Geosoft Software Automation Framework

Geosoft Incorporated is a Toronto, Ontario-based company that creates geological software for mining companies, the US Marines, geologists, and individuals with interests in earth exploration. They have software solutions for earth mapping and modelling, geographic information systems, and information mining and management. Automated testing of this software during the development process is critical to the company’s continued growth. Geosoft requires a robust, reusable, intuitive and modularly designed automated testing solution that will handle hundreds of test cases across different software applications. Automation allows drastic reductions of testing time, making it possible to reduce software development time and decrease the time between releases.  Geosoft’s previous attempts at integrating an automated testing method into their development processes have not been fully successful, and the system does not have a graphical user interface (GUI). The Automation team is a small group within the Research and Development (R&D) department responsible for automated software testing. They have recently chosen the Ranorex test automation tool, Figure 1, to implement their automated testing framework. Ranorex was selected due to its advantageous performance, GUI, and ability to support a wide range of modern technologies.

Syed Wasi Rizvi, a second year computer engineering co-op student from the University of Waterloo, was asked by Geosoft to investigate and provide advice on the implementation of the Ranorex automated framework, to make their automated software test cycle a reality.

Figure 1 - Ranorex test suite viewer