Royal Museums Greenwich (RMG), incorporating four of the capital's most magnificent venues - The National Maritime Museum, The Cutty Sark, Queen’s House and Greenwich Observatory - commissioned a digital agency to develop a completely new website to showcase the venues for public visits and corporate events.
Background
The work was to be a major upgrade to a fully responsive site, designed to support a wide range of devices and screen sizes with a new corporate image and updated styling.
RMG selected Prolifics Testing from a competitive tender process to provide independent functional acceptance testing of the new solution prior to launch, including device and browser compatibility testing.
Development
Once selected, the Prolifics Testing lead Consultant met with the project team and lead developer for a walk-through of functionality being designed for the new site and identification of key user journeys and areas of concern.
The list of platforms and browsers to test was finalised, based on existing visitor logs and expected user profiles.
The initial workshop provided the basis for a comprehensive test plan, including a clear definition of functionality to be tested and user journeys to provide structure for exploratory testing, allowing tester creativity and reducing scripting time, while ensuring consistent coverage of all areas within scope.
Once the plan was agreed, work commenced on developing a series of exploratory test scripts, to guide consultants through the site and record test outcomes.
Testing
Due to timescales and changes to the original schedule, testing commenced on areas of the site that were completed, while other areas were still being developed. Our team worked together with the project team and design agency, collaborating via Jira for defect reporting, prioritisation and re-testing, supplemented by daily conference calls.
Initial testing was followed by two formal test cycles and a further round of defect re-testing, which saw the site progress rapidly as all the problems identified were fixed and re-tested. Tests were executed on the most popular browsers on both PC and Mac platforms, as well as a range of iOS and Android mobile devices and tablets.
Results
A total of almost 300 defects were identified during the test execution phase, which took place remotely from our lab, over approximately 3 weeks. This included 134 defects classified as Major, ie, that needed to be fixed prior to launch.
Prolifics Testing acted as an extension of the RMG project team, carrying out a full independent acceptance test of the site by experienced testing professionals, against wireframes and requirements.
As a result of the testing and subsequent re-work of the site, RMG were able to go live with confidence, showcasing their new digital identity with pride, across all platforms, devices and screen sizes.