Database Reference
In-Depth Information
project, all issues must have a resolution, even if that resolution is punted to a future
phase. Some issues are minor and can be resolved without impact on the project. other
issues can turn into risks or change requests and have to be dealt with accordingly.
Therefore, managing issues includes understanding the impact of an issue and change
control.
11.7.13 Avoid Skimping on These Areas
11.7.13.1 System Testing and User Acceptance Testing
System testing and user Acceptance
testing (uAt) phases typically involve:
• Formal test plan
• unit tests (Does it work?)
• Integration tests (Does the new system work with what is already there?)
• Performance tests
• Quality Assurance tests
• user Acceptance tests (Does the application work?)
Formal testing is often honored more in the breach than in the observance. There is
often a strong temptation to skip on this step for time, resource, or budgetary reasons.
Do not do it. Painful experience has revealed that 100-hour work weeks on your “go
live” week to work on fixes or (worse yet) users throwing their hands up and saying that
they give up because it just doesn't work can be the results of inadequate testing. Do not
willingly incite customer mutiny. This would be a bad thing.
11.7.13.2 Training
how will the lack of training or improper training hurt? A com-
mon angst will be annoying user calls regarding things that seem so obvious to you
and could have been addressed with good training. During training, make sure that
special care is taken to educate SmEs over and above the standard user. They will
pass the word, and they will be able to take care of a lot of the questions and traffic
that would otherwise come your way.
11.7.13.3 Documentation
Will you regret not doing this? yes, you will. It will be late
at night and something looks wrong with one of the loads and, instead of focusing on
the real issue, you get stuck for two hours trying to figure how or why the Load rules
were written the way they were. great care should be taken to document Load rules and
Dimensional build rules as well as all calculations. What made sense at the time you
were doing the development (for some obscure reason you came across in discovery)
will be far from your memory three months later. you will need a reminder, and that
reminder is a thorough and complete set of documentation.
11.7.13.4 Automation
Are you really trying to kill yourself with boredom doing a
series of clicks to load and calc data when you could be doing something entirely more
productive? There is absolutely no point in owning a state-of-the-art oLAP (online ana-
lytical processing) tool that you then have to manually handle every input and extract.
A great deal of the system processes should be able to be automated. If you find that
you are doing an excessive amount of things manually, reach back to your consulting
partner for suggestions. often, they may end up leaving before this step is complete and
sometimes before it is even started. reach back to them if you need ideas on how this
should work.
