Edinburgh, 10 September 2020. Expleo, the technology partner for innovative companies, today announces details of its pivotal role in ensuring the successful launch and rollout of the NHS Scotland’s COVID-19 contact-tracing app, Protect Scotland, after contributing to similar successful projects in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The app, which launches today, notifies users if they have been in close contact with someone with COVID-19, defining a close contact as someone who was within two metres of a confirmed case for 15 minutes or more.
Considered to be one of the sophisticated tools for controlling the spread of coronavirus, ensuring the Protect Scotland app can be relied upon to withstand high levels of interaction is imperative.
Expleo, which is known for its advanced expertise in testing, was responsible for ensuring this. Having already carried out 5000 hours of quality and software testing on the Irish apps, the company completed another 1500 hours of work on Protect Scotland, to ensure it could be used at scale and handle the anticipated level of download activity from users.
Tests were also performed to make sure it is user-friendly, fast and reliable for the Scottish public. This included conducting accessibility testing for those with motor difficulties, learning disabilities, or impaired sight or hearing.
The quality checks included:
- Performance Engineering – Expleo’s quality assurance and quality engineering teams carried out performance testing on the app to ensure that large volumes of people could operate it at the same time without causing it to crash.
- Exposure Notification Distance Testing – As devices have varying Bluetooth strengths, Expleo tested varying Bluetooth LE attenuation values to ensure compliance with requirements.
- User Experience (UX) Testing– Expleo tested the look and feel of the app, ensuring user-friendly navigation and that all content and functionality met user needs.
Protect Scotland is the third contact tracing app Expleo has been critical in delivering, having also been the testing partner on the contact tracing apps for Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, which both launched this summer to huge success.
Expleo drew on the support of trusted partners during the project, including Micro Focus and Neotys, who provided testing tools, and the Northern Ireland Health and Social Board, who provided mobiles for testing.
To find out more about the Protect Scotland app, or to download it, visit the Protect Scotland website.
Scott Armstrong, Market Unit Leader – Public sector, UK, Expleo said: “Quality and scalability were of the absolute essence for this app. Our team went above and beyond to ensure this, conducting a series of rigorous software tests, to develop a tool that is fast, reliable, and easy to use. We were honoured to have been identified as the best quality assurance and testing partner for this historic project, following our work in Ireland and hope people immediately take advantage of the resource, so we can continue to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection for everyone.”
Expleo has also helped assure the Ireland and Northern Ireland COVID-19 tracking apps.
