A US-based company, NoodleTools provides innovative online bibliography software which supports students, support teachers and librarians throughout the entire research process.
NoodleBib, the flagship product from NoodleTools, is an easy to use web-based software to extract and organize notes from various sources to build a working bibliography. It has tools that help one think, assess, synthesize and complete a polished source list that accurately reflects the latest editions and interpretations of the MLA Handbook, APA Publication Manual or Turabian’s Manual for Writers.

Business Challenge:

NoodleTools wanted to take to market some ideas generated for their bibliography software. Further, it wanted to extend the features in the existing online bibliography software to progress it to the next level of maturity. The company had conceptualized a few major features and required strong technology as well as R&D skills to implement them in the product.

To take its ideas to reality, NoodleTools chose Forgeahead as the preferred partner for Product Development and Testing.

Forgeahead Solution:

Forgeahead spread the engagement over two phases:

Phase I – Ideation to Launch: The first phase involved transforming the customer concept for the product into a tangible product with relevant features. Not only did Forgeahead assist with the implementation of new features, but also overcome some limitations of the existing product.

Phase II – Launch to Maturity::

The features which were built in phase I were rigorously tested and merged with the existing NoodleBib product. During this process, Forgeahead also developed some features for the integrated version of the product. Additionally, Forgeahead also integrated the NoodleTools product with existing popular products such as iCyte.

Technology

• Python – 2.7, Flask Framework
• PHP – 5.x
• BackboneJS
• HTML 5.0 and CSS 3.0
• MySQL – 5.6

Forgeahead’s Development Methodology

JIRA : JIRA is used for task management, defect management as well as tracking. All tasks and defects are logged in JIRA and are worked upon in the respective sprints as per priority. All defects were migrated from Bugzilla (used earlier for defect management) into JIRA to increase ease of management for defects and tasks.

Test Link :

Test link is used as the test case management tool. Test cases are written based on the requirement specification document.

Gitlab

Gitlab is used for distributed version control system and source code management.

Docker

Docker is an open platform for developers and sysadmins to build, ship, and run distributed applications, whether on laptops, data center VMs, or the cloud.

Jenkins Jenkins has been used extensively to define Continous Integration and Delivery pipelines.

Build and release : Code releases are made as per defined sprints. Regression testing on the application on release dates is run on the QA server. Sanity check and ad-hoc testing is performed when the changes are made.

Forgeahead’s Project Methodology

Forgeahead used its expertise in Agile in order to do rapid development. It leveraged its mature testing methodology to perform Smoke, Manual, Regression, Adhoc and Exploratory Testing on the product. It leveraged its mailing platform expertise built over 3.5 years to help the client in doing Root Cause Analysis of the defects.

• Two separate instances for Development and Staging (for testing)
• Weekly demo for the customer on Mondays, using collaborative tools
• Feedback closure mechanism
• Coding as per customer specific standards
• Central code repository for all the developers

Forgeahead’s Contribution

• Analysis and validation of new ideas through brainstorming sessions on product ideas, approach and technology
• Research on technology and API for implementation of the features
• Defining the implementation approach
• Coding
• Functional testing
• Load testing

Forgeahead’s Challenges

During the engagement Forgeahead overcame several challenges including :

• Creating UI using divs and removing tables which originally had been designed by web designers.
• Creating components like drag and drop, the expandable tree for the outline, inline editing of notecards and nodes of the
  outline, read-only view for teachers and commenting system.
• Since the existing application was up and running, there was a fear that users will always prefer to use the existing
  instead of the new application. So the team had to design and develop keeping in mind user expectations.

Forgeahead Solutions Inc.

Forgeahead Solutions offers a comprehensive suite of services to software product companies across all stages in the product lifecycle from product ideation to obsolescence. Based out of Pune, India, we have a global footprint with offices in Texas and California.
Established in 1999 as SNS Technologies, Forgeahead has a proven track record in delivering business value to customers.