CenterTest: The Ultimate Solution for Guidewire Test Automation
Guidewire InsuranceSuite is the most powerful platform for driving meaningful, profitable digital transformations in the insurance industry. However, Guidewire’s advanced architecture presents a host of challenges for test automation. Its intricate ecosystem creates hurdles in automation framework maintenance and scalability due to complex integrations and UI components that cannot be comprehensively tested using open-source tools.
Quality and development teams at both carriers and Guidewire Consulting partners frequently struggle with testing inefficiencies, coverage gaps, and the constant pressure to validate increasingly sophisticated workflows without compromising time-to-market. As Guidewire and test automation specialists, the Kimputing team recognized that the best solution to these challenges was a specialized testing and automation framework purpose-built for InsuranceSuite, which led to the development of our flagship solution, CenterTest.
CenterTest tackles these obstacles head-on by offering a unified testing solution with underlying architectures meticulously crafted for Guidewire InsuranceSuite and Cloud transformations. More than just a testing tool, CenterTest transforms test automation into a strategic asset by providing a highly scalable, OOTB framework that dramatically reduces testing cycles, enhances coverage, minimizes maintenance overhead, and future-proofs your entire QA process against Guidewire Cloud upgrades.
“The CenterTest automation framework is one of the best automation environments that I have seen in my three decades of being a software tester.” – Paul Holland
CenterTest decreases the TCO of Guidewire implementations and improves bottom-line metrics by accelerating product launches, improving development quality, supporting BDD initiatives, and dramatically simplifying the most complex and time-consuming validation processes. Consider just a few of its most powerful features:
- Built-in abstraction layers for InsuranceSuite UI components, and automatic generation of Page Object Models and Product Models from your Guidewire source code.
- Elimination of redundant test scripts, programming languages, and tools through the seamless integration of testing functions into a single framework.
- Powerful data-driven testing that applies object-oriented principles to test data, driving unprecedented scalability by simultaneously expanding test coverage while eliminating data bloat.
- Self-managed Execution leverages automation to seamlessly coordinate and run complex testing tasks like time travel across your environments.
- Version Compatibility that adapts your tests and framework to any version of Guidewire, accelerating cloud migrations and futureproofing your QA processes while significantly reducing maintenance labor. For example, tests written in CenterTest for your v8 implementation will work seamlessly in the Cloud.
As we explore CenterTest’s capabilities in depth, you will learn how this innovative solution is not just keeping pace with the evolving insurance technology landscape — it’s helping to shape it, providing insurers with the agility and confidence needed to cement their commitment to Guidewire InsuranceSuite and expand their product portfolio.
API and UI Testing
CenterTest provides comprehensive API and UI testing capabilities, either as stand-alone tests, or combined as part of a comprehensive end-to-end test. This unified approach eliminates the need for multiple tools, simplifying the testing process and reducing complexity.
With CenterTest, a single test can traverse the entire insurance lifecycle – from requesting a quote via API to issuing and renewing the policy through the PolicyCenter UI.
This integration ensures thorough testing of complex, real-world insurance processes, from API interactions to UI workflows, all within a simple Java application. Testers can incorporate additional libraries to integrate tests with external services, such as message queues or databases, extending the framework’s capabilities to match specific testing needs.
By consolidating API and UI testing capabilities, CenterTest provides the most capable, all-in-one solution for InsuranceSuite testing. It not only boosts test coverage and efficiency but also simplifies the testing ecosystem, allowing QA teams to focus on what matters most – ensuring the quality and reliability of Guidewire implementations.
Performance Testing Capabilities
CenterTest eliminates redundant tools and performance-specific scripts by repurposing existing tests for performance testing. Any existing UI or API functional test can be used for performance testing by executing the test using custom performance property files. Setting up a performance test profile is straightforward – it is as simple as populating a tab in an Excel file and providing it to the test runner.
Using real-life workflows, CenterTest enhances evaluating InsuranceSuite performance, resulting in more accurate improvements and superior user experience.
Plus, the CenterTest performance execution data provides detailed information that goes beyond total execution time. It collects timings for all on-screen actions and available network-level data and correlates them together. These specific details help teams pinpoint performance issues, which allows them to make targeted improvements that enhance the overall user experience.
By simply “turning on” performance testing, using your existing test suite, CenterTest empowers QA teams to maintain high performance standards throughout the development lifecycle without additional scripts or specialized tools.
Data-Driven Testing
Kimputing’s revolutionary approach to Data-Driven Testing is necessary for the in-depth validation of complicated insurance workflows in Guidewire applications. Using object-oriented principles in data management lets CenterTest store data in containers and combine them for diverse test scenarios. Then, CenterTest adapts test flows based on obtaining a value, eliminating the need for extensive conditional logic in test scripts.
Validating across various conditions, this smart and adaptable strategy reduces test data redundancy and enables teams to increase test coverage with minimal code changes. Maximum coverage, minimal data.
To increase the speed of implementation, CenterTest’s IntelliJ plugin automatically generates Java classes from Excel your data container files. This creates an abstraction layer that simplifies test development, making data manipulation intuitive and code-centric.
Transforming data-driven testing from a chore into a strategic advantage, CenterTest bridges the gap between data management and test execution. This enables QA teams to create more robust, comprehensive test suites with unprecedented efficiency.
InsuranceSuite UI Abstraction Layer
CenterTest provides UI abstraction layer for over 175 UI “components” unique to InsuranceSuite, representing a significant leap forward in enhancing the efficiency of Guidewire testing.
CenterTest widgets function as intermediaries between test scripts and complex UI components, allowing testers to interact with high-level, intuitive methods rather than low-level implementation details.
By shielding test scripts from UI complexities, this abstraction produces code that is more readable and maintainable. When Guidewire updates its UI components, CenterTest adapts these changes into its framework, minimizing or eliminating code changes to your existing tests.
Furthermore, CenterTest’s abstraction layer covers multiple automation libraries with a simple property change to switch between Selenium and Playwright . This allows teams to leverage the strengths of different testing tools without writing new tests.
This UI abstraction layer reduces test automation TCO by improving code readability, reducing maintenance, and enhancing framework longevity across Guidewire version upgrades.
Generating POM, Product Model, and Coverage Helpers
CenterTest’s ability to generate Page Object Models (POM), product models, and coverage helpers directly from Guidewire source code is an innovative feature that revolutionizes test automation. Generation greatly accelerates implementation and simplifies maintenance for your Guidewire test automation framework.
By directly parsing the source code, CenterTest reduces human error and ensures that the generated models and helpers are always in sync with the current application structure, eliminating discrepancies that arise from development changes and manual framework updates.
CenterTest automates critical components of the testing framework, enhancing efficiency and promoting consistency – all crucial for maintaining and scaling testing efforts as your Guidewire implementation evolves.
Source code generation allows QA teams to shift their focus from setup and maintanance tasks to designing strategic test cases, resulting in more thorough testing and higher-quality Guidewire deployments.
For more information on the power of the POM in Guidewire test automation, see Part Four of our Testing Guidewire blog series here.
Compatibility with All Guidewire Versions
The most difficult challenges for Guidewire test automation are maintainability and sustainability. CenterTest is the only tool that enables your tests to function across all versions of Guidewire, from v7 to Cloud. It ensures the longevity and adaptability of your testing framework, eliminating obsolescence caused by migrations and Cloud upgrades. This continuity is valuable for maintaining testing momentum and preserving institutional knowledge across upgrade cycles.
In scenarios where the upgrade involves version changes without significant alterations to workflows, CenterTest’s adaptability is remarkable. After a simple regeneration of Page Object Models (POMs), tests align with new element IDs, requiring minimal to no changes in the test code itself.
CenterTest accelerates Guidewire Cloud transformations by enabling you to use existing tests from prior versions in your Cloud upgrade on day one.
CenterTest enables teams to develop comprehensive test suites on pre-Cloud versions, which can then validate post-migration Cloud environments. This capability not only helps with the migration process but also offers a reliable mechanism to verify the success and integrity of the upgrade itself.
PCF Coverage Analytics
CenterTest’s PCF (Page Configuration File) Coverage Analytics provides insights into UI modifications to help teams identify areas that may require more testing.
CenterTest starts by comparing the PCFs of any two versions of your Guidewire implementation to identify fields and field properties that have changed during development. Then, after the test suite execution, it identifies if your tests covered those PCF changes. If your test suite is comprehensive, this feature offers unprecedented insight into UI modification impacts.
You can use PCF Coverage Analytics to highlight untested and under-tested components, enabling testers to optimize efforts and ensure balanced test coverage.
Detailed reports on modifications, their impact on workflows, and relationships to existing test cases allow teams to address issues before they affect end-users. This feature is an invaluable communication tool between development and QA teams, helping data-driven discussions on UI changes and testing strategies.
Restartability
CenterTest’s restartability feature marks a significant advancement in test execution efficiency, especially for multi-step scenarios typical in insurance software testing.
Restartability reduces execution time by allowing tests to resume from the point of failure or interruption, rather than requiring a complete restart from the beginning.
When workflows in Guidewire testing span multiple applications or involve time-sensitive processes, restartability proves invaluable. One frustrating aspect of automated testing is the need to re-run entire test suites because of a single point of failure, often caused by factors beyond the test’s control. For instance, in scenarios involving policy creation and payment processing across PolicyCenter and BillingCenter, CenterTest can wait and restart once a policy becomes available, continuing with the later steps.
By enabling tests to resume from points of failure, CenterTest significantly reduces execution time, enhances test stability, reduces human effort, and optimizes resource utilization. This feature is crucial in continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, where efficiency impacts release cycles, accelerating the delivery of Guidewire implementations.
Automated Time Travel and Self-Managed Execution
CenterTest simplifies time travel testing by tackling two main challenges: manually coordinating time travel events across teams and environments and restarting tests when the system date now meets the test’s requirement.
It does this by using a process we call Self-Managed Execution, where CenterTest executes your test suites, analyzes failures, and restarts remaining tests. In time travel, CenterTest analyzes test suite results to identify date or time range exceptions after the initial run.
It then calculates the optimal date needed to resolve as many exceptions as possible, in sequence, with a single time travel event – a process we call “Best Day Calculations.” Finally, CenterTest adjusts the clock on each available environment to the calculated Best Day – keeping all your Centers in sync.
Automated time travel with “Best Day Calculations”, along with self-managed execution and restartability, significantly reduces overall test execution time by restarting affected tests from the exact point where they met a date-related failure.
This eliminates risks from manual intervention while managing multiple system date changes across multiple environments, saving time and reducing errors with advanced test orchestration beyond traditional automation frameworks.
Multi-user/Multi-session Processing
CenterTest can run tests using multiple users and/or sessions at the same time. It can open several browser windows or make multiple API calls in one test with a simple configuration file connecting user credentials to test environments.
In Guidewire projects, end-to-end testing is seldom performed due to its inherent complexity, especially with automation. CenterTest’s multi-user, multi-session approach mitigates this complexity, letting your tests accurately replicate real-life insurance workflows
For example, it can test creating a policy where one person starts the process in PolicyCenter, another checks for issues, a third approves it, and another accepts payment in BillingCenter.
With this feature, teams can create more thorough and realistic tests that cover complicated scenarios saving time and catching more issues before going live. This leads to better quality Guidewire applications and fewer problems for users.
Narrative Reports
CenterTest introduces a novel approach to test reporting with its narrative feature, which originated from the concept of “reversed“ Gherkin. CenterTest generates consumable, Gherkin-style reports from conventional test code, without requiring developers to write tests in Gherkin format.
In Guidewire projects, developers can continue writing tests in standard Java, focusing on thorough coverage and robust assertions, while stakeholders can review clear, narrative-style reports of test scenarios and outcomes.
Narratives bridges the communication gap between technical and non-technical stakeholders, easing better understanding and collaboration across teams. It improves clarity in test reporting leading to more effective quality assurance processes and helping to align testing efforts with business goals in Guidewire implementations.
Ensure that you read Part Three of our Testing Guidewire blog series here for additional information on CenterTest Narratives.
Execution Analytics
CenterTest’s execution analytics offers a comprehensive view of the test results, providing QA teams with powerful insights to drive continuous improvement. The framework captures and analyzes data points throughout the test execution process, presenting them in digestible formats that highlight trends, bottlenecks, and optimization opportunities.
In Guidewire projects, these analytics go beyond simple pass/fail metrics, offering detailed performance data, execution times, and resource utilization statistics. This granular level of information enables teams to make data-driven decisions about test suite optimization, resource allocation, and overall testing strategy.
One of the standout features of CenterTest is its flexible data storage mechanism. It enables users to add and save any data used in tests or retrieved from applications to centralized storage and a database. For example, a requirement for one company was to seed policies for exploratory testing and providing the resulting policy numbers to their team.
Advanced Reporting with ReportPortal
CenterTest integrates with ReportPortal through its Test Results abstraction layer, to provide customizable reporting capabilities. This integration turns raw test data into useful insights, meeting the varied needs of stakeholders throughout the organization. ReportPortal’s powerful aggregation and visualization tools allow CenterTest to present test results in a variety of formats, from high-level executive summaries to detailed technical breakdowns.
It offers real-time visibility into test execution through interactive dashboards, enabling immediate identification of trends, bottlenecks, and potential issues in Guidewire testing. The customizability of these reports is a key strength.
Teams can tailor the output to focus on specific metrics, test suites, or time periods, ensuring that each stakeholder receives the most relevant information.
The advanced reporting capabilities of CenterTest, powered by ReportPortal, ease data-driven decision-making, and enable rapid issue resolution, driving continuous improvement in Guidewire application quality and speeding up the overall development lifecycle.
Conclusion
CenterTest appears as the premier solution for Guidewire application testing, offering a comprehensive and tailored approach that addresses the unique challenges of insurance software quality assurance. Its wide range of capabilities, from API and UI testing to advanced analytics and reporting, positions it as an indispensable tool for QA teams working with Guidewire.
The framework’s standout features, such as automatic time travel, restartability, and PCF coverage analytics, show a deep understanding of the intricacies involved in testing complex insurance platforms. CenterTest simplifies the testing process and improves efficiency by abstracting InsuranceSuite widgets and generating critical testing assets like Page Object Models and product models. This reduces cognitive load on testers and speeds up test development.
CenterTest’s flexibility is clear in its support for data-driven testing, integration with test management systems, and compatibility across all Guidewire versions. This adaptability ensures that the framework stays valuable throughout the lifecycle of Guidewire implementations, from initial development to cloud migrations and beyond.
By improving testing processes, enhancing coverage, and providing actionable information, CenterTest empowers QA teams to keep the highest standards of software quality in the ever-changing landscape of insurance technology. For teams looking to improve their Guidewire testing efforts, CenterTest represents the gold standard in test automation frameworks, promising efficiency, reliability, and comprehensive coverage in equal measure.
Arek Frankowski
Senior Software Architect
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