Partner Article

ikeGPS Deploys Micro Focus Silk Mobile to Reduce Mobile Apps Testing Time by 25 Percent

Micro Focus today announced that New Zealand-based Geographic Information System (GIS) company, ikeGPS, has successfully deployed its Silk Mobile testing tool. ikeGPS’ Windows Mobile-based GIS solution integrates hardware and software to enable users to generate instant CAD models and exact-scale, geo-located 3D models at the touch of a button. ikeGPS has been recognised in the Innovative High Tech Hardware Product category at this year’s NZ High Tech awards .

Silk Mobile enables organisations to create and run tests to replicate the genuine user experience across a variety of mobile platforms including Android, iOS, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Symbian and HTML5.

ikeGPS hardware and software is used worldwide by utility companies, defence forces, intelligence groups, energy companies, city councils, police and other organisations that need to map, measure or otherwise record physical objects or geographical features. The company has an intensive testing regime in place to respond to the ever-changing needs of its diverse customer base.

“Quality and reliability are crucial to our customers,” commented Jeremy Gold, software architect at ikeGPS. “We test the devices and software in real world conditions using ‘Scrum’, an iterative and incremental, agile software development process. Increasingly complex test requirements made it difficult to meet demands using our existing manual testing processes. We needed to introduce more automation.

“We identified Silk Mobile as the right solution for us due to its easy-to-use interface that enabled a fast uptake with our developers, in addition to the tool’s deployment flexibility and the ability to be used across multiple hardware platforms.”

ikeGPS also identified the potential to reduce testing errors through the introduction of automation. Following the implementation, the company immediately began to see benefits, particularly in relation to testing times, which dropped by 25 percent.

“Following the Silk Mobile implementation, the testing effort was soon reduced by a quarter, added Gold. “Four-person testing days were reduced to three, which is extremely significant for us since every day saved on testing can be spent on developing innovative new product features. In a two week development sprint with four team members, this represents a significant increase in available resources and will translate to cost savings too. In fact, we expect to achieve full ROI on Silk Mobile within just six months.”

ikeGPS plans to further reduce human testing input and increase the level of automation in the future.

“It is imperative for any organisation deploying solutions via mobile platforms to have a robust testing program in place,” commented Kylie Kelly General Manager ANZ at Micro Focus. “With mobile now firmly entrenched as a deployment platform from both a consumer and business perspective, end user expectations are very high. ikeGPS is well known for the innovation they bring into technology. As an organization that believes in being a technology-enabler for our customers and partners, we at Borland are very pleased that we have been able to make a significant positive impact for ikeGPS.”

The detailed reference document can be found here.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by David Silva .