Client Overview
This Japan-based leader in digital office solutions earns over $17 billion worldwide in annual sales with 75,000 employees and offices in over 150 countries.
Business Challenge
The client employed a development process that required applications to go through a quality assurance step before moving them into production. In too many cases, the client discovered change requirements identified during quality assurance testing were not making it into the production version of the application.
Using a manual process to review the application did not adequately address the issue. Not only was significant developer time being wasted using this manual process, but additionally, the IT department and end users were losing faith in the IBM Notes development team. There was a serious concern that the resulting loss of credibility would cause them to migrate to another platform and discontinue developing on Notes.
The Teamstudio Solution
The client was looking for a way to compare two different versions of the same database without the potential for human error. It was their belief that this comparison would automatically identify any differences between the production version of the application and the version residing on the quality assurance server, thereby helping to ensure that all appropriate changes were moved into production.
After reviewing products offered by Teamstudio, the client discovered that Teamstudio Delta was exactly what they were looking for. By comparing two versions of the same application, they were able to automatically find the differences between them. By automating this process, the developers were left with the straightforward task of determining whether all the issues identified during quality assurance had actually been implemented in production.
The client then went on to use Teamstudio Configurator to automate the search and replace process for the differences identified in Delta. Configurator locates text strings within a Notes database, design element, or document using modifiers such as whole word, accent, case or wild cards. By automating the search and replace process, the time required to make changes was minimized, and all changes were made correctly the first time.
Results
The use of Delta and Configurator greatly increased the quality of applications going into production and eliminated the inefficient use of developer resources. This increase in quality helped improve the reputation of the Notes development team and allowed them to regain trust from other members of the IT department.
According to the client, the use of Delta and Configurator has resulted in significant cost savings. An internal analysis determined that the developer hours saved resulted in an annual savings of nearly $50,000, and this does not take into account the quality issues mentioned above. Without these efficiencies, the client has indicated that they “would not be able to continue developing in Notes.”