Testing gives Marks & Spencer confidence…& more

 

Background
The image of Marks & Spencer is synonymous with quality and is the standard against which all others are measured - with quality, value, service, innovation and trust as their business values. The launch of the '&more' Credit Card was the largest ever credit card launch in Europe.

Following a successful pilot in South Wales, the Company decided to rollout the '&more' Credit Card nationally. . The proposed rollout to more than 2.6 million existing Chargecard customers was a considerable increase on the initial levels and posed significant technical impact to the business.

As the live rollout was being planned, Marks & Spencer identified the need to put in place a comprehensive project to test all aspects of the national roll out programme. This eventually became a non-functional testing strategy that would ensure that customers would be provided with the best possible user experience and quality of service.

The Task
All of the non-functional testing had to be completed by the end of August as critical input to the national roll out commitment. Marks & Spencer Money decided to employ a specialist-testing supplier to implement the technical and highly complex testing project. The decision was taken to utilise SQS-UK - a recognised leading provider of performance, reliability, throughput and security testing services.

"In a project rollout of this size it was vital to be sure that our infrastructure and systems could cope with the enormous demand - and yet still deliver the response times and availability expected.

We knew we needed external support and expertise with a testing project of this scale. It was clear to us that SQS-UK could provide the prior experience, expert testing knowledge and like-minded people to work with us in making the national launch a success." Stated Marks and Spencer Money's Test Manager.

The Solution
SQS-UK rapidly mobilised a team of testing specialists to take full control of this critical testing project. The project strategy included:

  • Testing the system at anticipated business volumes and time frames. This included the need to upgrade some 2.6 million accounts over one month and to process 20,000 new customer card applications per day. Card authorisations were estimated to reach 125 per second at peak processing times.
  • Identifying potential problems as early as possible in the time frames so remedial work could be undertaken if necessary.
  • Completing all of the critical testing before the date to take final commitment to the national roll out. This included complete tests of as many as 300,000 accounts per day.
  • Reduce all programme risks through intensive and iterative testing actions.
  • Make sure all service levels could be met at launch, roll out and for some period of time beyond. This required response times no greater than four seconds for the many hundred users of the system and daily processing of 8 million "baskets" of purchases and 3 million external credit card transactions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was quickly identified that other specialised services would also be needed to ensure success, so these services were provided. These additional services, including expert telephony testing, specialised security testing and specialised authorisation traffic testing, were introduced and managed by SQS-UK as well as a strategy to effectively deploy specialised testing tools.

The implementation plan required different types of testing to be undertaken and coordinated including:

  • Load Testing - to test on-line throughput, traffic from national card networks and the effect on offshore business processing centres
  • Performance Testing - to test batch processes, migration of accounts and take-up of new business
  • Throughput Testing - to test the process of printing and embossing of cards

 

 

 

A further and unique form of testing was also required. This was to test the reliability and capacity of a Virtual Call Centre (VCC). VCC Testing was designed to ensure the routing of calls to three contact centres was both effective and efficient. The VCC testing simulated the load from customer traffic and calls and also included driving data and information through supporting IT Systems as well as the VCC.

Test management was designed at the outset that set monthly milestones and gathered and prepared metrics for presentation. The plan adopted a strategy of early testing to identify problems at the first available opportunity. Not only did this give results that indicated the progress of the test plan but would also reduce the cost of redevelopment and bug fixing.

Business benefits
This approach to Load Testing identified the risks that might occur and cause possible failures. This effectively quantified and managed any risks associated with outsourcing of call centre operations or business process outsourcing.

By implementing continuous monitoring of the performance of the system as rollout occurred, Marks & Spencer Money obtained valuable information on how the system and infrastructure was coping with increasing demand. This ensured that the best possible user experience was always maintained.

"The results of the testing project enabled us maximise the use of our existing infrastructure and accurately predict the ongoing performance of our systems - and the reaction to increasing load and stress. This meant that we could accurately predict how our systems would react and plan for any upgrades needed." Commented Marks and Spencer Money's Test Manager.

Results
The planned rollout dates were met and time-to-market objectives achieved.

In the period following national rollout, no major issues or problems were found with no major outages and no performance problems.

Peaks of 100,000 plus customer service calls per day with 60,000 card activations per day were smoothly and efficiently handled.