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Customer Success Story

Handelsblatt Saves 50,000+ Hours With Automation

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USE CASE

End-to-end regression testing for Handelsblatt’s web, apps, and backend tracking systems.

800,000+

automated test runs across digital platforms (websites, apps, tracking) in under 2 years 

75%+

coverage for web achieved in under 2 years 

50,000+

hours saved through automation and parallel execution 

Who is Handelsblatt?

Handelsblatt is Germany’s leading media house for finance and business news, operating across the entire DACH region. They have a rapidly growing portfolio of digital products, including websites and mobile apps with multiple daily publishing deadlines.  

Handelsblatt faced the challenge of ensuring reliable quality and superior customer experiences without slowing down and looked to test automation to achieve this. 

The Challenges

Stefan Buda is the QA Lead at Handelsblatt and joined the company 3 years ago. At the time, Handelsblatt had: 

  • No dedicated QA team or automation framework. 
  • Developers testing their own code, which meant gaps and no end-to-end coverage. 
  • Increased complexity thanks to multiple websites, mobile apps, and backend systems. 
  • Pressure to deliver faster without compromising editorial deadlines. 

Manual testing had become increasingly unmanageable, reaching a tipping point when critical bugs began slipping into production, impacting both internal users, such as editors and writers, and customers. The disruptions drove up costs and made it clear that a new approach was needed. 

To address this, Handelsblatt sought a scalable QA solution that could prevent production issues and minimize manual effort. The goal was to be able to test and release faster, and they needed reliable test automation. 

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The Solution

When evaluating solutions, Handelsblatt sought a no-code platform that was simple to implement, maintain, and scale, especially as Stefan prefers a highly visual approach. Leapwork was chosen as the foundation of their QA function, providing the structured and efficient framework they needed for quality assurance and testing. 

Why Leapwork? 

  • No-code automation: Enabled Handelsblatt and a lean QA team (just one and a half people initially) to build flows without developer resources. 
  • Cross-technology coverage: Automated tests for web, apps, and backend tracking systems, all from one platform. 
  • Parallel execution: Thousands of tests can run daily across multiple environments for rapid feedback. 
  • CI/CD integration: Automated tests can be embedded into pipelines, running continuously. 
stefan-buda

"Leapwork made it possible to scale QA from nothing to being a central capability in our business. We now release with confidence, knowing quality is built in from the start."

The Results

With Leapwork, automated tests now run 24/7, and the entire QA process has become decentralized. Stefan explains, “with the click of a button, I can now run tests. Quality and security are ensured from the start.”  

Stakeholders, including developers and editorial teams, have expressed greater trust and confidence in the QA process than ever before.  

Handelsblatt has transformed their QA, achieving: 

  • 800,000+ test runs across web, apps, and backend systems in under two years 
  • 75% coverage of web, 60% coverage of apps and tracking systems 
  • 50,000+ hours saved through automation and parallel execution 
  • 415 bugs caught before reaching production 

One of Stefan’s favorite features is subflows, describing “the subflow mechanics of Leapwork is one of the greatest I have ever seen”. He now manages over 500 subflows, appreciating how one change can automatically update every related flow, creating a single source of truth. 

Beyond his own team, Stefan has also taken the initiative to foster collaboration across other organizations. He’s building a QA community for both German- and English-speaking professionals, meeting weekly to share insights and ideas, “because it’s easier to share information, concepts, or ideas and make everyone’s lives easier”. 

Key lessons from Itineris’ automation journey

Tick_Green

Start with stable regression areas

Focus early efforts where automation can deliver consistent value.

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Use subflows as building blocks

They accelerate test creation and reduce maintenance effort when changes occur.

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Invest in a CoE

Governance, certification, and defined best practices provide the foundation to scale.

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Combine technical and functional skills

Domain knowledge is just as important as automation expertise.

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Continuously refine

Regularly review, retire, and improve test coverage as applications evolve.

Get started with AI-powered testing automation

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