What does using Axe mean for me in my specialist role?

Axe allows me to make the following available:

• The ability to quickly mobilise automation projects with my existing test resources - mobilise in days not months
• Increases the testing throughput of my team by a productivity factor of around four against traditional test automation approaches and more importantly delivers it quicker and in a consistent manner
• Axe gives me the ability to achieve the benefit associated with Agile and Test Driven Development (TDD) approaches
• Using Axe allows my test team to be flexible in terms of changing projects where demand dictates whilst still ensuring the same Quality processes and deliverables are delivered
• From a maintenance perspective, Axe wins "hands down" against traditional approaches as the assets are maintained in the tool every tester knows - Excel
• Axe delivers auditability across the testing process from requirements to execution, results are comprehensive and can be used by everyone involved in the development lifecycle from the Business through Development to the test team and back!

What our clients say:

"With the scope and complexity of recipient clients we need to deliver to, Quality is one of our most important criteria. Axe allows us to operate a continuous change-based environment. This ensures testing is no longer a constraint on our requirement to deliver the highest quality systems quickly to a large number of clients simultaneously"

- Microsoft Programme Manager

"Axe really does bring real-life Agile testing to clients, possibly delivering the best tool on the market for combining the capture of knowledge and requirements and rapidly allowing automation of those requirements to define the acceptance criteria for development to meet. In addition it allows detailed information for resolution of defects and a speedy path to allowing the automation to be repeated quickly and accurately"

"The unique thing about Axe is its ability to start the automation process before the application is delivered. Also its ability to produce manual Test cases and automation almost as a by-product marks it out as a leader in the automation field"

- BT Automation Knowledge Leader

Axe allows me to do the following:

• Carry out more testing and give better coverage of tests by using Axe to automate large regression suites which I never thought possible from a manual testing approach
• Allows me to focus on changes that the business needs rather than checking regression packs, it allows us to automate and check routes through the business processes easily
• To continue being a tester rather than a technical person. To be able to be trained in one day and then develop my own test cases without scripting really enriches my job and more importantly enjoy change coming!
• Axe gives all the necessary levels of documentation required to isolate defects, it produces test documentation to confirm test requirements with the business and detailed "step level" execution results for feedback to the developer. It really does "bridge" the gap between the Business, Development and the Test team
• Run automated tests easily whilst focusing on developing new test cases, because of this testing is removing the blockage to business change and being able to resolve defects quickly

What our clients say:

"Odin have focussed Axe on delivering what a tester needs from automation delivering a real-life test tool rather than delivering gimmicks! The ability to work in an Agile environment creating manual test case documentation, coverage statistics and almost producing automated scripts as a by-product is literally fantastic"

"We have managed to automate a difficult system which uses data visualisation using Axe. The comparison using Axe against our manual approach is unprecedented in our experience. We can now carry out our difficult manual testing with Axe in two hours against our manual approach which at best took over nine days and was fraught with Quality problems inherent with manual testing"

- Northgate-IS Principal Consultant

Axe is not just another "Automation tool" it means the following to me:

• Ability for me to serve a number of projects at the same time rather than writing scripts over and over again
• Gives me the chance to lead in the early stages testing teams engaging with automation for the first time, my technical skills are still needed to sort out complex interaction problems between the execution tool and the Application Under Test (AUT)
• Axe allows the underlying test tool to be changed without re-writing the scripts as the assets are stored separately in Excel spreadsheets. This can truly be a blessing when the business needs to change tools but maintain their regression tests. It means the whole test team can carry on to the new toolset with the minimum of disruption
• Axe adds an additional skill to my current technical skills, it doesn't take them away or decrease them, it actually adds value both in my contribution to the team and the business and my market value!

What our clients say:

"Another excellent attribute about Axe is its ability to work with all leading test execution tools and the fact that it can switch from one to another with the minimum of effort. This really does mean that the important things in testing, the test assets are preserved and thus future-proofed"

- BT Automation Knowledge Leader