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Rolling out a
new POS system
A publicly traded, New York-based marketer
of fine accessories and gifts with more than
300 stores in the United States and Canada
was on the verge of replacing its existing
POS system with a new, Windows-based POS.
The POS project team was anticipating the
receipt of new code from their POS vendor on
a regular basis, both leading up to and
following pilot and rollout. Each code
release would address defects discovered in
prior releases and/or new functional
enhancements required by the Store
Operations team. While their POS vendor
conducted testing of their own code, the POS
team was not confident in the vendor’s
ability to conduct comprehensive end user
testing.
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Challenge - Leading fine accessories
retailer needed support to test and
ensure stability of new POS system.
Solution
- A dedicated quality
assurance analyst / tester to
perform regression testing, unit
testing, and provide rollout
support.
Result – Smooth rollout of a highly
stable POS system. |
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To achieve a level of confidence with the
approaching pilot, the team sought to
conduct end-user testing of each code
release in its own, on-site POS lab.
However, with no dedicated testing resources
on staff, the POS team turned to Sophelle to
ensure the quality of the new POS software
releases.
Sophelle's
Assessment
Sophelle delivered an experienced quality
assurance analyst / tester to work with the
retailer’s POS team. Their team was seeking
reinforcements in a number of areas:
Unit Testing
Regular code releases would require unit
test planning, scripting, and execution.
Regression Testing
Regular code releases would require
execution of the regression test set.
Regression Test Set
Existing regression test set was gradually
becoming outdated as custom functional
enhancements were delivered in each code
release.
Bug Duplication
In addition to defects found in code
releases via testing, the POS team needed
support addressing and duplicating issues
reported from outside the lab, in the field.
Rollout Support
Periodically, during rollout, manual
intervention is required to either install a
new code release at a particular store, or
address other miscellaneous issues.
Solution
With each new code release, Sophelle
executed the established regression test.
When validating functional enhancements,
Sophelle developed and executed thorough
unit test plans based on the defined
functional requirements, resulting in
step-by-step manual test scripts with clear
expected results.
Sophelle worked with POS team members to
overhaul the POS regression test set,
accounting for features and functions not
yet introduced when the set was first
created.
Often working directly with store personnel,
Sophelle was able to duplicate and document
critical defects initially discovered in the
field, providing the POS vendor with a
roadmap for resolution.
Periodically, miscellaneous rollout issues
would arise, and Sophelle worked with the
POS team to address these issues, often
dialing into stores’ POS systems to modify
an incorrect system setting or manually
distributing the proper version of POS code.
Result
The POS team considered the engagement a
complete success, continually extending
Sophelle’s involvement well beyond the
original timeframe. Sophelle’s flexible,
diligent work in the POS lab took an immense
amount of time and resource pressure off the
retailer’s POS team. Sophelle became a vital
contributor to their efforts; identifying
and escalating numerous critical issues
before they reached the field; serving as a
key liaison to the retailer’s POS vendor;
providing management with high-level test
result summaries to aid in ‘Go/No-Go’
decisions; and quickly becoming the
organization’s POS lab guru.
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