Crash Testing - Better ROI and superior Customer Experience for a Global Insurance Major

1. A PAN ASIAN CRASH-TESTING SUCCESS
FOR A GLOBAL INSURANCE COMPANY
Tommy Chen had a job on hand. He had about five weeks left to go-live in meeting a regulatory compliance. The incumbent
vendor was chary of such a tight schedule and seemed to be developing cold feet. With time running out, all Tommy could
think of was to check with his colleague, Mukesh Patel who was known to have earned high praise for meting a similar
deadline. He had heard that Mukesh’s company, a global insurance major had implemented a multi regional rollout for
consumer line products under almost similar time pressure.
Tommy called up Mukesh who was based in Singapore. It was Friday afternoon. Mukesh confirmed that his task also involved
meeting a crucial regulatory compliance in four weeks flat. He was then in a similar jam because the incumbent vendor whom
he took for granted had backed off at the last moment. Holly of hollies the incumbent vendor was the same one that Tommy
was saddled with. Arvind did not want to reveal the name of the new ‘Acceptance Testing (UAT) partner’, whom he called a
White Knight (W’Knight), that rose to the occasion and bailed him out, unless Tommy flew down to Singapore for a day to hear
the full story and then judge for himself. Meanwhile, Mukesh had to get his management’s clearance to share his experience
with Tommy. ……….. Tommy arrived in Singapore by Monday night and was at Mukesh’s office early next morning.
Challenges faced: Mukesh explained that: -
T r u s t t h e E x p e r t s
• The application had to meet statutory requirements within the very limited time available for UAT
• Apart from the multiple satellite systems, there were different provincial regulations with distinct regulatory interfaces
and hence the testing was to be a race against a time
• Multiple stakeholders had to coalesce as a single team and the White Knight had to take responsibility for delivering
within the stipulated timelines
• The planned implementation was to be a multi country roll out in Asia with unique compliance and regulatory changes
from country to country
• Some of the screens of the application were entirely in the local language
• A thin testing window would lead to a narrowed UAT schedule
• Daily releases to the UAT environment could result in numerous regression issues
• Involvement of multiple stakeholders spread across different time zones; – The leadership team from USA, PMO from
Singapore, IT team from Malaysia, Global shared services team from the Philippines which handled Data warehousing
and few downstream satellite systems, The development vendor from China and regional business-user teams from
the respective countries

2. Global Insurance Case Study
Project Scope
Mukesh elucidated that the project scope involved testing for a
multi-country rollout of core insurance applications for consumer
line products covering the entire life cycle of Policies from
Quotations, New Businesses, Endorsements, Cancellations and
Channel Management until Claims-Management for Auto
Products. The scope also included testing functionalities which
had a complex integration with external systems including the
provincial Insurance Association, Payment Gateway, SMS
Gateway, Subrogation Interface and other downstream
systems.
The White Knight’s approach
Mukesh elaborated that the W’Knight’s team consisting of a subject
matter expert (SME), test manager (TM) and about 8 testers were
involved in the engagement in the first country.
With the help of its ready to use test repository consisting of a
functional checklist, business processes and functional
test cases, the Knight was able to identify the functional gaps in
the requirements provided by the customer within a week of
commencing the project.
The requirements were enhanced by filling the gaps and
ensuring 100% functional coverage.
In addition to the structured study of the Functional
Specification Documents (FSDs), the planning phase involved
intense discussions with respective stakeholders associated
with the project to understand the intricate business rules.
The W’Knight’s repository for non-life insurance was the base
document on which business rules, functionalities, region
specific rules and other requirements were customized.
System Flow
E-mail SMS
Peripheral Apps
Online Payment
POS
Payment Gateway
Core Insurance Application
Print
Service
MOTOR Regulatory Interfaces
Tested by
Thinksoft
LEGEND
Reports
Receipt
System
Database
External User
Web Enquiry db
Consumer Direct
Customer Relationship
Web Enquiry
Existing Interfaces
External Authentication
Single Sign On
Sales
Platform
Back offices
Services
Interface
Frame work
Internal User
Back Office log on
Policy & Claim
Boolding Enquiry
New Regulatory
Reports
Finance
Application
Report Extract
Existing Apps and Interfaces

3. • The W’Knight’s team executed a compressed regression test
pack for the smoke test, which helped to identify very crucial
functional defects even before the actual testing has
commenced. Trivial as it may seem, one such defect related an
error in the premium calculation for one of the covers, which in
turn affected the total premium. Only a domain critical eye could
have spotted such errors without much ado.
• Considering the reusability of the test design, test data was
mapped away from the test design document so that any
change in test data would not have an adverse impact on the
nature of test design.
• This significantly reduced the time taken for the planning phase
and in turn reduced the time and cost incurred during planning.
• Also, this approach provided the flexibility to use the scenarios
with very many test data during the course of execution.
• The engagement was completed within the agreed timelines.
• With the creation of customized reusable test assets, the insurer
was able to reduce the cost & effort for the next regional rollout,
with the result that for the next country the number of testers
deployed came down to almost half the previous number.
Value Addition
• Use of Knight’s generic test repository led to a saving of 60% on
the test design cost.
• The requirements provided by the insurer were compared
against the master functional list from the test repository and the
critical functional gaps to the extent of 35% were highlighted. -
The entire functional requirements related to Channel
Management were missing in the requirements provided. This
was added after Thinksoft highlighted the same.
• Regression test pack with nearly 30% of actual cases ensured
complete regression
The above approach resulted in a better Return on Investment
(ROI) and provided a superior customer experience.
It was nearing lunch time and Tommy was getting impatient to
know the name of the White Knight. “Can’t you guess from what
you know of the market”, asked Mukesh. Could it be Thinksoft
Global mused Tommy. Right you are said Mukesh and if I’d given
you the name earlier would you have been as convinced as you
are now, he asked. Boy O’boy is all that Tommy could exclaim?
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Global Insurance Case Study
Mukesh admitted that as a rule he is not inclined to hand out
testimonials to vendors however good they are, lest that triggers
a testimonial war. This case was an exception.
Mukesh had written: -
It is a pleasure to work with the Thinksoft team and beyond a
doubt the team’s domain knowledge is extremely good
Mukesh Patel
Head Testing,
Global Insurance Company
Cient Speak
For more details, visit www. thinksoftglobal.com
T r u s t t h e E x p e r t s
Thinksoft
Generic Repository
Thinksoft
Generic Repository
Customized Reusable
Test Assets
• Saving on effort with Thinksoft
ready to use repository
60%
• Shortened Design Cycle
• Reusability
20% 20%
= 100% Test Coverage