PracPlay Case Study
PracPlay is the leading provider of open-source financial solutions for investors and quantitative traders. With clients managing over a half-billion in assets and tens of thousands of open-source downloads, PracPlay delivers lower costs and faster time to market for funds and individual traders across the equities, currencies, options, and futures markets. PracPlay’s goal is to accelerate traders’ and investors’ return on capital. PracPlay products are used by thousands of traders and investors in countries spanning 3 continents. PracPlay clients include:
- Hedge Funds
- Proprietary Trading Firms
- Trading Groups
- Quantitative Traders
- Retail and Individual Investors
Challenges
Business Challenges
PracPlay’s Tradelink application is designed to solve problems and issues for traders of equities, currencies, options, and futures. Data accuracy and security are the most critical. The applicant has complex financial trading logic and must be efficient, flexible, and reliable for its users. Franta wanted to focus on its core expertise and product development. In addition, they didn’t have resources with both QA expertise and deep financial background. So they looked to XBOSoft to fill the gap.
Solutions
Tailored solutions
PracPlay liked the fact that XBOSoft had lots of experience working with companies around the world in different QA aspects, combined with significant experience in financial application testing. Partnering with XBOSoft gave PracPlay the QA and testing services they were looking for, with access to a wide range of QA solutions and expertise, such as:
Domain Knowledge:
XBOSoft worked closely with PracPlay to ensure that their customer’s “Test Scenarios” would be fully covered in the testing process. XBOSoft’s experience in financial applications significantly compressed the start-up time while ensuring full coverage test scenarios. In addition, QA analysts with stock trading experience was involved, it mostly like an end-user who deeply understand both financial and QA process performing testing. Very deep, complicated, and logical defects were found in the testing cycle.
Software Quality Plan:
To ensure all data and information is delivered successfully and correctly in PracPlay’s product, XBOSoft validates various scenarios with different data input using a matrix role approach with different roles entering similar data. XBOSoft also designed additional scenarios to simulate end-users possible negative activity and with these additional testing scenarios, feature coverage was increased. Based on our domain experience, XBOSoft provides objective insight to determine missing or incorrect functionality implementations to assist our clients in increasing customer satisfaction.
Usability Evaluation:
Because PracPlay products have such a wide range of users in both expertise and role, PracPlay was concerned about usability. XBOSoft, using multiple usability evaluation techniques was able to determine where usability could be improved and make recommendations.
Benefits
Advantages of working with us
Stability and Resource Management
Expert domain knowledge and understanding of PracPlay’s product are critical to finding deep process-oriented bugs. Team stability and mature knowledge management systems are a crucial part of developing and maintaining this knowledge. XBO’s matrix project management and knowledge management methodologies combined ensure that PracPlay receives consistently high levels of service using a consistent team of experts not only in QA but also in financial and trading applications.
Flexibility
PracPlay is located in the USA and their products need to be tested when US stock markets are open. That means testing was limited to a short time frame. XBO provided a dedicated QA team working during this time window using its international staffing model. Whenever PracPlay needed a quick response on the defects or testing status, XBO was always available to solve any issues.
Speed
Our process-driven methodology adds structure, efficiency, and speed to our engagement efforts. In fact, XBO’s entire testing model is driven by the objectives of quick detection of defects and improving the quality of our customer’s software. This goes from process-driven to coordinated teamwork and elective communication with our customers. With an almost unlimited number of testing scenarios from the PracPlay end-users perspective; XBO QA experts were able to develop a prioritization strategy with the Client using our testing experience on financial applications in order to provide confidence in regression test coverage and build quality.