Enterprise Software
Legacy Application Testing and Quality Improvement
Western Europe enterprise software provider
5,000+
Parallel API tests
< 25 min
Full test run
10+ yrs
Legacy codebase
Background
The client is a software solutions provider based in Western Europe. Their enterprise-grade application has carried critical business operations for over a decade and is used across industries including finance and logistics.
That longevity is also the problem. Ten years of continuous enhancement had grown the codebase into something extensive and heavily interdependent, where accumulated bugs and inconsistencies were a standing condition rather than a backlog anyone expected to clear.
Digital Archer was brought in to raise quality and shorten release cycles against that codebase as it stood - no rewrite, no pause in delivery.
The challenge
- An extensive legacy codebase spanning over 10 years, carrying numerous accumulated bugs and inconsistencies.
- Complex features that required rigorous testing, which made identifying and resolving bugs slow and difficult.
- Slow release cycles driven by inefficient testing processes, hurting both delivery timelines and product stability.
- No dedicated test case management tool, so stakeholders had little visibility into what QA actually covered or found.
A ten-year-old codebase is not a defect backlog you clear once. It is a permanent maintenance surface - and the only way to release monthly against one is to make the feedback loop faster than the fear of breaking something.
Our approach
- Ran manual testing sessions on a consistent schedule inside every release cycle rather than ad hoc, which improved both issue detection and overall stability.
- Embedded QA experts into ticket refinement sessions so problems were caught at specification time, before they turned into code.
- Introduced priority-based bug resolution, so blocker and critical issues got immediate attention instead of queueing behind lower-severity work.
- Deployed a dedicated test case management tool, giving stakeholders real visibility into QA coverage and findings.
- Moved automated runs to cloud-based parallel execution, twice per release cycle, to cut the time between a change and feedback on it.
- Built a suite of 5,000+ API tests running in parallel with a full pass in under 25 minutes, surfacing backend issues early instead of leaving them to be found through the UI.
- Designed tests for minimal maintenance from the start. On a codebase this size, test upkeep is what quietly kills an automation effort.
- Focused automation on the critical paths of newly developed features, concentrating regression coverage where change was actually happening.
- Restructured test reporting for clarity, so critical failures could be analysed and acted on quickly rather than dug out of raw output.
5,000+
API tests running in parallel, with a full pass completing in under 25 minutes
Results
- Release frequency increased significantly - from one major release every several months to multiple releases per month.
- Support issues decreased substantially.
- Emergency hotfixes became far less frequent.
- Overall software quality and operational reliability improved.
Key technologies and deliverables
- API testing
- 5,000+ tests in parallel, full pass under 25 minutes
- Test execution
- Cloud-based parallel runs, twice per release cycle
- Test management
- Dedicated test case management tool
- Process
- QA in ticket refinement, priority-based bug triage
- Reporting
- Restructured test reports for faster failure analysis
Facing a similar challenge?
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