Fundamentals of Risk-based Testing

MC Full-day Tutorial

4/29/13 8:30AM

Fundamentals of Risk-based Testing

Presented by:

Dale Perry

Software Quality Engineering

Brought to you by:

340 Corporate Way, Suite 300, Orange Park, FL 32073

888-268-8770 ∙ 904-278-0524 ∙ [email protected] ∙ www.sqe.com

Dale Perry

Dale Perry has more than thirty-six years of experience in information technology as a programmer/analyst, database administrator, project manager, development manager, tester, and test manager. Dale’s project experience includes large-system development and conversions, distributed systems, and both web-based and client/server applications. A professional instructor for more than twenty years, he has presented at numerous industry conferences on development and testing. With Software Quality Engineering for fifteen years, Dale has specialized in training and consulting on testing, inspections and reviews, and other testing and quality-related topics.

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Formal definitions of testing:

IEEE Standard 829-2008

(A) An activity in which a system or component is executed under specified conditions, the results are observed or recorded, and an evaluation is made of some aspect of the system or component. (B) To conduct an activity as in (A).

IEEE Standard 610.12-1990

Testing: The process of operating a system or component under specified conditions, observing or recording the results, and making an evaluation of some aspect of the system or component.





Testing every possible data value, every possible navigation path through

the code, and every possible combination of input values is almost always

an infinite task which never can be completed. Even if it were possible, it is

not even a good idea because many of the test cases would be redundant,

consume resources to create, delay time to market, and not add anything of

value.






Risk Factor

1 Ambiguous Improvement Targets

2 Artificial Maturity Levels

3 Canceled Projects

4 Corporate Politics

5 Cost Overruns

6 Creeping User Requirements

7 Crowded Office Conditions

8 Error Prone Modules

9 Excessive Paperwork

10 Excessive schedule Pressure

11 Excessive Time to Market

1212 False Productivity Claims

13 Friction Between Clients and Software

Contractors

14 Friction Between Software Management and

Senior Executives

15 High Maintenance Costs

16 Inaccurate Cost Estimating

17 Inaccurate Metrics

18 Inaccurate Quality Estimating

19 Inaccurate Sizing of Deliverables

20 Inadequate Assessments

21 Inadequate Compensation Plans


Risk Factor

22 Inadequate Configuration Control and

Project Repositories

23 Inadequate Curricula (Software Engineering)

24 Inadequate Curricula (Software

Management)

25 Inadequate Measurement

26 Inadequate Package Acquisition Methods

27 Inadequate Research and Reference

Facilities

28 Inadequate Software Policies and Standards

29 Inadequate Project Risk Analysis

30 Inadequate Project value Analysis

31 Inadequate Tools and Methods (Project 31 Inadequate Tools and Methods (Project

Management)

32 Inadequate Tools and Methods (Quality

Assurance)

33 Inadequate Tools and Methods (Software

Engineering)

34 Inadequate Tools and Methods (Technical

Documentation)

35 Lack of Reusable Architecture

36 Lack of Reusable Code

37 Lack of Reusable Data

38 Lack of Reusable Designs (Blueprints)

39 Lack of Reusable Documentation

40 Lack of Reusable Estimates (Templates)


Risk Factor

41 Lack of Reusable Human Interfaces

42 Lack of Reusable Project Plans

43 Lack of Reusable Requirements

44 Lack of Reusable Test Plans. Test Cases

and Test Data

45 Lack of Specialization

46 Long Service Life of Obsolete Systems

47 Low Productivity

48 Low Quality

49 Low Status of Software Personnel and

Management

50 Low User Satisfaction

51 Malpractice (Project Management)

52 Malpractice (Technical Staff)

53 Missed Schedules

54 Partial Life-Cycle Definitions

55 Poor Organization Structures

56 Poor Technology Investments

57 Severe Layoffs and Cutbacks of Staff

58 Short-Range Improvement Planning

59 Silver Bullet Syndrome

60 Slow Technology Transfer







The purpose of discussing product risk is to determine what the primary

focus of testing should be. Generally speaking, most organizations find that

their resources are inadequate to test everything in a given release.

Outlining product risks helps the testers prioritize what to test and allows

them to concentrate on those areas that are likely to fail or have a critical

impact on the customer if they do fail.

Risks are used to decide where to start testing and where to test more.

Testing is used to reduce the risk of an adverse effect occurring, or to reduce

the impact of an adverse effect.


Organizations that work on safety-critical software usually can use the

information from their safety and hazard analysis.

However, in many other companies, no attempt is made to verbalize product

risks in any fashion. If your company does not currently do any type of risk

analysis, try a brainstorming session among a small group of users,

developers, and testers to identify concerns.









The concept of risk driven testing applies to all software development models

and processes. It is critical to developing quality software that meets

user/customer expectations and is the focus of both the STEP™ methodology

and many of the new agile development processes.

If you analyze the newer “agile” development methods, this is one of the key

concepts. It’s interesting that this is not really a new concept at all; it has been

around for a couple of decades.


There are many different software lifecycle approaches: waterfall, spiral,

incremental delivery, prototyping (evolutionary and throwaway), RAD,

extreme programming (XP), SCRUM, DSDM, etc. The key is to know which

process the project is following and to integrate into that process as soon as

possible (reasonable). The later you get involved, the less chance you have

to prevent problems.


Testing is, in fact, dependent on the development processes and activities.

As testers we test—evaluate, verify, validate—what the development groups

create.

When we refer to the development process, we are talking about the

creation of an automated solution to a problem using a computer as the

basis for the solution.

The term development in this course relates to the construction of a software

solution to solve a problem. The problem can be of a business nature or

other type of system such as an embedded controller in a car or medical

device.





A master level plan for the entire project provides a “global” view of the

testing efforts and goals.

One (or more) detailed, individual level test plan focuses the efforts of a

specific group.

The number of levels will be determined by the time, cost, and risk factors

affecting the project.


Throughout the project you will be revisiting these processes as changes are

made to the project or as new information is uncovered. These processes

will help in various aspects of the planning process, such as estimating,

budget, skills required, etc.


One of the most important deliverables in testing is an assessment of the

failure risk associated with the software—not just numbers of test cases,

defects found, and other statistics.

As testers we provide critical information to management about the potential

failure risk of the software based on the thoroughness and

comprehensiveness (effectiveness) of our test efforts.

We plan, analyze, and design tests, and then execute those tests. The

results of the test execution are analyzed and compared to the planned

(designed) tests; then we evaluate the testing and development processes,

the test results, and the potential for failure based on this assessment.

• The decision to stop testing should be based on this type of analysis

of the testing and development processes.





More information can be obtained on the planning process from several

courses offered by SQE as well as the STAR tutorial noted on the earlier

slide. Two courses offered through SQE Training address planning issues in

more depth.

Systematic Software Testing – This course covers this process in more

detail including an extended section on planning.

Test Process Management - A managers course that focuses mainly on

planning and strategic issues. It is similar to SST but its focus is on

managers and does not go into details on test design etc.







Reference materials include any information available that can assist in

determining the testing objects/conditions.

Some lifecycles do not have formal sources of documentation. No formal

requirements are written. However, there is usually some information about

what type of system is being created, the platform on which it will run, the

goals of the client, etc.

Any information you can gather will help you better understand the test

requirements for this project.


Risk identification and assessment needs to include the viewpoints Risk identification and assessment needs to include the viewpoints noted earlier

The key is to include testers to focus the team on the testing issues and to help determine the priority of the features to be developed

Testers need to know the risks and issues in order to properly analyze and design reasonable tests

Different groups have different ideas about software. The more of these disparate groups you can combine, the more accurate the picture you will have of the risks, priorities, and goals for development, and the more accurate the testing goals and objects/conditions for this project become.




The objects process is an iterative process. You begin the process at

requirements and continue the process at each stage of the development

process. How far you take the process is determined by the scope and risks

associated with the software being tested. In addition to the process being

iterative, it is also cumulative.

The information from requirements is used to improve the requirements

(static testing/reviews), to focus the design, and possibly to improve the

design.

At the design stage of a project the information from the requirements

inventory process is used to evaluate the design and to ensure problems are

corrected and additional items are gathered from the design. This process

can be continued as far as the risks to the project warrant.











There are some common aspects of applications that can be drawn from the

design specifications








Once the inventory has been built, the next step is to determine the Impact

and likelihood of something going wrong with each of the elements identified

in the inventory.

• Determine the impact (loss or damage) and likelihood (frequency or

probability) of the feature or attribute failing.

While some organizations like to use percentages, number of days/years

between occurrences, or even probability “half lives,” using a set of simple

categories such as the ones listed in the slide above typically provide

sufficient accuracy.

If the likelihood or impact of something going wrong is none or zero, then

this item could be removed from the analysis. However, the removal should

be documented.

• This is not recommended. Just leave it in the inventory, it will

naturally drop to the bottom. Keep it on the list because the

assessment may change later as more information becomes

available.







Risk is in the eye of the beholder as noted earlier

• Any two people may look at the same event and see an entirely

different set of issues. What is critical to one may be trivial to the

other



Likelihood = The probability or chance of an event occurring (e.g., the

likelihood that a user will make a mistake and, if a mistake is made, the

likelihood that it will go undetected by the software)

Impact = The damage that results from a failure (e.g., the system crashing or

corrupting data might be considered high impact)

H = High which has a value of 3

M = Medium which has a value of 2

L = Low which has a value of 1



Under likelihood and impact, there may be differences of opinion as to the

risk. It can be high business risk but low technical risk, etc. So you may have

to compromise on an acceptable level of risk.

The numbers are calculated using the values from our original matrix (page

78) and multiplying them.

H = High which has a value of 3

M = Medium which has a value of 2

L = Low which has a value of 1


Make adjustments and sort by the agreed priority. We now have a risk-based

assessment of what needs to be tested.


Of course, successful prioritization of risks does not help unless test cases

are defined for each risk—with the highest priority risks being assigned the

most comprehensive tests and priority scheduling. The objective of each test

case is to mitigate at least one of these risks.

If time or resources are an issue, then the priority associated with each

feature or attribute can be used to determine which test cases should be

created and/or run. If testing must be cut, then the risk priority can be used

to determine how and what to drop.

• Cut low risk completely (indicated by the horizontal line).

If you plan to ship the low risk features, you may want to consider an across

the board approach At least that way, the features do not ship untested (risk

unknown). This will entail some additional risk as higher risk features get

less testing.


The process of “inventorying” test objects can help establish and define the

scope of the testing as well as identify possible points of misunderstanding

and mismatched assumptions. Even a very high level list of test objects can

help in clarifying the goals of the testing and thereby reduce problems later

in the project.

How much effort you put into this process and how often you have to revisit

the “inventory” will depend on many factors,

• The type of development life-cycle used in the project

• The quality of the specifications (detail, scope, etc.)

• The goals of the testing process, how much is enough

• The time, resources, skills, etc. available to the project

One of the key goals of this process is to help understand what really should

be tested and what to do if you cannot test it all, which is usually the case.





Although exploratory testing primarily relies on the skills and knowledge of

the tester and tends to be more dynamic than traditional technique-driven

design, it too can be more formalized. Using the inventory process as part

of an exploratory test process can add structure to the definition of the areas

to be investigated rather than relying only on the skills of the individual

tester.






The level and complexity of documentation represents a serious risk to the

testing process.

• Too much overly detailed, complex documentation takes significant

time to design and create. When things change, the maintenance

costs can be extreme.

• Excessive detail is not necessarily a good characteristic of

documentation.

Too little documentation—with insufficient information to allow for the

analysis, understanding, and maintenance of the tests—is equally bad.

• The time spent reacquiring lost knowledge can be very expensive.

The key is to strike a balance between the level of detail in test

documentation and the time and cost to define, create, and maintain that

same documentation.


The goal is to avoid gaps in the testing as well as to avoid overlapping

testing too much.

Depending on how you define your inventories, based on generic groupings

or application specific groupings, the idea to decide who will test which

object at what stage/level.

Some objects cannot be tested until later stages of the process (i.e.,

scenarios and usage based objects). Conversely some elements, such as

field edits, valid ranges, error messages etc., are best tested in the earlier

stages. These code logic elements, created by the programmers, are best

tested at that stage of the process. Finding such errors late in the process

can be very costly.










Software configuration management is critical to the testing effort. It is so

important that, if the software configuration management is done poorly, the

testing effort and the entire project may fail.

While this session only covers software, it should be noted that configuration

management typically encompasses more than just the software being

developed for a particular application.


There are several key issues that must also be resolved with the test

environment.

• Is the equipment available when needed?

• Has new equipment acquisition been planned and budgeted for?

•Is there a test lab?

• Is it shared or dedicated?

• Can development share the test lab?

• Can they change it without the test groups approval?

Having the correct environment is critical to good testing. It is hard to

validate or verify something if you do not have the necessary systems,

applications, etc. The more complex and risk sensitive the application the

more important the environment becomes.

How much time may be lost just getting the necessary test environment set

up for testing if you start too late in the project? If you’re spending three to

five days setting up the test lab how much testing are you doing.




This information will allow us to assess and report on risks related to testing activities.to testing activities.








Thoroughness (Depth) – The degree to which inventoried items are tested relative to risk. How completely did the tests cover the specified risks?relative to risk. How completely did the tests cover the specified risks?

Comprehensiveness (Breadth) – The fraction of inventoried items that are tested. Not everything gets tested as we noted earlier. The key here is: How much of what was agreed to be tested was actually tested?


A Sample Approach

Develop requirements and design-based tests (as the software is specified)

Run the requirements and design-based tests using a code coverage

analyzer (as soon as the software item is coded and becomes available)

Analyze unexecuted code to determine supplemental objects and tests (if

needed)

Study the implementation and identify any additional objects and tests

required



Metrics indicate where there are elements to be investigated, they don’t

necessarily tell us why something is occurring ,only that it is and requires

analysis.

Assessing test execution on an ongoing basis helps us avoid worse

problems later in the project and gives us information that we can use to

improve the overall development and testing processes.


This appears better overall, but as before, it does not tell us why something

is occurring.


The sequence is

• Planned

• Specified

• Implemented

• Executed

• Passed/failed

Again, a trace matrix can help. If you don’t know how many tests were

planned, how do you assess progress?

Passed/failed only has meaning if you know what you were intending to do.





















Using the PICT data I have created a matrix of “valid” test cases








The first document in this series is the overall project

overview and the project requirements specification.


Reassigned Sales – Project Overview

This project is expected to take approximately 8 months to implement.

The staffing for this project will come from the following internal Widgits departments:

• Marketing and Sales

• Internal MIS

• Applications development

• Quality Assurance

• Infrastructure

• Data base administration

• Network administration

Each department will be responsible to the overall project manager for providing identified

resources. The specific roles and responsibilities will be determined by the project

manager working within corporate guidelines.

Additionally our vendor Zippy Corp. will be providing assistance in the following areas:

Applications development

• XML programming and support

• AS/400 programming assistance

Testing and verification

• Overall testing strategy

• Test design and specification

• Verification of the conversion of XML data into Widgits database formats

• Working with the Marketing and Sales department to create and verify an acceptance

test plan


This application consists of a manufacturer (Widgets Inc.), that sells a product through a

sales staff but also allows its’ products to be sold by third party distributors and retail

outlets (resellers). Because the company allows this invasion into their sales people’s

territories they have a method for calculating the degree of encroachment and

compensation for the affected sales representative.

1. The reassigned sales system will receive reassigned sales data though an XML

interface using standard data definitions.

1A. A separate transaction type will be used to identify sales data from client address

data and both types of data will be passed to the new reassigned sales process.

• It is recognized that each third party may have separate internal account numbers

for their customers. The Widgits database will have to provide a mechanism

where-by a Widgits account number can be associated with multiple third party

account numbers; all sharing one address record in the Widgits database.

• Account information will use a separate XML data format transaction type and

will be separated into their own data base files.

• The account information will be validated against the existing customer master

file to ensure no duplicates are stored.

• A separate cross reference table will be created to identify individual accounts

that purchase both directly from us and a distributor and those that purchase from

multiple distributors.

• There is a minimum amount of account identification that must be received to

148

• There is a minimum amount of account identification that must be received to

create an account. The process must identify any incomplete accounts and the

sales administration must have a method for correcting these records.

2. An on-line process will be created for the sales administration staff providing the

following functions.

2A. Provide data roll-up displays allowing sales staff to review sales data by individual

week or by the month.

2B. Allow sales data received in a week to be posted back to the previous sales week,

eliminating the need for manual adjustments.

• A cutoff period will be defined as to how long the system will wait for a reseller

to report sales data. Once that cutoff has been reached all reported sales will be

moved to the next sales period for calculating a sales person’s compensation.

2C. The application will allow the sales staff to eliminate groups and sets of transactions

(received through the XML interface) that are in error, or appear to be duplicated.


2D. Provide on-line review capabilities to allow the sales staff to review whether a

reseller has or has not sent in their sales data.

• A form of notification process will be provided to do the following:

• Notify the sales commission staff of a late distributor.

• Provide a mechanism (XML based) to contact the distributor.

• Provide a process for the vendor to request a delay. If delayed the data

would automatically move to the next reporting period.

• A notification to the affected sales person(s) of this delay in commission

credit.

2E. Allow the sales staff to activate the commissions posting process after all data has

been reviewed.

• The posting process “must be” initiated by a staff person.

2F. Provide a reports menu with reports by sales region, sales person, month, week,

product line.

3. The system must provide an archive system to remove posted transactions from the

active files on a monthly basis.

• This process must execute after the monthly close has been processed.

• Transactions that are not in a valid state and that have not been posted will be

removed from the active system during archiving but will be retained on the

149

removed from the active system during archiving but will be retained on the

archive for later analysis.

• Transactions in a valid state, that have not been posted will be retained on the

active files and will be rolled in into the next period (first week) sales data,

regardless of sales date.

• These transactions will not be archived until they have been posted.

4. Prototype screen layouts and report layouts will be provided for user review during the early stages of system development.

• Once the prototypes have been approved, all additional changes will be addressed

on an as needed, priority basis within the constraints of the project time line.

5. An initial accounts address generation run can be made by a distributor to send in all

available account information prior to starting the XML process. This will enable us to

have an initial set of account records in place.

• Vendors must be provided the opportunity to add, change and delete customer

address records related to their sales activities.

• However, once a record is added to the Widgit’s master address file it will not be

deleted unless all the following are true.

• There are no other vendors related to the same end client.

• There are no direct sales to the client by Widgit’s sales persons.

• The record has not had a recorded purchase in the last two years.


The following are the initial test objects for the

Reassigned Sales project.

An initial high level risk assessment will be done on

these items in conjunction with the systems design

process.


TEST OBJECT INVENTORY - REQUIREMENTS BASED

1. REQUIREMENTS

A. XML

B. Order Entry shared interface

C. New/modified screens

D. New/modified reports

E. Sales account information F. Sales calculations G. Legacy systems interfaces H. Archive

2. FEATURES AND FUNCTIONS

A. Order Entry interface

B. Manual interface

C. Reports interface

D. Sales account information

3. TRANSACTIONS

A. XML from distributors A. XML from distributors

B. XML to distributors C. Mailbox management

D. External applications (legacy, back office)

4. DATA

A. New format AS/400 database files

B. Messages

C. Conversion

D. Archive E. Recovery and backups

5. INTERFACES

A. Order Entry

B. Manual User interface

C. Reports interface

D. Sales account information (existing)

E. XML


F. Account data files

G. External applications

6. PERFORMANCE

A. Data downloads from mailbox

B. Manual user screens (roll-ups etc.) response time

C. Archive (delays in processing could result for OE)

D. Sales commissions reports (timeliness do to delayed postings)

E. Database responsiveness (volume)

7. CONSTRAINTS

A. Security access to screens

B. Access to mailbox service

8. BACK-UP AND RECOVERY

A. Archive


The following is the risk assessment based on the

object inventory developed from the requirements

specification.


Some potential risk factors to consider include:

Impact risk factors

• Endangerment of human life or highly valued resources increases the

impact risk

• For non-critical features, the more immediate the failure detection the lower

the impact risk

• The increased availability of a practical work-around lowers the impact risk

• Updating critical data structures is riskier than just accessing them

• Interfaces with critical functions are riskier

Likelihood risk factors

• New components are riskier than reliable, existing ones

• Components with a history of unreliability are riskier

• Frequently changed components tend to get disorganized over time

• Components developed by personnel with a record of poor product

reliability are riskierreliability are riskier

• Components developed by personnel with a poor understanding of either

the requirements or the design are riskier

• This can be compounded by projects that use outsourced services

• Components with frequently changing requirements are riskier

• Poorly designed components are riskier

• Programs solving complex problems are riskier than those solving simpler

ones

• Programs doing multiple functions are riskier that those doing the

corresponding single functions

• The more dynamic and complex the data structure, the riskier


The following inventory and risk assessment will be used in the test planning process.

Close coordination with the developers will be required to ensure critical features are

developed in a priority sequence where possible. The development of any non-critical

features, early in the schedule, must be approved by all management groups (project,

development and testing).

Elements indicated, as High risk must be considered for development first as other

features are, to a great degree, dependent on the completion of those features first. All

risk assessments included user, technical and testing considerations in assigning the risk

and priorities.

The priorities are in descending order from 10 (highest) to 1 (lowest) Categories break

down as follows

High 10, 9, 8

Medium 7, 6, 5

Low 4, 3

Very low 2

No risk 1

OBJECT INVENTORY -

REQUIREMENTS BASED

INITIAL RISK ASSESSMENT

(COMBINED)

RISK PRIORITY RISK PRIORITY

1. REQUIREMENTS

A. XML High 10

B. Order Entry shared interface High 10

C. New/modified screens Medium 7

D. New/modified reports Low 4

E. Sales account information High 9

F. Sales calculations High 10

G. Legacy systems interfaces Medium 7

H. Archive Low 3

2. FEATURES AND FUNCTIONS

A. Order Entry interface High 10

B. Manual interface Medium 7

C. Reports interface Low 4

D. Sales account information High 9


3. TRANSACTIONS

A. XML from distributors High 10

B. XML to distributors High 10

C. Mailbox management Medium 7

D. External applications (legacy, back office) Medium 7

4. DATA

A. New format AS/400 database files Low 4

B. Messages Low 4

C. Conversion High 10

D. Archive Low 4

E. Recovery and backups Medium 5

5. INTERFACES

A. Order Entry High 10 A. Order Entry High 10

B. Manual User interface Medium 7

C. Reports interface Low 4

D. Sales account information (existing) High 9

E. XML High 10

F. Account data files High 9

G. External applications Medium 7

6. PERFORMANCE

A. Data downloads from mailbox High 9

B. Manual user screens (roll-ups etc.) response

time

Low 4

C. Archive (delays in processing could result for

OE)

Low 3

D. Sales commissions reports (timeliness do to

delayed postings)

Medium 5

E. Database responsiveness (volume) Low 3


7. CONSTRAINTS

A. Security access to screens Medium 6

B. Access to mailbox service Low 4

8. BACKUP AND RECOVERY

A. Archive Low 3


The next document is the system level test plan for

the project.


1. TEST PLAN IDENTIFIER RS-STP01.3

2. REFERENCES

1. Reassigned Sales System Rewrite Requirements - SST_RQMT04.1

2. Reassigned Sales Master test plan RS-MTP01.3

2. Reassigned Sales General Design Specification - RS-SDS01.3

3. INTRODUCTION

This is the System/Integration Test Plan for the Reassigned Sales project. This plan will

address only those items and elements that are related to the Reassigned Sales process, both

directly and indirectly affected elements will be addressed. The primary focus of this plan is to

ensure that the new Reassigned Sales application functions within the proscribed limits and

meets the minimum functions specified in both the requirements specification and the general

design specification.

The system/integration testing will begin as soon as the first complete increment of the

application is available. It is anticipated that the application will be available in several application is available. It is anticipated that the application will be available in several

increments as identified in the test items section. Systems/integration will be conducted by the

development team with the assistance of one full time test person. The sales administration team

will be involved in the screen/report verification process only. Final user approval and

acceptance will be during acceptance testing.

4. TEST ITEMS

The following is a list of the functional areas to focus on during systems/integration testing.

Each area will be a separate test cycle with the complete process being tested as the final phase.

Test 1. - XML Interface

Test 2. - Translator Interface (both sales data and account information)

Test 3. - Manual Intervention interface (including all review/update screens)

Test 4. - Reassigned sales posting process

Test 5. - Reassigned sales reports

Test 6. - Archiving

Test 7. - Backup and recovery


5. SOFTWARE RISK ISSUES

There are several interface issues that require additional focus during systems test in addition

to those issues identified in the Master test plan RS-MTP01.3

A. The XML interfaces’ capability to support the added reassigned sales transaction volume

in addition to the current Order Entry transaction Volume.

B. The different timing of the two interfaces pulling from the shared mailbox on the

Advantis network. The reassigned sales transactions must append to the existing files until

the process is executed to process the data.

C. The reformatting of the XML data transaction formats into the appropriate reassigned sale

control files by the translation process is critical to application success.

D. The maintenance of the accounts cross reference file to prevent multiple accounts from

being created must be closely monitored. The manual user intervention required to correct

accounts in error will require close scrutiny to prevent overload of the user process.

E. Proper identification of existing accounts to prevent duplicate accounts is critical to the E. Proper identification of existing accounts to prevent duplicate accounts is critical to the

accounts process. Single accounts shared by multiple distributors must be properly controlled

through the cross reference file.

F. Availability of the XML interface at the initial distributor. It is critical to beginning

systems/integration testing and will also impact some unit testing.

G. Access to, and updating of, existing customer master file shared with Order Entry. As

Order Entry is an on-line, interactive process file contention and record locking will be a

major concern as our process may generate a large column of account updates to the file.

The distributors have agreed to send initial client files identifying all their current

accounts with their internal account number as well as the information required to identify

the account locally. These will be verified and put through the system in bulk after hours to

avoid problems with Order Entry. However, it is critical that the process be complete and

verified prior to the next days business.

H. Posting the reassigned sales data to the existing summary and history files must be closely

monitored to ensure that the correct to/from accounts are identified and that all transactions

totals balance by distributor. Errors in postings can cause errors in the Order Entry systems

credits and balances processes.


6. FEATURES TO BE TESTED

The following is a list of the areas to be focused on during testing of the application. Key

areas by test cycle are noted.

Test Cycle 1. - XML Interface

A. Receipt of transactions.

1. Transaction reformatting

2. Single Distributor

3. Multiple Distributors

4. Single daily pull

5. Multiple pulls in a single day

6. With Order Entry data

7. Sales data alone

8. Overlapping requests

B. Error recovery

C. Backups

D. Access to XML process and menus

Test Cycle 2. - Translator Interface (both reassigned sales and account information)

A. Sales transaction

1. Valid transaction

2. Error transactions 2. Error transactions

3. Error report

B. Account transactions

1. New accounts

2. Account updates

3. Duplicate accounts

4. Account errors

5. Cross reference file maintenance

6. Error and status reports

7. Weekly control files updates

8. Control table processing

Test Cycle 3. - Manual Intervention interface (including all review/update screens)

A. Access controls (security)

B. Account review screen(s)

1. Account Errors

2. Valid account review

3. Customer master file updates/adds

4. Cross reference file updates/adds

5. Account change process

C. Sales transaction review

1. Monthly screen(s)

2. Weekly screen(s)


D. Accounts generation

1. Holding file processing

2. Cross reference file

3. Customer master file

4. Submission of update job

E. Reports

1. Monthly transmission report

2. Weekly transmission report

3. New accounts report

4. Territory report

5. Account match report

Test Cycle 4. - Reassigned sales posting process

A. Sales transaction postings

B. Weekly control file updates

C. Sales History file updates

D. Decision support system file updates

Test Cycle 5. - Archiving

A. Manual archive request

B. Automated monthly archiving process B. Automated monthly archiving process

C. File cleanup and compression

Test Cycle 6. - Independent reports (converted from prior system)

A. Distributor reports

B. Retail reports

C. High volume purchase reports

D. Variance reports

E. Decision support system reports

Test Cycle 7. - Backup and recovery

A. Recovery of interrupted XML transmission

B. Restart of translation process at each step in the process

1. Verification of control areas for restart

C. Restart of Account update process after interrupt

D. Restart of Posting process after interrupt

7. FEATURES NOT TO BE TESTED

Other than those areas identified in the master test plan no additional areas have been

identified for exclusion.


8. APPROACH

System/Integration (combined) will commence as soon as the function parts of the

application are available as identified in the individual test cycles in section, features to be tested.

A requirement has been noted for an additional full time independent test person for

system/integration testing. However, with the budget constraints and time line established; most

testing will be done by the test manager with the development teams participation.

Entry into system testing will be controlled by the test manager. Proof of unit testing must be

provided by the programmer to the team leader before unit testing will be accepted and passed on

to the test person. All unit test information will also be provided to the test person.

Program versions submitted for systems/integration testing will be copied from the

development libraries into the test team libraries and will be deleted from the development

library unless the module is segmented and will be used in several overlapping test cycles. If the

module is to be delivered in functional segments then additional regression testing of previous

test cycles will be performed to ensure all functions still work properly.

9. ITEM PASS/FAIL CRITERIA

Each test cycle will be evaluated on an individual basis. If a cycle has no critical defects and Each test cycle will be evaluated on an individual basis. If a cycle has no critical defects and

only one (1) major defect, providing it has a functional, reasonable, work-around, the cycle will

be considered complete in terms of starting the next, independent cycle. The major defect will

have to be corrected prior to going to acceptance testing. Minor defects will be addressed on an

as needed basis depending on resource availability and project schedule. However, if there are

more than fifteen minor defects in a single aspect of the application the systems test cycle will be

considered incomplete.

Acceptance testing can begin even if there are two major defects in the entire application.

This is acceptable if there are reasonable workarounds. All Major defects must be repaired prior

to pilot testing and final acceptance testing.

In some instances; (low impact majors and minors), the application can be corrected and

bypass systems/integration testing. This decision will be made by the Test Manager and Project

Manager on an on-going basis


10. SUSPENSION CRITERIA AND RESUMPTION REQUIREMENTS

1. No Distributors are ready for testing when system testing is scheduled to begin.

Some testing can be done in areas such as general application flow and module

integration but actual data validation and verification cannot be done until data is received

from the distributors. Systems testing will be delayed for a time period to be determined

based on the delay in receiving data from the distributor(s).

11. TEST DELIVERABLES

A. High level System/Integration test design

B. Defect reports

C. Weekly testing status reports

D. Sample reports from process execution

12. REMAINING TEST TASKS

TASK Assigned To

Status

Create Requirements based

Inventories

Client, PM, TM,

Dev, Test

Create/Update Design inventories

Dev, TM, PM,

Test

Create System/Integration Test

Design

TM, PM, Test

Define System/Integration Test

rules and Procedures

TM, PM, Test

Setup Controlled Test

environment

TM, Test


13. ENVIRONMENTAL NEEDS

The following elements are required to support the Systems/Integration testing.

A. Access to both the development and production AS/400 systems; for development, data

acquisition and testing.

B. Creation and control of test team libraries for systems\integration testing. A separate set

of source control libraries, data files, and control tables will be required to ensure the quality

of systems testing.

C. A time segment on the data transmission interface to receive test XML transmissions

from the distributors. This segment should also have time where overlap exists with the

Order Entry process.

14. STAFFING AND TRAINING NEEDS

Time will have to be allocated to the test team to allow for source file movement and data

acquisition and control. Time will also have to be allocated to allow for weekly defect and status

reports to be prepared for the team and a meeting will have to be scheduled to report on

system/integration test results. Time must be allocated to the development team members to

attend systems/integration status meetings when required. attend systems/integration status meetings when required.

15. RESPONSIBILITIES

TM

PM

Dev

Team

Test

Team

Client

Create Requirements based Inventories

X

X

X

X

X

Create/Update Design inventories

X

X

X

X

Create System/Integration Test Design

X

X

Define System/Integration Test rules and

Procedures

X

X

X

Setup Controlled Test environment

X

X

The entire project team will participate in the review of the system and detail designs as well as

review of any change requests that are generated by the user or as a result of defects discovered

during development and testing. The full team will participate in the initial development of the

high level


16. SCHEDULE

All scheduling is documented in the project plan time line and is the responsibility of the

project manager to maintain. The Test Manager will provide task estimates as required.

17. PLANNING RISKS AND CONTINGENCIES

1. Limited Testing staff.

The test team is currently comprised of the developers and the Test Manager only.

Additional resources are identified to assist in testing but if those resources are not available

then the development team will have to provide additional assistance to the Test Manager

during systems/integration testing.

If development must assist in systems/integration testing then there is the possibility that

both development and testing will be delayed due to the overlap of resource requirements.

18. APPROVALS Project Sponsor - Steve Putnam

Development Management - Ron Meade

EDI Project Manager - Peggy Bloodworth

RS Test Manager - Dale Perry

RS Development Team Manager - Dale Perry

Reassigned Sales - Cathy Capelli

Order Entry EDI Team Manager - Julie Cross
