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Legal Technology
Dentons Canada, 2023 to 2026

From Elite 3E to release governance

Three years of testing and QA leadership for the Canadian arm of a global law firm.

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Overview

Brought in to test. Asked to build the framework.

Dentons Canada brought STS in to lead testing on its Elite 3E implementation. Three years on, STS designed the release management framework the firm signed off in June 2026.

In between: test automation and load testing for Elite 3E and Intapp Billstream, and performance testing of the firm's Power BI finance dashboards.

Jonathan Santos and Francisco Santos of STS working through a session at the screens
Client
Dentons Canada
Engagement
January 2023 to 2026
Systems
Elite 3EIntapp BillstreamPower BI
plus connected finance, HR and document systems
Services
Implementation testingTest automationPerformance testingRelease management
The Challenge

Keeping core legal systems reliable, release after release

The work moved with the firm's needs: first a new core system, then regression that scaled, then releases with real gates.

A new core system

Dentons Canada was implementing Elite 3E, its core practice management and billing system. It needed a test lead to plan and run testing across the implementation, including connected systems such as Chrome River.

Regression that had to repeat

Every Billstream release needed the same checks run again, across the six user roles that use it.

Releases without gates

Release checklists were advisory, not enforced, so a release could go ahead with known issues open.

Our Solution

Implementation testing, automation and release governance

Three phases of work, each building on the last.

01

Elite 3E implementation testing (2023 to 2025)

STS provided the 3E Test Lead for Dentons Canada's Elite 3E implementation from January 2023 to July 2025, and the engagement was extended in October 2024. STS also established the 3E release lifecycle during this engagement.

  • Chrome River testing within the implementation scope
  • Elite 3E test automation with Playwright, and load testing with JMeter (2024)
  • Intapp Billstream automation and load testing (2024 to 2025)
  • Power BI finance dashboards performance tested at 75, 150 and 300 concurrent users (2025)
02

Release management and QA framework (2026)

A 12-week engagement starting in February 2026, using a live Billstream release as the proof of concept. One principle shaped the framework: gates block, they don't advise. The client signed off Phase 1 on 9 June 2026.

  • Discovery with the business technology team: a 32-item pain point register
  • Release management framework with a 74-activity RACI
  • QA governance, tooling and playbooks: 22 version 1.0 documents plus 4 discovery documents
  • Azure DevOps set up for Canada
03

Billstream test automation and DevOps migration (2026)

An automated Playwright suite for Intapp Billstream on Elite 3E, a read-only production smoke test and a CI pipeline in Azure DevOps. Then the release team's work moved from the global DevOps organization to Canada's.

  • 51 spec files covering 6 user roles; 47 of 83 tracked test cases automated
  • 11-check smoke test passed 11 of 11 on the 9 May 2026 production cutover
  • 123 of 123 work items migrated with 1,069 comments and 433 images, 0 failures
  • Reversible scripts with dry-run, apply and undo; original comment authors and dates preserved
The Results

A release framework built so gates block, not advise

1,103
Test cases moved intact

Across 3 test plans in the DevOps migration

300
Concurrent users

The top load in Power BI dashboard performance testing

51
Billstream spec files

Covering 6 user roles, with a CI pipeline in Azure DevOps

Phase 1 of the release management framework signed off by the client on 9 June 2026

Automated Billstream regression, with a production smoke test that passed 11 of 11 at cutover

The team's full DevOps history moved to Canada with 0 failures

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