Elevating Svenska Fönster's software quality with QA automation

Background

Svenska Fönster, one of Sweden’s leading window manufacturers, is known for its commitment to quality, innovation, and sustainability. As the company continues its digital transformation, software plays an increasingly critical role in its operations, from product development to customer interactions.

To ensure a seamless user experience and maintain high-quality standards, Svenska Fönster sought to enhance its quality assurance (QA) processes. However, with large and complex systems, extensive manual testing was slowing down development cycles. Recognizing the need for a robust test automation strategy, Svenska Fönster partnered with Ascentic to implement an efficient and scalable QA automation framework.

The challenge

Svenska Fönster initiated the QA engagement with Ascentic as they faced several QA-related challenges:

• Absence of in-house QA expertise 
  • With no dedicated QA team, developers took on testing responsibilities. This created conflicting priorities and left test coverage gaps, as engineers focused primarily on delivering new features.
• Lengthy manual testing cycles 
  • Manual testing of existing functionality was laborious and time-consuming.
  • Repeated manual checks were prone to human error, extending test cycles and limiting the depth of coverage.
• A lack of continuous feedback on code changes
  • The development team had limited visibility into the impact of new code on existing functionalities due to inadequate test coverage.
  • Delays in detecting and fixing issues made releases riskier, especially when new features were pushed quickly to meet market demands.
• Critical defects slipping into production
  • Due to a lack of structured regression and functional testing, critical defects often went undetected until end users reported them.
  • These production issues not only damaged brand reputation but also necessitated emergency fixes and rollbacks, significantly increasing development costs and downtime.

Svenska Fönster needed a structured QA automation strategy that would enhance software quality, speed up testing, provide long-term benefits for their in-house development team, and enhance the delivery confidence of the team.

The solution

Ascentic’s QA automation engineer was tasked with formulating a tailored test automation strategy and implementing automated regression testing for Svenska Fönster’s key products. The approach included:

1. Defining a scalable QA automation strategy

• Collaborated closely with Svenska Fönster's development team to assess the current development and QA processes and identify automation opportunities. 
• Designed a structured automated regression test framework to cover all products and ensure the following key objectives.
  • Critical workflows are thoroughly tested across all user interactions.
  • Functionality is retained with each release.
  • Defects are identified early
• Selected the most suitable tools and technologies for Svenska Fönster’s environment.
  • Test automation framework – Playwright with Typescript
  • Design Pattern – Page Object model (POM)
  • CI/CD integration – Azure build pipeline

2. Implementing test automation

• Automated and prioritized end-to-end user journeys and high-impact functionalities to mitigate the risk of critical defects going unnoticed, ensuring more reliable automated testing cycles.
• The Page Object Model (POM) approach maintained a clean structure, making it easy to add or update automated test suites as they evolved.
• Integrated automated tests into Svenska Fönster's CI/CD pipeline, enabling continuous testing across all testing environments.

3. Test reporting and analytics

• Set up a detailed test reporting mechanism to provide the development team with real-time insights into test execution results.
• This immediate feedback loop enabled developers to detect and resolve defects early, ensuring continuous insight into the health of new code changes.

4. Maintenance and scalability

• Designed the framework to be modular and scalable, allowing easy addition of new test cases as the application evolved.
• Implemented regular maintenance practices to keep tests updated in alignment with application changes.

The results

The impact of the implemented QA automation strategy was quickly recognized by Svenska Fönster’s development team:

• Enhanced test coverage and delivery confidence Critical user journeys and high-risk areas received consistent automated test coverage, reinforcing overall product stability, and giving the development team greater confidence in release readiness.
• Enhanced development efficiency, speed, and accuracy Automation shortened manual regression testing from days to hours, allowing for faster and more frequent releases. By automating repetitive checks, the team could dedicate more time to improving the product. 
• Continuous feedback on code Frequent automated tests in the CI/CD pipeline enabled developers to identify potential issues early, reducing the risk of unexpected defects appearing late in the development process.
• Positive team adoption The in-house development team quickly saw the value of automation, embracing it as a value-adding part of their workflow.