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Federal Employment Office

With almost 100 000 employees, the Federal Employment Office (Bundesagentur für Arbeit - BA) is one of the largest authorities in Germany. It is not only responsible for labor exchange activities, for employment promotion and for issuing wage replacement benefits, but also for granting payments to families. The payment process for the “Family Allowance” comprises a decentralized dialog process in the agencies and a centralized batch process in Nuremberg. The family allowance offices record the data necessary for determining the family allowance, and ensure the regular monthly payment thereof to approx. 9 million recipients for over 15 million children. Each year, almost 30 billion € are paid out in over 100 million payment transactions. In the KIWI project (Kindergeld-Windows-Implementierung = Family Allowance Windows Implementation), the old terminal emulation with character-based input was replaced by a user-friendly program with a graphical user interface.

The Method Park Software AG supported the KIWI project of the Federal Em-ployment Office in designing and compiling model-based tests as well as in carrying out and automating tests. Additional focal points were knowledge transfer and coaching of the specialist testers. Besides this, the Method Park employees provided valuable assistance in test planning and risk analysis. These measures ensured that the software quality was improved significantly and that the product could be handed over hassle-free and on deadline. Furthermore, a high level of acceptance on the part of the users in the family allowance offices was achieved.