90% faster regression testing: boosting speed and quality for the UK’s leading pet care retailer

OUR CLIENT

Our client is the UK’s largest pet supplies retailer, operating more than 370 stores and employing over 6,000 people nationwide. With a wide range of pet products and in-store veterinary services, the company relies on technology to ensure smooth customer service, efficient stock control, and reliable transaction processing.

THE CLIENT CHALLENGE

Our client relies heavily on its Point of Sale (POS) software to support store operations, customer service, and financial reporting across its 370+ locations. With each new software release, the in-house team carried out a time-boxed two-week regression testing cycle. However, several challenges were limiting the effectiveness of this process:

• Manual testing was slow, inconsistent, and often incomplete, with spreadsheet-based test cases that varied between cycles and lacked clarity.

• Testing was frequently interrupted, as testers were reassigned to other urgent work, further reducing coverage.

• Undetected defects reached production, increasing defect resolution costs and risking customer dissatisfaction.

• Test data maintenance was inefficient and manual, delaying test preparation and increasing operational overhead.

To reduce cycle time, improve reliability, and support more frequent, high-quality releases, a scalable and automated testing solution was needed.

WHAT WE DELIVERED

Using our Test Automation and Continuous Testing solution, Roq designed and implemented a bespoke automation framework that transformed the client’s test capability:

• Developed a Java-based test automation framework using open-source tools (Cucumber, Winium), supporting both UI and backend validation for the POS application.

• Rewrote ambiguous test cases into structured, BDD-style Gherkin scenarios for consistent execution and easier maintenance.

• Implemented data-driven testing, dynamically populating test data from SQL databases at runtime to eliminate manual maintenance.

• Extended automation to validate integrations across warehouse (JDA), finance (SAP), and middleware (BizTalk) systems.

• Integrated the solution with Jenkins CI, providing tailored test reporting and real-time dashboards.

CLIENT IMPACT

Roq’s solution delivered transformative outcomes for the client’s testing capability and operational efficiency:

• Reduced regression testing time by over 90%, shrinking a two-week manual cycle to just seven hours and unlocking faster, more reliable software delivery.

• Significantly improved release quality, by expanding and standardising test coverage — reducing production defects, lowering service desk volumes, and improving customer satisfaction.

• Eliminated manual test data maintenance, using a dynamic, data-driven approach that saved time and improved test reliability.

• Extended test coverage to include previously untested components, such as the vacuum fluorescent display (VFD), ensuring end-to-end confidence in the full customer experience.

To find out how Roq’s Test Automation and Continuous Testing solution can support your business, contact our experts at ask@roq.co.uk.