The overwhelming situation when you have multiple stakeholders for your product list. And you are responsible for the overall delivery quality of these products. And on top of that, your deliveries are closely spaced and the recovery time between them is unsubstantial. Plus, the test suite is 3rd party managed and reports are generated only on the statistical level and not at content level.
This sums up the situation usually faced in a fast pace product life-cycle and the reaction time is quite short. The multiple stakeholder situation hands out the worst card you can have. A generic execution process that caters to this situation is quite easy to achieve, however the problem starts when defect leakages happen inspite of the extensive regression tests in place. Stakeholders demand proof of test coverage and even more so is the situation when they demand screenshots or recordings of the tests.
Many prefer automated testing these days as part of the regressive process that ensures that a certain scenario is always covered and there is no exception due to manual negligence. While this is a valid addressing of the problem, as long as the process exercises some control over the quality of these test scripts, this cannot be done unless the application in test is stable enough to accept an automated execution.
SAP offers a couple of versions of the Workforce Performance Builder tool that may, to a certain extent, alleviate this problem. The two versions available for use are; The Instant Producer and the Producer. The Instant Producer is a toned down version of the Producer, that caters to the need for creating KT documents and User manuals. Instant Producer also helps the user if a recording of his/her work needs to be done for Operational improvements through work study. This tool can be run in the background for those problematic areas which would need evidencing. The test flow gets documented and the tool can be managed through a Record/Stop/Playback interface. Some screenshots available below will exhibit the ease of using this tool:
The launch of the instant Producer happens with the below Welcome pop-up. Here, you get to select whether you want to open a project or start with the recording right away (which eventually can be saved as a project)
I chose the option of Recording a new one and it leads me to a pop-up with all the open applications on my screen. I chose CSS for demo purpose.
The Record/Pause, Stop, Undo interface bar occurs at the top of the screen. It records every mouse/keyboard interactions with the screen.
I stop the recording for the demo and save the project as Demo 1 in the following screenshots.
The saved project can be printed out as a MS Word documentation - this can be sent out as the evidence of the test/a KT document/Work study Document/ Process Document/ Demo Document.
To a great extent, this tool has simplified the problems when faced with the question of 'Did the test actually take place'. Also, this has helped in creating a KT kit for colleagues who join the team afresh. Do try this out.