ReadyTalk wanted an automated testing solution that could be easily used by their Agile team. They implemented Silk4J, which provided lightweight and easy-to-use test automation. Silk4J allowed for early detection of defects, freeing up team members for innovation. It has helped ReadyTalk launch new features confidently and efficiently while continuing to improve reliability through more frequent testing.

1. customer success
Silk4J - Ready Talk
ReadyTalk drives efficient QA Testing with
Silk4J
CHALLENGE
ReadyTalk wanted to build a testing system that could be easily
accessed by an Agile team. It was essential for this system to have
a usable test that was built on each iteration. A stated goal was to
have an automated testing solution that could be simply executed
by someone with little programming experience.
SOLUTION
Silk4J
HIGHLIGHTS THE CUSTOMER
Founded in 2000 and headquartered in Denver, Colorado,
Lightweight and easy-to-use ReadyTalk delivers audio and web conferencing services that
Saves time by early detection of empower customers to conduct audio and web conferences
defects of all sizes – from small ad hoc meetings to large webinars.
ReadyTalk combines ease-of-use with sophisticated marketing
Frees up team members to tools to increase audience engagement, event ROI and meeting
pursue innovation productivity. Unlike other services, ReadyTalk gives customers a
full suite of tools for training, collaboration, sales demos, webinars
and more.
THE CHALLENGE
“... we will utilize complete lifecycle The domains for recorded playback of meetings and webinars were
becoming a problem to manage. It was becoming increasingly
testing using Silk4J along with other
difficult to manage all of the different domains. Additionally, it was
test solutions, but the heart of its a challenge for option recognition playing across all domains.
use will be for object recognition
ReadyTalk wanted to build a testing system that could be easily
and playback. Silk4J meets our
accessed by an Agile team. It was essential for this system to have
needs because it is a lightweight a usable test that was built on each iteration. A stated goal was to
solution that does not get in have an automated testing solution that could be simply executed
the way of the test automation by someone with little programming experience. This system
engineer.” should offer QA a way to drive tests without having to manually
David Demmer execute each routine.
ReadyTalk Quality Engineer ReadyTalk was not in a position to replace existing tools. They
were seeking a solution that did not demand a specific change
management tool for their source code; and they wanted to use
the tools that were already in place.
“Silk4J easily broke out of the main infrastructure. They allowed us
to integrate easily with our other open source system,” says David
Demmer, ReadyTalk Quality Engineer.
THE SOLUTION
Silk4J is a lightweight solution that does not get in the way of
the test automation engineer. When evaluating Silk4J compared
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2. customer success Silk4J - Ready Talk
to the competition, ReadyTalk strongly felt that the of the system at any time. The team must know that
competition was heavyweight and would lock them into particular changes to the code base have passed their
a proprietary language. It was clear that the ReadyTalk automated tests.
team understood the domains and interactions for Silk4J.
THE FUTURE
The ReadyTalk team was pleased that Silk4J did not
overburden the team with all of the object mapping. The introduction of Silk4J to ReadyTalk has helped the
The competition to Silk4J embedded much of the object team continue to launch feature enhancements in an
mapping, which was not a need for ReadyTalk. Silk4J agile development environment with a high degree of
offered the QA team the chance to push tests – a key confidence. Many of these enhancements interact with
differentiator when evaluating tools for automating the many sensitive areas through system integrations.
functional testing process. “The ability to apply unique ReadyTalk’s reliance on Silk4J helps them detect risk
handle identifiers for the automation framework to failures with test automation.
identify GUI objects under the Win32 domain enabled With Silk4J, ReadyTalk expects to continue to save
robust test methods that could be executed continuously enormous amounts of time by early detection of defects in
in a nightly build environment.” says David Demmer. a repeatable process where little downtime is necessary.
“The nature of continuous integration and testing When automation exposes a defect in a test case flow,
allows for sanity checks to be made prior to the internal a test member triages the root cause and a solution is
consumption by the rest of the engineering team and in introduced. This will continue to give engineers time to
this automatic test environment, it is crucial for Silk4J explore more granular end-to-end testing scenarios that a
to perform and report errors in the system with little target user may trigger.
involvement in diagnosing the behavior. The unique As ReadyTalk continues its evolution with Silk4J, they
handles allowed for a robust object recognition system anticipate further improvements in reliability as testing
where most recognition attributes changed based on the would be executed on a more frequent basis and build
Win32 domain rendering of component SWT widgets verification testing could be an indicator for when the
under the Avian virtual machine.” He continues, “The tested application is sent to the team for development
unique object handle identifiers always remained the and testing. The team will derive continual benefit on risk
same throughout the test execution life cycle.” assessment whenever a new enhancement or feature is
launched.
RESULTS AND BENEFITS
Silk4J’s future at ReadyTalk also involves expand
ReadyTalk faced a unique business challenge – should an
testing with the exclusive use of Silk4J as the lone
object recognition system be built manually? The move
object recognition system. “We anticipate we will utilize
to Silk4J would yield some important benefits in the long-
complete lifecycle testing using Silk4J along with other
term for the development and testing teams: higher QA
test solutions, but the heart of its use will be for object
productivity and lower testing costs, higher test coverage,
recognition and playback”, says David Demmer. “Silk4J
consistent and repeatable test results, and reduced costs
meets our needs because it is a lightweight solution that
associated with defects.
does not get in the way of the test automation engineer.”
It was imperative that ReadyTalk had reliable test
automation capabilities for regression, cross-platform ABOUT MICRO FOCUS
and localization testing, especially for its newest product: Micro Focus, a member of the FTSE 250, provides
ReadyTalk Web Meeting 6. Web Meeting 6 introduces innovative software that allows companies to dramatically
unique differentiators to the marketplace: no participant improve the business value of their enterprise
downloads, smart marketing tools, collaborative features applications. Micro Focus Enterprise Application
– all built on new open-source technology: Avian. Modernization and Management software enables
ReadyTalk’s launch of Web Meeting 6 would have been customers’ business applications to respond rapidly to
very difficult if not for simple, robust, and quick script market changes and embrace modern architectures with
creation and ease of maintenance that can be replayed reduced cost and risk.
cross-browser.
With any development and testing effort, it is crucial that
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different machines. ReadyTalk needed to incorporate MICRO FOCUS, the Micro Focus logo, among others, are trade-
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refactoring, it is extremely important to know the ‘health’ the property of their respective owners. sCSS4JR0311
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