In an environment where more than a handful of apps are in production, none of your testers know what code your developers have touched. At the same time, business users breathe down the necks of the IT team to get what they need on their desktops today. So how can you test faster and still deliver high-quality apps?

Testing is a critical part of app development, but because it’s the last big step before the user gets the app, it tends to be more of a sticking point than other areas. As far as the business user understands, the app is totally ready, but it’s stuck in a holding pattern which stops them from using it. To help with this type of frustration, you need to make testing quicker. Here’s how.

Testing, Testing

The problem with testing is that it gets repetitive. Testers will often have to keep testing the same apps for as long as they’re in use, which for many businesses is going to be years. Looking at the same code over and over again tends to dull the senses to change. Becoming more familiar with particular programs makes testers more comfortable  –because they think they know it inside and out. But actually, the opposite is true.

Many of the BI apps that people use in Qlik are tens of sheets deep, with a wealth of dynamic visuals that just one wrong character of code can break in an instant. Each app one of your developers works on may well have a change log attached – but it’s never going to cover the granularity of actual code changes, it’ll be concept-based like “Fixed crash on revenue chart”. Because of this, your testers never know what your developers have done, so it should be no surprise that testing is such a lengthy process.

Imagine for a moment that this situation played out in the legal department during contract reviews. Every contract in the modern business world is reviewed and amended with a track log so that parties always know the current version and its contents. Why don’t Qlik developers and testers have the same luxury? Well, actually they do.

Speeding Things Up

You can reduce the testing time of an app from eight hours, all the way down to one. Really. Our customers would tell us if our solution wasn’t up to scratch. Some of the biggest names out there rely on PlatformManager to streamline testing and cut down on errors.

With PlatformManager, your testers – and developers for that matter – can compare the previous version of an app with the new version – side by side. This on its own would be useful. But on top of that, all the new code – whether it’s additions or edits – is highlighted in green, and anything in red has been removed. That means that testers don’t have to scroll through hundreds of lines of code to check each one for changes. Instead, they can just concentrate on the testing that needs to be done. It focuses testers on quality and has the fantastic bonus of saving your development process a huge chunk of time. What’s not to like?

Do you want to speed up your app testing? PlatformManager gives the help you need, contact us now.