Lantmännen is one of the largest corporate groups in the Nordics within agriculture, machinery, food, and bioenergy, with over 12,000 employees and 17,000 farmers owning the cooperative. With such a broad and multifaceted operation – including lab analysts, production staff, forklift operators, full-stack developers, and salespeople – it’s crucial that hardware and systems are kept up to date across the group. This is where Lantmännen’s IT department plays a central role:

“At the IT department, we handle everything from implementations of ERP, HR, and time reporting systems to upgrading old technology and making minor system adjustments. Our goal is to create a stable and flexible IT environment that supports Lantmännen’s various business processes,” explains Peter Källman, senior project manager and test lead at Lantmännen.

Manual Testing Was Time-Consuming

To maintain high quality in ongoing IT projects, a clear test strategy and efficient workflows are essential—something Lantmännen previously lacked. All tests and bug reports were managed in Excel, making it difficult to maintain traceability and get a clear overview of the projects.

“We created our own Excel templates and forced the business side to use them. Everything was done manually, and it was easy for users to make mistakes. As a project manager, I couldn’t get a consolidated view across projects,” says Peter.

“No One Wanted to Go Back to Excel”

To take control of quality assurance and simplify things for the business, Lantmännen implemented Reqtest. The goal was to find a more efficient way to perform tests and report bugs in IT projects. In Reqtest, they’ve now built various standard templates based on Lantmännen’s project structure, which they reuse and adapt when new projects are launched.

“We realized that Reqtest is a simple tool to standardize and involve the business in testing during IT projects. Now we have templates in Reqtest with Lantmännen’s project structure. Since the knowledge base is already there, it’s quick to get started and tailor test cases to the specific needs of each project,” says Peter.

To get organizational buy-in, they used a bottom-up approach, introducing Reqtest project by project. This made it easier to gain acceptance and engagement from project members and staff.

“It started with one project and then spread throughout the organization. We follow a completely voluntary principle—if someone prefers Excel, that’s fine. But no one has wanted to go back after trying Reqtest.”

Full Visibility Into Project Status

One feature that Peter finds especially useful as a project manager is the reporting module. It enables him to create charts showing the project’s current status and when go-live is feasible.

“I use the reports extensively. The overview makes it easier for me to report status across various communication channels in the organization. I can, for instance, easily see the number of bugs and how far along we are in testing.”

Even though Lantmännen has come a long way in refining its work processes, there’s still room for improvement:

“We’ve run 25–30 projects using our new processes, and I’d say we’re now 75 percent of the way to where we want to be. But the journey never ends. Going forward, I see a need to work more on requirements management and creating a clearer connection between requirements and testing,” Peter concludes.