W3: Unique software solutions for unique clients
W3 provides custom end-to-end web services with an agile philosophy. Their goal is to build fun and easy-to-use systems for unique clients. W3’s clients vary from large expert organizations to small businesses.
We talked to Tuomas Tanner, Senior Developer at W3
Problem: Making testing sellable
While some of W3’s bigger clients understand the benefits of testing, it has been difficult to convince all clients of its necessity. Clients with less expertise in software and smaller resources often see testing as a mere extra cost or delay. When time or money runs out, testing is often the first thing to be cut, and full reliability of a working website may not be achieved.
Before testing with Usetrace, W3 did unit testing and automated testing with Selenium on some projects. However, they found both of these problematic: Selenium was complicated and time consuming to implement and maintain, and unit testing took up the coder’s time and did not give the wanted result.
W3 found that even when unit tests passed, integration-level problems could result in webpages that did not function – and an unhappy client. W3 found that both of these take a lot of handiwork and effort from the coder, away from developing good services for their clients.
Solution: Effortless testing with Usetrace
The W3 team was impressed by a Usetrace demo and decided to try it out. They found Usetrace very easy to start using, with no extra fuss or studying required.
“Usetrace seemed to be a light solution for a comprehensive automated test set, quick and easy. It eliminated all the trouble: just open the browser and start clicking, really intuitive. In Usetrace, we found a sweet spot that fits in with our philosophy of fast implementation and high quality.”
Unlike testing usually, W3 has found Usetrace easy to sell to their clients. They have enjoyed demoing its visual and easy-to-use interface that tangibly shows the advantages of testing. They can actually show their client how Usetrace clicks through the pages on different browsers and gives clear visual results of whether the website works for users. Also, changes to the website can be made without worrying if it still works afterwards, which their clients have been excited about as well.
“When testing is made easy to understand, it is easy to sell too. Our clients say ‘wow, this really works and actually checks all these things’, and feel really confident that everything functions.”
Results: Better test coverage, less work
The people at W3 find that Usetrace saves time and effort straight from the beginning of a project. Before, it would have taken them about a week to build the test infrastructure and from then on several days per month to maintain and develop it. Now, with 20% of the work needed to code tests, they get 80% of the coverage. By being a simple and visual, easy-to-sell concept, Usetrace also makes sure that all web pages are actually tested and work on all browsers.
“Time is money. It has often been the case that when time runs out, testing is left out. Now it gets done.”
At W3, Usetrace is used by 15 to 20 developers and they have been impressed by its qualities. They find that Usetrace makes the coding itself quicker, and that fewer things break during the process. They also feel that testing with Usetrace is effortless: it makes testing a lot faster and more fun even for a skilled developer. 90-95% of testing can be done without programming, just by clicking through with Usetrace.
“Usetrace makes testing fun and easy – it doesn’t require programming. Why do things the hard way when there’s an easy solution? I recommend using Usetrace on all web projects: both new projects that are built from scratch and old ones that are developed further. For us, it has given a good coverage and a secure feeling that our web technologies work.”
W3 has now also successfully piloted one of Usetrace’s new features, support for multiple projects, and decided to test with Usetrace on all their new projects.
See what W3 wrote about Usetrace in their blog post (sorry, this is in Finnish!).
P.S. Check out our previous customer case: How Sanoma Pro shrank its release cycle and saved 220,000€ per year
