Fluid Case Study

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THE CLIENT

Founded in 1990, Fluid provides interactive merchandising software, custom design and development, and strategic consulting to retailers and branded manufacturers. Fluid helps its clients use their online presence as a competitive advantage to increase not only online but also offline sales, and build brand loyalty. In May 2018, it joined forces with Astound Commerce to form the largest independent digital commerce agency.

By blending e-commerce expertise, enterprise-class engineering, award-winning creativity, and best-of-breed software, Fluid offers innovative and creative thinking of boutique design agencies, as well as the resources and stability of a larger firm. This allows Fluid to deliver differentiated solutions that are also reliable, scalable, and extensible.

Fluid’s interactive merchandising software, Fluid Retail, was a set of tools and control panels that designed to help e-commerce merchandisers control their site, automate routine tasks, and employ both the art and science of merchandising to manage and optimize conversions.

Fluid logo

THE QA CHALLENGES

The interactive capabilities and extensive customization features throughout the Fluid Retail product line lead to many complex user scenarios. Adding in usability uniqueness that makes Fluid software stat of the art creates an array and QA options that require experienced ‘eyes’ rather than machines to validate the functionality. Additionally, Fluid’s development team follows the agile process, presenting particular challenges for QA & testing support.

Fluid needed an experienced testing and QA partner that could not only provide a total ‘technical’ solution but had the domain knowledge and expertise to be an integral partner committed to the same goals and release schedules. Fluid also needed a QA team with proactive management processes and communication methods, and a commitment to building up product understanding for the long term.

After a thorough review and evaluation of 3rd party software testing vendors, Fluid selected XBOSoft.

SOLUTION: What it Means to Partner with XBOSoft

Partnering with XBOSoft gave Fluid the professional QA & software testing services they were looking for, with access to a wide range of software testing solutions and expertise. Thes included:

  • Platform Compatibility Testing

    Fluid’s SaaS software means that platform compatibility is a must, as their customer base uses a variety of operating systems and browsers. XBOSoft’s fully equipped testing lab gives Fluid the confidence that all possible platforms are covered.

  • Usability Testing

    Because of the software’s high interactivity, the user experience is a critical yet unmeasurable part of quality testing. It’s not enough to have an error-free performance. XBOSoft’s usability engineers conduct benchmark tests of the user interface and ensure that the software not only works but is easy and pleasant to use.

  • Functional Testing

    Fluid uses an Agile Development methodology so software releases are a continuous process. Each release builds functionality and needs to be regression tested for all base functionalities combined with a special focus on new features. With close communication via email, chat, teleconference, and video conference, priorities are set daily between the two teams.

  • Full Regression and Test Management

    Serving customers globally with complex retail offerings that changed daily imposed strict performance tolerances. This made targeted regression testing imperative even for small releases. XBOSoft’s experience in test management and processes significantly compressed the testing time while still ensuring the appropriate feature coverage depending on the release contents.

XBOSoft’s Advantages

  • Agile Flexibility:

    Fluid uses an Agile developement method with its entire product line and many customers require customization. As a result, software releases are frequent and cover small patches to major quarterly releases. With a dedicated team with the requisite domain knowledge, XBO responds quickly and works closely with the Fluid team to meet delivery deadlines as if they are in the same location.

  • Dedicated Team with Domain Knowledge:

    XBOSoft’s complete suite of services with a dedicated team gave Fluid the confidence that product knowledge would be developed and sustained over the long term. Beginning with functional testing, the combined XBO/Fluid team works together on a daily basis including testing across the entire product line.

  • Communication Focus:

    XBO’s communication process ensures transparency and structure across all of XBO’s testing projects. It takes more than finding, duplicating, and characterizing high-quality defects. Communicating them in a timely manner, and building trust as an integral part of the team makes XBO special as we do what we say, and say what we do openly letting our customers know when there’s a glitch in plenty of time before it becomes a problem of issue.

  • Toole Integration and Teamwork:

    XBOSoft uses Fluid’s online Defect Tracking System (DTS) and test case management system. This enables XBOSoft testers and Fluid developers to work hand in hand on a daily basis using the same test infrastructure tying the teams closer together not only in systems but in collaboration. XBOsoft uses testing and reporting tools depending on the customer’s needs. Many customers prefer to use XBOSoft’s tools rather than buy their own as it’s included as part of the testing services.

CLIENT TESTIMONIALS

“We’ve been working with XBOSoft since last year. We chose them after trials with other vendors and they proved to be the best team for meeting our needs. They’ve done excellent QA work, but more importantly, I feel they are now part of our team as they are committed to work with us to get the job done.”

CEO, Fluid

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