Are there any insights or suggestions from other customers or developers regarding the tools they utilize for application testing on Tulip, given its no-code platform nature? I aim to grasp the most effective methods for conducting tests in this type of setting. While we employ JIRA for tracking app development, our testing process relies on manually documenting all test cases, which has proven to be inefficient.
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Hi Edgar -
I am going to tag a couple folks who I think may have some insight or advice here while I also check with the Tulip Team.
@thorsten.langner @MarkStuttard @youri.regnaud @nicolettenaya @ASharp-J - Do any of you have some best practices you could share around app testing?
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I consider this is a very important topic, as part of an industry regulated by the FDA it is required to have this type of evidence as part of all applications developed, currently there is no information in tulip about testing methodologies according to the type of development that is generated in tulip.
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I am sorry to report that our test approach is quite manual with app requirements in documents, manually written test plans and screen shots. Very classic pharma approach and not innovative at all. It works well in an audit situation because it is easy to present and explain to auditors. Also consider that people other than yourself might have to be able to quickly present what was done. So it has to be simple.
I really hope others have progressed further and look forward to hearing from the rest of the community.
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When it comes to major applications, we create detailed test plans for each step and trigger in the application. Our IT team has a standard test plan template that we’ve tweaked to fit our testing on Tulip. For our standard work instruction applications, I recently developed a checklist. Our citizen developers are expected to run through the checklist before they push an app for publication. I use the same checklist when I’m approving applications.
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as a developer i made test systems from end to end for years. there is no such thing as a no code platform. if you are measuring and recording quantities from instrumentation measurements your code will provide arrays of data that do this work.
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Couple of things in mind:
- RPA tools
- Test Automation tools
The thought is to record the flow of the screen and load it with a script that runs the app on foreground.
It’s just an idea, I haven’t seen anything like that yet.
GxP businesses have been trying to automate testing like @gil is suggesting for decades and it almost never works. With highly agile applications like Tulip apps, I think it makes even less sense. Although the technology is fun!
Unfortunately, the correct answer here is through architecture, culture, and process changes. Yes, testing will still be done manually. But modern technology can help! For example, generating video requirements documentation can be a quick and easy way to ensure all details of a working application are documented and explained. Perhaps you could even try using speech to text and LLMs to auto summarize requirements. I also 100% recommend using video recordings over screenshots for documenting test runs. Anything you can do to speed up the manual processes is a win.
Additionally, Tulip’s composable nature allows developers to build and test in much smaller sized bites which can make testing much less iterative.
@giladl, @mvuolo, and @matt.dumouchel are great contacts at Tulip with a lot of opinions on this topic. I hope this thread continues with other ideas!
As a baseline, the Tulip platform is qualified so that all the features that Tulip develops are tested and released in a controlled manner. That leaves the supplemental validation (for intended use) effort in the hands of the customer. Since Tulip allows you to configure applications for a specific use, the intended use portion will be different from customer to customer. Tulip informs and encourages an approach to validation that is risk based as it relates to the business and product risks associated process you are digitizing with Tulip. This approach is codified in the Pharma 4.0 Baseline Guide recently published by ISPE.
At this moment the tools I would point to is either a risk management or quality by design tool where your risks and associated risk controls are identified and tracked. Because validation is ultimately assuring that your control strategies are in place and effective.
This is a very important topic to operationalize apps in GxP. I am happy to have a deeper dive with anyone interested.