Development of a QA testing and benchmarking framework and a search for the $B_c^+\rightarrow\overline{K}^{*0}(892)(\rightarrow K^-\pi^+)K^+$ decay at LHCb

This thesis describes the implementation of LHCbPR, a QA testing and benchmarking framework for the LHCb experiment at CERN, and a search for the rare decay $B_c^+\rightarrow\overline{K}^{*0}(892)(\rightarrow K^-\pi^+)K^+$. LHCbPR is a novel framework that meets the needs of simulation and other software work of the LHCb collaboration. It is built to test software using modern techniques while adapting for the particular challenges of tests with durations varying between a second and many hours. LHCbPR uses a microservice architecture, loosely coupling the different components essential to run, aggregate and display tests and their results. Hints of the rare decay $B_c^+\rightarrow\overline{K}^{*0}(892)(\rightarrow K^-\pi^+)K^+$ have been reported previously by the LHCb collaboration. The analysis in this thesis seeks to improve on previous measurements by performing a dedicated search for this particular decay channel using 3~fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collision data recorded at centre-of-mass energies of 7~TeV and 8~TeV at the LHC.