionals, flexibility of operations and reduced time to market.

Company Profile

The Client is a leading supplier of discovery, collaboration and knowledge enterprise solutions, desktop software, scientific databases and consulting services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and chemical industries. The client provides Enterprise solutions, desktop software, scientific databases, and professional services for biotechnology, drug discovery and chemical research, including software, databases, and web sites which enable customers to create, analyze and communicate chemical, biological, and scientific information more effectively.

Client's products are used primarily in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and chemical industries, as well as in higher education and in academic and government research. The client's principal software offering, Chem & Bio office suites, includes molecule sketching tool for biology and chemistry entities, Chemistry and bioassay related databases and Electronic Lab Notebook is the de facto standard and primary communication tool on the chemist's desktop used for the analysis and property predictions of the chemical and biological entities. Chem & Bio Office Enterprise, an enterprise implementation of Chem & Bio Office desktop, enables research information organizations to deploy application and information solutions using Internet, intranet, and extranet technologies.

Client developed a customized Electronic Lab Notebook for its customer Astra Zeneca, one of the world's leading pharmaceutical company, with a broad range of medicines designed to fight disease in important areas of healthcare. The pharma giant is active in over 100 countries with a growing presence in important emerging markets. Its corporate office is in London, UK and major R&D sites in Sweden, the UK and the US.

Business Situation

The business requirement of the client was to develop a test strategy, test plan and management system to test Astra Zeneca’s customized Electronic Lab Notebook product. This notebook was intended to replace paper laboratory notebooks with worldwide access to 850 scientists on 10 sites, in 6 countries and 3 continents.

Also, it was required to integrate the new system with current sample management system and provide training to users spread across the globe. The product had to be tested on Windows platform with different flavors, for which testers with domain knowledge were required.

Solution

Working closely with the client, Q3 developed a stable and reliable test strategy and test plan for Astra Zeneca’s ENB. Q3 deployed resources to meet the needs of the client and assembled an agile team consisting of one test lead and three experienced testers with domain expertise and QA exposure. Deadlines for planning, start and completion of the projects were achieved for Alpha, Beta and System levels of testing, on time.

Q3 developed a strategic plan to set up a good training process for the users of ENB at various global sites of Astra Zeneca. Day-to-day interactions with the client were managed by effectively answering their product related technical queries, providing updates on testing cycle and bug cycle progress, planning visits for their training requirements.

Q3 testing team accomplished in being the most valuable contributor for 3 major Astra Zeneca’s ENB releases by its deeds which were

• Exploring the product and its functionalities, developing and writing effective Test Cases as per requirements.
• Manual regression testing cycles, Exploratory or Ad-Hoc testing on various flavors of Windows operating system were employed on various builds.
• Effective defect reporting, categorization and tracking were done with the help of customized bug tracking tool.
• Alpha, Beta and System level testing were covered with effective test coverage on all flavors of Windows OS and Mac OS platforms.
• Developed a managed metric system to measure and analyze testing phases with effective test coverage and defect management system.
• Weekly meetings were conducted with the Client to discuss the status, updates and strategies of testing for new releases.

Benefits

• Entire testing was done by the Q3 Team in a supporting 24*7 work environment. The client benefitted by the low cost of manpower.
• The bugs entered were realistic since testing was done in user’s view.
• Q3 team engaged in a true partnership model to provide training on ENB products to Astra Zeneca’s scientists.
• Talent and quality was appreciated by Client which was shown by involving Q3 in Sales meeting after the release of the product.
• Strict quality adherence standards for testing resulted in fewer problems for endcustomers
• Q3 was a contributor to the product sales which increased up to 40% considering the quality parameters and stability of product