PWA and Website QA for a Skin Health Company

The International Institute for Anti-Ageing (iiaa) is a leading distributor of healthy, research-backed skincare solutions.

The organization undertakes extensive scientific research projects to explore ground-breaking strategies in well-being and anti-aging. Along with distributing skincare products from the chosen reliable brands, they run a network of independent salons and spas across the UK and Ireland.

iiaa was founded with the idea to challenge and transform skin health. Science, technologies, and innovations are what power their services. The promotion of innovative approaches and brands required the corresponding digital platforms to support iiaa’s mission.

The client requested full-testing of several components of their new system:

• a website for the representatives of beauty salons (cosmetologists);
• a progressive web application (PWA) for clients of beauty salons;
• and two more applications for beauty salons’ employees.

Full-testing is a usual request for a project where the development of digital solutions meant to back up and scale the business initiatives has just started. The start date for testing was rescheduled a few times due to the delays in the product development.

Discussion

Our team had several meetings with the client to learn all the essential information about their product. It was important to understand the architecture of the company’s platform before we started working with it, in particular:

• What is the structure of the system?
• How are its parts connected?
• How will the system be implemented?
• Which of the parts is the team to test?

The communication between the QA and the development teams was handled in Slack. We added the iiaa team as guests to the shared project channel.

Estimate

We prepared a testing estimate for all three components based on the design files the iiaa team shared since the product wasn’t ready yet. It was decided to run functional and UI testing on the estimate, which is a usual solution for a project that requires one-time testing.

The mentioned estimate was received and approved by iiaa. We started testing several months later than agreed initially due to the changes on the client’s side. Still, the QA team was prepared to join when it would be necessary.

Business Priorities

The testing speed was of great importance for the client. Thus, we planned to assign as many people on the team as possible to test the iiaa’s PWA. It allowed us to complete this phase’s QA activities as quickly as possible.

Given the changing deadlines, we needed to pick the most suitable candidates on the go. As a rule, QA Madness doesn’t have many specialists on the bench. Nevertheless, we were prepared for the dynamic cooperation and aimed to align with the iiaa’s deadlines. The specialists with the required expertise were assigned when requested.

Website Testing

The testing started with the website for employees, which was completed first. The process went as follows:

1. The QA Madness team created a checklist and emailed it to a client for approval.
2. After receiving feedback, the checklist was edited based on the client’s preferences. These changes were mostly related to the readiness of particular pages and functionalities.
3. The QA team ran functional and UI tests.
4. We logged the bugs in the client’s Jira and set the priorities.
5. The report with the testing results was emailed to the client.

PWA Testing

Around seven months passed from the moment of the initial estimation to the moment we received the application for testing. At this stage, the actual PWA was different from the one mocked up and initially described in the project documentation.

Receiving a completely new product meant the team needed to revise the estimate and discuss the details with the client once again. After that, the testing proceeded as usual:

1. We prepared the checklist and sent it for approval.
2. After receiving feedback, the checklist was edited based on the client’s preferences.
3. TQA engineers ran the tests.
4. The bugs were reported in a new bug-tracking system, ClickUp.
5. The team provided the testing report.