Testing for PostNL

Testing and advising on the quality of PostNL’s various applications

Brief

The Client

PostNL is the biggest mail company in the Netherlands with over 37.000 employees in locations all around the Netherlands. It handles all manner of mail items, ranging from regular letters to huge packages, either from individuals or in bulk from other companies.

PostNL uses various applications to receive, observe, sort, and deliver the mail. These need to be tested to make sure they work when new features are added, and to test any fixes that have been developed. This way the quality can be assured.

Their wishes

Sogeti recently finished a project to build two applications for PostNL employees to help with observing and sorting incoming bulk mail. After initial development was completed, The team was turned into a DevOps team to continuously maintain and expand these applications. The team was lacking in testing capacity and were looking for someone to bolster their ranks. Furthermore, they were looking to automate parts of their testing. For this, they needed to add special automation tags in the HTML part of the applications.

With my TMap certification and knowledge of front-end, I was able to start helping the team within 24 hours of being requested.

Their challenges

The applications were still new and had teething problems, of which the extent was not yet known. This resulted in having an increased amount of problems cropping up which had to be solved.

The new team set-up was likewise new, and subject to restructuring to better fit with PostNL’s goals.

My work at PostNL

When I arrived, the most pressing matter was that work on test automation was blocked due to a technical hurdle. So starting off, I consulted with the test automation (TA) engineer to find out what he exactly needed for his work to continue.

The test automation program needed special tags to identify and process the various items that make up a page of the application. Together with the TA engineer, we set up a standardized syntax so that the automation tags were both usable by the program and readable by any future developer and TA engineers.

I quickly went to work adding these tags within the HTML of the application. I also made sure that the tags were added to Angular’s dynamically generated pages. The result? An application that is fully readable and processable by the test automation program, allowing for test automation to be developed.

With that done, I started work on testing the quality of the new CPP app – an application that allows postal workers in facilities to weigh, observe, and document the letters and packages they receive.

New features and fixes were constantly being developed in a two week sprint cycle. Before it could be sent out to the users, these needed to be tested for quality.

This meant proper documenting including reproducable steps done and writing down any issues that the testing uncovers. Azure DevOps was used for this as it allows both developers and testers to work together in the same environment.

So, what did testing actually entail? First, one or more test cases of the feature of bugfix needed to be made. The amount of cases depended on the size of the feature or bugfix and the risk it carried should a problem with it crop up when it’s published.

Each case included the documentation a proper title, detailed steps of each action done, and the expected result of each action done. After checking the case with a colleague tester, each step is executed and its results documented. If the actual results differ from the expected results, it’s logged and the test case fails. It is then analyzed what went wrong and sent back to the developers to fix it. If all steps produce the expected results, the case succeeds. If all test cases succeed the feature or bugfix meets the expected quality standard and can be released to the users.

Lastly, there was no general testplan available for new teams. This meant that each new Sogeti team that started to work at PostNL had to create one from scratch. This costs a lot of time to get right, and each team would largely have to go through the same process to create a testplan.

To reduce the time new teams spend and make it easier for them starting up, I, together with an experienced colleague, helped outlining and documenting a brand new testplan for any new Sogeti teams starting at PostNL.

This meant having several meetings with testing stakeholders between Sogeti and PostNL. Earlier meetings focussed on brainstorming what elements the plan should contain, whilst later meetings were focussed on filling in each element in detail.

Results and testimonials

A lot of gains were made during my assignment. Not only for PostNL, but also personally.

At PostNL, they’ve received measurably improved quality of several of their products in the form of improved test automation and its coverage, and the amount of test cases created and executed. They’ve also received a general test plan that was created and supported by both them (the business) and Sogeti (the development teams). This will allow any new Sogeti team to accelerate their start-up time and deliver quality results for PostNL.

Personally, I was able to apply my theoretical knowledge of quality in the real world, and through circumstance take part in the more advanced subjects of the testing expertise. I’ve gained valuable experience in both hard- and soft skills; Be it creating and executing test cases, working together with developers, stakeholder management, and more.

Colleague testimonials

"When you just arrived you immediately started talking with other people, asking how everything works. I've seen you do the same as a test lead now. And despite the past few weeks being rough, you are still here and didn't back down."

Clarissa

Test Lead

"You're knowledgable in front-end, HTML, and Angular, and can make good use of this at PostNL. You ask good questions and don't blindly accept any answer. Your critical eye ensures that the quality of the application only improves!"

Bob

Test Automation Engineer

"You fanatically chase down incidents. You also have a lot of personal contact with other people which is good, and are sociable and convivial to be around with."

Rutger

Senior developer