Automated Testing of Booking Software

Our client operates airline services in the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa. It was a member of the Star Alliance, a group of 26 international airlines offering customers a worldwide network.

In 2008, this Global Leading U.K. based airline wanted to bring the development of its online booking engine inhouse to respond faster to customer needs. With so many variations of flights and services offered, user interface testing was critical. Their development team re-wrote the site using the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate development system, which offers powerful automated testing. The team predicted a saving of 250 days a year.

Our client was the second-largest airline at London’s Heathrow airport and was part of a network of airlines that runs daily flights to 912 destinations in 159 countries.

It is renowned for offering its customers competitive fares and a high-quality online experience. This can be attributed, in part, to its use of technology, which provide fast and efficient ticketing, booking and check-in facilities.

As the first airline to offer an online booking service—in 1995—it sought new ways to deliver rich online experiences to its customers. In 2008, the airlines began a project to redesign its website. Until then, the user interface of the site—built using Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2008—was managed and developed by the company itself, except for the booking engine, which was developed by a third-party company.

Our client wanted to bring the user interface of the booking engine in-house so that they could adapt or add functionality with a faster time to market and improve the overall customer experience.

Our client believed that the launch of Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate, including Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010, provided the missing pieces of the puzzle. The new release technology automated the test cool generation so user interface elements in applications can be tested quickly and easily.

The Head of E-Commerce Development explained: “We need to test the vast numbers of possible scenarios involve d in booking a flight. Advance d testing features in Visual Studio 2010, including automation, Web performance testing and load testing ensured we can bring all the stages of development in-house.”

The airline rewrote the site using Visual Studio 2010, making several changes such as ensuring the display was consistent to users regardless of their chosen route. The team also added “shopping basket” functionality, so users can select and pay for hotels and cars along with their flights instead of saying separately, as they used to before.

To test each scenario and reach 100 per cent availability of the site, the airlines engaged a Microsoft Inner Circle Partner Testhouse, an organisation that focuses on software testing and quality assurance. Testhouse works with Visual Studio to automate regression test scripts, which means that the airline can cut down on the time taken on manual testing to speed up releases to its Internet booking engine.

Our client’s new site was launched in June 2009 and is now managed completely in-house. As the airlines carries out testing quickly, it means they can respond faster to customer’s needs and add new services to meet the demand. The site saw a rise in booking since its launch.

• Saved six working days of testing per month for the pilot project. On an average our client saved up to 250 working days a year.
• Up to date website. With Visual studio 2010 Ultimate, our client can quickly add new features to the website. This means their inhouse development team can react to customer’s needs, make and test changes quickly and tailor the overall experience for the highest possible revenue return.
• Administration ease. Enhanced integration between Visual Studio 2010 and Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 ensured the Technical Team worked together more closely to manage new software projects and deliver them faster.
• Faster time to market. The time to build the website was cut down by two months completing the built in just four months.