WoodmenLife Masters Automation, Achieves 212% Faster Regression Testing

The Challenges

The Five Weeks to Five Days initiative focuses on automating regression testing across the enterprise. The goal was to reduce testing time from five weeks to five days.

One significant challenge was automating tests for a third-party application that historically required extensive manual effort. Other key challenges included:

• Selecting the right solutions and how to integrate them into the CI/CD pipeline.
• Building automation skills across the enterprise.
• Shifting the organization culture to prioritize automation.

Previously, Oslin’s team executed 40 manual test cases per release, requiring 200 hours.

Their goal: Automate these tests to reduce execution time to 40 hours, equivalent to five days.

The Approach

WoodmenLife’s development and testing teams had the right tools. However, they lacked a structured automation process. Oslin envisioned a culture of growth and opportunity where manual testers could transition into skilled automation engineers. With this vision, he partnered with Parasoft to address the challenges.

The Solutions

The Titans of Progress (TOP) collaborated with Parasoft to implement the Five Weeks to Five Days initiative. They automated key processes using Parasoft’s integrated tools.

• SOAtest to manage test suites.
• Virtualize to create, deploy and manage virtual assets and test data.
• CTP to map and manage tests, data, and the environment.

Regression Testing

The TOP team automated the majority of the regression test cases for the third-party application, achieving remarkable results. The team surpassed the initial goal of completing the regression tests in 40 hours. They did it in a mere 4.5 hours.

A breakthrough came from addressing bottlenecks in the integration framework, which involved hundreds of services integrated with the third-party application. Using Parasoft Virtualize and SOAtest, the team validated builds and deployments in just 10 minutes.

Service Virtualization

The implementation of service virtualization transformed correspondence testing, a historically complex process. The WoodmenLife team developed a fully virtualized solution that reduced the testing time from two weeks to under 10 minutes. That’s 360 times faster than manual testing.

“Before implementing Parasoft’s service virtualization, testing always felt like an uphill battle. Returning from vacation meant facing an overwhelming backlog and enduring tedious, stressful manual processes. Now, testing is a breeze. With just a few clicks, it’s done. Service virtualization frees me to focus on building more comprehensive and innovative automation. Parasoft Virtualize has transformed the way we work, bringing efficiency and peace of mind.”

—WoodmenLife systems test engineer

The WoodmenLife team also achieved the following using Virtualize:

• Reduced the three-day process to half a day—6 times faster.
• Completed five 2-point stories in 10 minutes, compared to two days—72 times faster.

“The confidence of our test engineers increased thanks to Parasoft’s automated solutions. So did the ability to deliver higher quality applications faster.”

—Danny Oslin, Senior Automation Manager at WoodmenLife

The Results

Automation delivered significant benefits to WoodmenLife’s testing and development processes.

• On pace to complete 31 releases of the third-party application annually compared to an estimated 10 releases with manual testing.
• Saved an estimated $65,000 per release.
• Achieved an ROI of $845,000 for 13 releases and $2 million for 31 releases.
• Accelerated regression testing, cutting it from 200 hours to only 40 hours—3 times faster than manual testing.

Automation Evolution

The Five Weeks to Five Days initiative spurred a cultural transformation. Manual testers expanded their skills, transitioning into automation engineer roles. Developers embraced tools like Virtualize, gaining fast feedback and resolving data dependency issues.

“We placed Virtualize into our developers’ hands. They’re not only using it—they’re loving it.”

—Danny Oslin, Senior Automation Manager at WoodmenLife

By integrating Parasoft’s solutions, WoodmenLife turned its vision into reality, setting a new standard for software testing and development.