Business Systems That Work: September 2019

Business Systems That Work: September 2019 1

So, as promised, here is the post about the various types of testing. Maybe there aren’t thirty-one but there are perhaps more than you might expect, although I believe all the ones detailed here can make absolute sense to you. The first three derive directly from the documentation that can be used for large projects but which also offers its analogues in a few smaller applications.

The relevant bits of documentation are: the business requirements document; the system specification; and the technical specification. Business requirements record: As its name indicates, this document represents the user’s requirements. It is a scoping record for the task and explains, at a high level, all of the processing, and features that’s needed is. System specification: This describes in more detail how the system will be built, perhaps including screen mock-ups, business guidelines, and a database schema.

Technical standards: This is the document that is utilized by the programmer. It’ll include specific guidelines around insight validations, how the data source should forth be updated and so. The three main branches of testing – certainly the three that are mostly used – match each one of these three documents.

This is the standard form of screening yet, in many respects, the main. Indeed, there is an old IT adage that says that pests are ten times more costly to fix for every step down the tests path they stay undetected (not least because of the regression tests involved (see below)). At this stage the designer should test all the display screen validations and business guidelines relating to the screens which s/he is working. They should also check that the writes and reads from and to the underlying database are working correctly.

It’s worth re-emphasing the idea that any issues skipped at this time will decelerate later stages when they may be discovered, returned to the designer for repairing and the testing is repeated then. System testing: After the developer testing is complete, then the whole system can be pulled for an end to end test together. This form of testing is more scenario based and runs along the same journeys that’ll be found in production. So, for example, screening an e-commerce application, a system tester would add products and prices, then present as a person and make purchases and then ensure that the purchases are recorded and stock levels are amended correctly.

User-approval test: I’ve blogged about this in some fine detail before, so I will just say that this is the tests where the consumer can ensure that what has been delivered matches the brief. So, if those are the most common forms of tests, what other types may you find?

Implementation tests: moving code and data-source changes through test conditions needs to be considered a closely handled process however the move into a live environment can be somewhat different and for that reason needs separate assessment. So, for example, in an e-commerce application, the live transactions to the bank will only run after the software is live.

  • To build a service-based company whose main aim is to exceed customer’s anticipations
  • Communication – How well was information communicated with the patient and the family
  • Tune-ups on Lawn Mowers, Chain Saws, Leaf Blowers, etc
  • To maintain product quality
  • Fully/partly computerized systems

This means this part of the process can only just be tested in the creation environment. Regression screening: A test routine – i.e. some related checks – is invalidated when the components that were tested are transformed. Volume (or ‘mass’) tests: As increasingly more data is added to a system, so performance begins to improve: database response times may slow, display fill times can be affected and lists could become unmanageable. Sometimes these issues can be managed as something grows but if a big change is being released to a big, existing customer base, then it is essential to test against high volumes of data.

Load screening: this is related to volume assessment (indeed, the two are sometimes combined for operational approval assessment or OAT). Load screening entails having many, many users being able to access the system simultaneously. This is difficult to simulate and there are particular tools – such as Astra Load Tester – that can be used (at some expense!). Automated assessment: Sometimes the same test cycles need to be repeated again and again. An example would be screening an online software against many different operating browsers and systems.

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