Benjy Copeland presented on RAD's automation revolution. RAD is a market-leading provider of access products with over 1,000 employees worldwide. They faced challenges with testing their many complex products under tight deadlines. To address this, they implemented an automated testing solution involving nightly builds, automated quality verification suites, and mandatory tests. This has enhanced quality, improved releases, and shortened test time over 20 times. Automation is now seen as necessary across all RAD departments.

1. RAD
The Automation Revolution
Presenter: Benjy Copeland
Title: R&D tools, Dept. Manager
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2. RAD Data Communications
• Market-leading provider of access product solutions for
Worldwide Distribution of Sales in 2011
carriers, service providers and enterprise customers
• Established in 1981 and privately owned
• Installed base of more than 12 million units
•North America
1,000 employees worldwide Europe
Worldwide 39% Presence
21% Scandinavia
APAC
Israel
2%
15%
Canada UK Germany Russia
USA France
Spain
Africa
Europe 4% China Japan
Israel Hong Kong
46% Mexico 300 sales partners in 165 countries
Latin India
America 31 offices worldwide Thailand
Nigeria
16% Philippines Oceania
Indonesia 3%
Brazil
Australia
Argentina
Total RAD Sales in 2011 = $163 Million XXX 2012 Slide 2

3. RAD Products Strategy
Services/CPE AccessAccess Lasts
That Network Core
Legacy Services
Existing Equipment
ATM
Legacy
2G BTS
DSLAM 3G NodeB Core Networks
Legacy SDH/SONET, ATM
Serial
New Services
and Equipment
New
IP IP RAN New Packet-Switched
DSLAM 4G eNodeB
Core Networks
GbE, IP, MPLS
Ethernet
• Continued support of legacy services over legacy networks
• Legacy services over NGN – Ethernet/IP/MPLS backbones
• New Ethernet services over existing (PDH, SDH/SONET and ATM) backbones
• Access and aggregation for Carrier Ethernet
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4. Selected References: Worldwide
Customer Base by Industry
Carriers &
Service Providers Transportation Utilities
Government,
Mobile Operators Military & Financial
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5. RAD Testing Challenges
• Many product lines (more than 250
products in catalog)
• Complex features
• Demanding deadlines
• Real-time embedded SW
• Many test scenarios and variations
• Limited # of testers
• Time consumption
• Bug reproducing
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6. A bit of History
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7. Automation from scratch
Things we did
• Internal:
– Mapping the area out. ( products, features, resources..)
– Strategy planning.( regression vs. ATS )
– Solution research and TestShell choice.
– Quick wins
– Expand to other products – quick wins there too
– Expand features on products.
– Agile based automation development
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8. Automation from scratch
• External – marketing your needs :
– Get management on board from day 1.
– Make the problem of quality clear to all the
organization by definitive metrics.
– Get R&D dept. MNG’s to advise and offer solutions and
harness them to the change.
– Publish successes as much as possible in the first few
months.
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9. RAD’s automation solution
• Nightly builds on all major product lines
• Automated QVS’s
• Automated product release procedure
• QA Gates
• Mandatory tests:
- DOS attacks
- STRESS
- Robustness
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10. How it works
Version control NightlyWeekly Automated tester
Run Tests
Code Static Build
Nightly = VQVS Report
analysis & load
Weekly = QVS
SWHW
developer Email results
to Developer
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11. RAD’s automation solution
• Nightly builds on all major product lines
• Automated QVS’s
• Automated product release procedure
• QA Gates
• Mandatory tests:
- DOS attacks
- STRESS
- Robustness
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12. Automation value & results
• Testing coverage and new phase regression readiness
• Unified test results DB.
• High level management visibility and control.
• Shorten test time by at least x20.
• Simplicity – allow broad employees with different skills to
contribute to automation.
• On demand reporting – accessible and easy to comprehend
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13. Tips
1. Quick wins
2. Reduce setups
3. Generic as much as possible
4. Design for management reports
5. Focus on strategic product lines
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14. Summary
RAD’s quality has been enhanced significantly
due to this process and tools.
Customer version and phase releases have
been dramatically improved.
Overall product satisfaction is high.
There is no doubt in any of the companies
departments of the necessity of automation.
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15. Q&A
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16. Thank You
For Your
Attention
www.rad.com
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