40 | Testing IT
All business processes that
are supported by the IT
systems need to function
as expected. In the first
instance it does not matter
that they perform well –
only that they work. This is
summarised by the motor
racing adage : “If you want
to finish first, first you have
to finish.”
business, which means that there is an • Integration and migration testing; A reduction in overheads and capital
initial quality investment that needs • Performance testing. expenditure is possible because you
to be understood by the business and Compliance is important for both can get optimal performance from
pay back for that investment comes internal security requirements your system through the identification
in the form of future business agility. and external regulatory or legal and removal of bottlenecks which
This increases the importance for requirements. If any of these obviates the need for increased system
the business to be at the forefront of requirements are not satisfied resources.
the SOA initiative. If business is not then your entire business may be
involved in defining the SOA with in jeopardy. This could stem from Quality management strategy
architects then the chances of realising customers abandoning a business that Figure 3 shows the high level strategy
all of the benefits are reduced. cannot keep their data secure or from for merging IT estates. The approach
high fines applied for not complying is to measure the existing systems and
Merging existing with regulation. It is important to use them to define the requirements
and acquired data sets note that failure to comply with some for the merged system. The benefits
It is essential that the importance of requirements (eg Data Protection are all realised by proving that the
merging or migrating data sets is not Act) could lead to imprisonment of defined system has been delivered.
under stated. It is recommended that executives. The measuring step on its own does
an entire work stream is dedicated to Integration and migration testing, not add significant benefits but it does
ensuring that data retains its integrity. which is essentially functional testing make the defined system achievable.
The responsibilities of this work stream of all business requirements, could Measure - In the measurement
are to: be considered obvious. However, phase it may be sensible to assess
• Investigate the initial data quality; it is perhaps its ordering before the separate systems in the opposite
• Optimise the source systems where performance that is relevant. The order to the testing that will be carried
appropriate; business needs to work – ie all business out for the final system. In essence it
• Migrate the data to the target processes that are supported by the IT means that assessing the performance
system; systems need to function as expected. of the systems is of the highest
• Optimise the target system data; In the first instance it does not matter importance. This is for two reasons.
• Manage the transition to business as that they perform well – only that Firstly, it may be possible to identify
usual for the new system. they work. This is summarised by the systems that have sufficient capability
There is a large amount of testing motor racing adage : “If you want to to handle the volumes of the merged
that is required for the data migration finish first, first you have to finish.” estate. This can drive cost savings. The
work stream. However, there will be Performance testing allows you to second reason is to collect information
significant overlap with other work increase profitability of your business about the present users’ experience
streams and it is important that close in two ways: to help define the non functional
collaboration is enforced between • Increase revenue by trading more requirements.
all work streams to prevent the effectively; It is also important to establish
duplication of tests. • Increase profits by reducing the test cases that can be used to
overheads and capital expenditure. prove that the business processes
Testing for merged IT estates If your IT system is more responsive still operate and also to look at the
An internal review of projects at SQS than your competitors’ then you compliance issues that are required for
revealed that the main factors that are likely to retain and recruit more each estate.
were important for testing of merged customers than them, thereby The toolkit for the measurement
systems were: increasing your market share phase should be expanded to cover
• Compliance testing; and revenue. all aspects of static analysis. These
T.E.S.T | June 09 June 09 | T.E.S.T
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