JetBlue

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The software runs under a virtual environment on
HP ProLiant DL385 G5 servers. “It’s more cost-eective
to create virtual instances,” Varghese notes. “If we want
to test a web application on ve dierent versions of a
browser, we can run all ve concurrently. HP QuickTest
Professional is exible enough to allow us to do that.”
Once JetBlue determines that an application is stable,
it next performs load testing using HP LoadRunner
software. “Any application that we roll out into
production gets certied for performance as well
as functionality,” Varghese says. JetBlue also uses
LoadRunner for capacity testing and to baseline
application performance and establish benchmarks.
These benchmarks, in turn, allow the company to
understand whether future enhancements to an
application impact its performance characteristics.
Faster testing, better results
Automating the testing process delivered signicant
benets to JetBlue, allowing the company to reduce
its testing costs by 73%, and its post-production
failures by 80%.
“If we want to test a web application on ve
dierent versions of a browser, we can run all ve
concurrently. HP QuickTest Professional is exible
enough to allow us to do that.”
Sagi Varghese, quality assurance manager, JetBlue
Testing is also faster. The reservations system testing
cycle has been accelerated by 40%, from 120 to
72 hours per cycle. Faster testing means that JetBlue
can perform more tests—which in turn reduces
downstream costs associated with post-production
issues and help desk calls.
In addition to implementing HP Quality Center and
HP QuickTest Professional for its reservations system,
JetBlue also uses the software elsewhere within
its organization. “We’re nding ways to extend the
capabilities of QuickTest Professional,” says Varghese.
In JetBlue’s operations environment, for instance,
testers run a QuickTest Professional smoke script on
the y to validate applications when they move them
among servers. The analysis takes only 30 minutes,
making moving applications faster and easier than
in the past, when testers would have needed eight
hours to run 15-20 scenarios.
More eective defect tracking
JetBlue also uses Quality Center as a test repository,
to track the progress of testing, and to track defects.
“Before we implemented HP Quality Center, we
tracked defects using spreadsheets,” says Varghese.
With some 50 QA projects in process at any one time,
having defects tracked in multiple systems was
cumbersome and dicult to manage.
Now JetBlue stores defects in a single, centralized
database. This helps JetBlue manage its defects more
eectively—and analyze them to identify signicant
trends. “We produce monthly reports that analyze
criteria such as defect density, time to resolution, and
number of testing cycles.” The development team uses
the reports to evaluate its development and quality
processes, and has made some changes as a result,
including implementing unit testing co-reviews and
creating formal release notes. These best practices
have, in turn, enabled development to meet its quality
goals, including defect density of under 5%, and
no more than three testing cycles per application.
HP IT Performance Suite solutions
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