BLOG: How we are creating Software solutions for our customers
I want to tell you about a project that I was involved in as a Software Developer at Scania, where I supported the design of a framework for automating the testing of one of our applications. It’s not just another Test Automation Framework like the many others available online, and I want to share my story because I think it would be useful to others who are dealing with similar difficulties, and it would encourage me to continue working on this project.
When we talk about test automation and the Scania framework, we are referring to software that’s been built in-house, utilising Java, Appium, Browserstack, and Jenkins.
As a Software and Web Developer at Scania, one of my responsibilities is to provide a test automation framework that makes the testing process easy for the testers. When I first started the work, I did some research on several test automation methods and libraries. One of my favourites was APPIUM, which is a domain-specific language that is very similar to plain English. You can test everything from the user interface to app services and databases (SQL). APPIUM can be applied across various platforms, allowing you to use several different programming languages, including Python and Java.
Some of the end-to-end tests we are developing are being used in charging solutions connected to electric vehicles. Since electrification is becoming more common for heavy vehicles, such as trucks and buses, it’s exciting to see that what we do supports Scania and our customers as they move into more sustainable transport solutions.
How we solve problems
- ·We examine our customers’ concerns carefully and determine the best answer. To do this we use feedback software to collect feedback from our customers.
- We put the new solution in place. With continuous feedback and development we can always deliver new or updated solutions that will benefit our customers.
- We are available to assist our consumers in any way we can. We have colleagues who take the time to meet our customers to discuss how they feel about the software we develop. We collect the negative and positive feedback.
My awesome team
I’m part of a four-person team with four distinct backgrounds: one web developer, two backend developers, one test engineer, and a product owner. We work in an agile manner, so the code is continuously deployed according to the test environment. The product owner decides when a product is ready for manufacturing. This way of working is really well structured and enjoyable. We share ideas and are eager to learn from each other.
The best aspect about working as a developer at Scania is that we get to try out new technologies and software as soon as they hit the market, to see if they fit in with our development needs.
What kind of Software do I use?
Visual Studio Code and IntelliJ Idea are my preferred programming tools, because they support numerous languages and have amazing plug-ins that can help me develop better and faster.
I appreciate Typescript and JavaScript as programming languages because they are simple to read and comprehend. It's also incredibly simple to locate helpful resources and support communities for problem-solving.
Final thoughts
Our software solutions are created with the goal of making our customers delighted with the final product. Cooperating within our team and with our daily customers is sufficient to solve existing and upcoming problems.
With that said I want to conclude this post by saying that working as a developer for Scania is great fun, and I am super-grateful for all the people and managers I have worked with so far. My journey has just started and I look forward to the next steps.
See also
Here are some of gems to look into if you are interested in web components:
- Lit - Google's web components library, the core of which is a component base class designed to reduce boilerplate while providing reactive state, scoped styles, and a declarative template system.
- FAST - An web components library built by Microsoft which offers several packages to leverage depending on your project needs.
- Hybrids - Another open source web components library, which favors plain objects and pure functions over class and this syntax. It provides a simple and functional API for creating custom elements.
By Christofer Berrette, software developer
