Automated QA Testing for the ECI Broadband Access Product Line
Headquartered in Israel, with R&D centers in China, India, US, and Israel, ECI is a global company that delivers innovative network solutions and advanced professional services. Their 1Net product line focuses on packet-optical transport and next-generation access, with an integrated range of solutions, platforms, and services.
ECI’s Access line of business offers 3Play services over DSL and GPON Access infrastructures. Through state-of-the-art VDSL and vectoring technologies, ECI brings the most advanced services to the last mile of access, towards end-users’ homes.
Business Challenge
ECI’s Broadband Access department experienced outstanding growth in testing requirements and a constant increase in the number of versions that were scheduled for release. Consequently, they needed to dramatically increase their functional automatic testing coverage.
ECI searched for a high-quality team for the development of their automatic functional testing at lower overhead and operational costs compared to in-house alternatives in ECI Israel’s center or offshore alternatives at their India or China R&D centers.
Galil Software was the preferred alternative, as it offered an onshore solution, which combined savvy management and technology expertise, as well as top- talent engineers of a similar mentality, and the same time zone and language. Also, the fact that Galil Software operates from Israel, near the ECI headquarters and R&D Center, guarantees a low attrition rate and smoother day-to-day operations.
Galil Software Solution
Galil Software executes full automation cycles on full releases for ECI Access products, and maintains their automation test platform. Galil Software teams function as an integral part of the ECI Access division, and are involved in almost all workflows of the Broadband Access product line. Four sub-teams comprising a total of 15 QA engineers are currently responsible for QA automation platform development and maintenance, as well as for QA execution:
- Develop automatic testing scripts, and maintain compatibility with versions and hardware changes, while continuously improving automated QA scripts’ usability and testing profitability
- Execute test automation suites over newer product builds and versions, and for released fixes to customers
Galil Software’s teams bring vast expertise in Telecom Access Technologies and devices, IP networking, and Ethernet-based protocols, in addition to their broad knowledge and experience in Automation Testing and scripting methodologies, traffic generation, and monitoring.
All the tests and automation development are performed in a dedicated, fully equipped, and secured lab at Galil Software’s premises in Nazareth. Productivity is measured according to defined parameters, and KPIs are jointly defined by ECI and Galil Software, thus achieving the highest quality and productivity results.
Customer Benefits
By relying on Galil Software teams, ECI can easily plan ahead the verification cycles for new releases. The ability to accurately estimate deliverables, and schedule and budget automation packages, enables ECI to reduce QA lifecycles and improve time-to-market, while significantly reducing operational costs.
Transparent daily communication between Galil Software and ECI teams ensures smooth knowledge and information sharing and maximizes productivity by working as one organic team.
When expanding of teams is required, Galil Software can rapidly ramp-up a new team and is capable of recruiting and training new engineers in a short time period. Galil Software’s low attrition rate ensures HR stability and high ROI.
“Galil Software is an integral part of our automated testing and R&D activities. Our relationship has evolved during the years to a strong partnership, where Galil Software teams are fully committed to our business success, enabling us to offer our customers cost-effective solutions and improve time-to-market.
Working with Galil for the past four years has been very fruitful; we enjoy a high level of commitment, quality, and on-time deliverables. Our daily transparent communication enabled Galil to adopt our work methodologies. Therefore, the decision to expend Galil Software teams and responsibilities was always obvious.”
Meny Einy, V&V Department Manager – Access R&D, ECI
