Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The reason for possible problems with interface performance during process
tests, which have not shown up during previous individual interface tests, can be
traced to the selection of acceptance criteria by the business units. Just a clean data
transfer without rejections does not necessarily suffice:
The relations between data items have to be correct.
Plausibility checks have to function.
Sometimes certain items have to be skipped etc.
7.4.2 Availability of Partner Systems
Integrative testing thus means the participation of all systems concerned. This
means in particular:
Availability of test systems of all participating partners,
Willingness to participate,
Planning together with all parties concerned,
Collective error tracking,
System support from all sides,
Support by the business units.
At the same time one has to ensure that the release versions on the partner test
systems correspond to those on the productive systems. To fulfil only these basic
pre-conditions not only a significant planning effort is required but also political
hurdles have to be overcome. In the end this boils down to making test resources
available that serve the advantage of other business units. Quite often little under-
standing will be encountered because of tight budgets binding staff to their usual
tasks. At the same time making systems technically available can be difficult since
other departments may at the same time undergo system changes and tests. For
these reasons it is advantageous to organise integrative tests on a higher level close
to top management.
7.4.3
Integrative Testing
To fulfil the pre-conditions discussed above additional tasks have to be included in
the planning surpassing acceptance procedures for individual systems. These
comprise:
Early identification of testers from all units concerned,
Combined kick-off with the partner systems,
Test scripts agreed upon be all parties,
Timing of required interface runs,
Common error tracking tool,
