Cloud-based compatibility testing for Leading Derivative’s Marketplace

The Client 

The company is the world’s leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace handling 3 billion contracts worth approximately $1 quadrillion annually. They provide a marketplace for buyers and sellers, bringing together individuals, companies and institutions that need to manage risk or that want to profit by accepting risk. The company offers the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes, including futures and options based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities, metals, weather and real estate.

The company offers an application for traders and brokers that grants access to their electronic futures, options and over the counter markets on one screen. Delivered securely across the Internet, it provides a complete suite of solutions for pre-trade, trade and post-trade, offering support across the whole trading lifecycle. The application includes a number of Microsoft Excel Add-Ins which, when deployed, enable real-time integration between the trading client and the spreadsheet. The application and associated Microsoft Excel Add-Ins are developed and tested in-house by the company.

Roq had been engaged for a 12-month period to undertake compatibility testing for the Microsoft Excel Add-Ins across multiple permutations of Microsoft Windows Operating System and Microsoft Excel that replicates usage amongst the company’s client base.  The multiple permutations will be delivered from a cloud-based test environment using Virtual Machines (VMs) to enable testing to be completed as required in a cost-effective way.

Roq’s Solution

Roq provided a managed test service operated from the test lab in Chorley. The managed test service responsibilities included:

• Test Leadership

• Test Analysis, Design and Refinement

• Test Execution and Defect Recording

• Test Progress Reporting

• Defect Re-Testing

• Promoting and Decommissioning of Test Environments

The testing was performed in cloud-based test environments hosted by Skytap cloud. Following the initial setup of the multiple Microsoft Windows O/S and Excel permutations in Skytap Cloud, it provided secure self-service access to these compatibility test environments. This enabled the test team to create, utilise and delete test environments without the cost, security and maintenance overhead of purchasing multiple independent PCs to facilitate the testing. The Skytap Cloud environments can be accessed from any PC with a browser and network connection using either the built in Java based smart client or a remote desktop connection.

Following the initial knowledge transfer between the client and Roq on the usage of the trading application and the associated Microsoft Excel Add-Ins, a test plan and scripts were produced to verify the installation, functionality and removal of the trading client and associated Excel Add-Ins for each environmental permutation. The test scripts were then executed across a range of user profiles chosen by the client to represent the likely operating conditions deployed in their user base. The execution phase took the form of bi-weekly test cycles and all defects were recorded for triage and subsequent entry to the client’s Jira defect tracking system. The engagement was managed through regular communication between the client Test Manager and the Roq Test Lead and through weekly progress reports provided to the client management team.

The Outcome  

Verifying the compatibility of the company’s trading application across the different O/S and Excel permutations installed across the company’s client base increased confidence that no unforeseen defects will arise in production as a result of the functional testing only being performed on a limited cross section of machines.

Additionally, engaging Roq to perform this repetitive test activity released client test resources to focus on the functional testing of the trading application itself, thereby reducing the risk of other functional defects making it into production.

Finally, the use of the cloud-based environment to deliver the service has allowed the company to spread the cost of the environment throughout the duration of the engagement avoiding the capital expenditure of purchasing and setting up hardware up front. The cloud based environment also provides the development team with access to any defects as and when they are observed by pausing the Virtual Machine it is observed in, avoiding the need to follow steps to recreate it.

If you’d like to find out more about how Roq can support your business, please email us at ask@roq.co.uk.