Saturday, May 15, 2010

ICAT5082A Manage the testing process

Unit Contents

Tests are procedures performed to verify that a new software product complies with specific requirements. Confidence in the new software is gained by providing the user with objective evidence that the product performs as expected. This evidence is represented by data collected from the testing process.

Managing the testing process requires:

  • sequencing of the test events throughout software development
  • establishing and running of reviews to examine the status of tests
  • re-scheduling tasks for product modification
  • allocating resources
  • monitoring the completeness of the testing process
  • coordinating the movement of the software into the business environment.

In quality assurance systems, documentation drives the testing process. The foundation document that guides the testing process is the test plan.

This unit (ICAT5082A) gives you the skills to plan and manage the testing process to an industry standard. You will learn about creating and reviewing the test plan; allocating human and environmental resources; analysing risk and contingency planning; assessing test progress and metrics; managing and evaluating the test team; analysing results; defect correction and re-testing process; managing software migration between environments and version control.

Unit topics

1. Develop the test schedule

Review and approve the test plan, objectives and risk analysis, and allocate resources according to testing timeline established in the test schedule.

Activity 1.1 test case type classification

Q1a: Read test case 1 and answer the following question.

Test case 1

Task B10: Find information in Month view of Calendar

This task asked participants to determine the time and owner of a specified appointment. At the start of the task, the specified appointment was already displayed in the month view. The meeting time could be obtained via the item’s popup or by opening the item, but the item’s owner could only be obtained via the item’s popup.

Q: During which type of testing will test case 1 be performed?

A: This is an usability test case performed during system testing.

Q: During which type of test would 'Task 314: Test upper and lower bounds of array' be performed?

A: This type is performing as unit tasting part.

Q: During which type of test would test 32B be performed? (According to case 2)

Test case 2

Test 32B: Test for the ‘Proxy’ preference pane

Estimated Time to verify test case: 00:15.0

Procedure

User to verify proxy settings for PNA, RTSP and HTTP traffic.

Expected result

The settings for PNA, RTSP and HTTP traffic must be configurable for network environments where proxies are used within the allotted time.

A: Test 32B: Test for the ‘Proxy’ preference pane would be performed as part of User Acceptance Testing (UAT).

Activity 2 — Gantt charts

The following table represents tasks performed during testing in a Gantt chart. First, on a sheet of pater sketch the Gantt chart that represents the table, the answer the four question to follow.

Gantt chart details

Table 1: Tasks for Gantt chart

The critical path is the series of tasks that determine the end date of testing. That is, when the last task in the critical path is completed, the testing is completed.

A critical task is a task that cannot be delayed without affecting the test date.

Referring to Gantt chart above there are shown the critical path are Task C, D, E, F that take time by 11 days. Also Tasks A, B, G are non-critical.

Q: The project manager wants the testing completed two days earlier than scheduled and has allocated another tester to the test processing for two days. Which task or tasks could you assign this tester to?

A:
I will assign this tester to any of the tasks in the critical path. That is, C, D, E, F or any combination of these tasks.

2. Complete IT test procedures

Migrate source code, data and executables through the development, testing and production environments and manage the test team.

Activity 2.1 allocating resources, to read the scenario below and answer all three questions.

Tester’s experience: scenario

You have been sent a software tester’s résumé and are required to fill some resource gaps in your test schedule.

Here is an excerpt from the skills section of her resume.

Skills and experience summary

Use case design

2 months

Creation of VBS test case scripts

9 months

Configuration of hardware/operating systems

2 years

Configuration XYZ automated testing software

1 year

Programming experience in C#

2 years

Generation of unit test cases for C# language

2 years

Q: You require the objectives, requirements and scope of the test plan to be reviewed and updated urgently. Does the tester in the scenario have the relevant experience?

A: The answer is no, because of this applicant has a stronger background in development rather than testing and no high level testing experience is conveyed by her resume. Given the urgency of the task, this person’s experience does not make her an appropriate choice for this task.

Q: No one has been allocated to review documentation compliance. Is the tester in the scenario an appropriate person for this task?

A: The answer is no, Although no documentation compliance experience is conveyed by her résumé, the documentation compliance review is relatively simple once the internal or external documentation standard has been determined and documentation made available for review. The applicants experience is not specific to documentation compliance, but her IT background and ability for follow procedures would be adequate for this purpose.

Q: You need someone to set up the test environment. Which of her following skills are appropriate to this?

A: A creation of VBS test case scripts, configuration of hardware/operating systems and configuration XYZ automated testing software.

Activity 2.2 version control

During testing of software on a live system a user reports an error in a program module. Programmers fix the problem and re-run the test. This time the module causes no problem, but a related module demonstrates an error fixed by programmers two weeks ago.

Q:

A: It could be the case the software modifications to one module could influence another, especially if they are related. Commonly errors like this occur when programs are copied from the operating environment to the development environment, fixed and copied back along with prior versions of other modules.

3. Review the completeness and accuracy of the system

Execute the system test and review the results. Determine defects and apply procedures to complete and document the outcomes of the system test.

Activity 3.1 evaluating test case results

You are evaluating recorded results from a testing process with the three defect classifications:

  • Critical
  • Major
  • Minor

Classify the following observed errors.

Q: An error message is not displayed when invalid blank user name is entered.

A: It is a major defect but the system is still usable.

Q: The price entered in the web form is not displayed in the order query screen of the network software.

A: It is critical because the system is unusable if the customer cannot view products.

Q: The first product record is not listed; the program crashes when accessing an empty database table.

A: Minor, variances are only minimal, and represent annoyances only.

Activity 3.2 test metrics

To answer the following two questions, go to the example of a test metric as the percentage of unit testing performed

Test metrics — unit testing percentages

One test metric is the percentage of unit testing performed.

This could be defined by a formula such as:

Unit test percentage = 100 x lines of code unit tested / (total lines of code - line of code in header files)

This indicates how much of the projects source code has been unit tested (excluding header files). A project being tested has only four files:

Name

File type

Lines of code

Header.h

Header

100

Prg1.c

Source Code

300

Prg2.c

Source Code

200

Prg3.c

Source Code

100

Q: If only Prg1.c has been unit tested, what is the unit test percentage?


A: 60%


Q: If Prg1.c and Prg2.c has been unit tested, what is the unit test percentage?

A:
80%

ICAS5102A Establish and maintain client user liaison

Unit contents

Once the critical business functions have been identified and analysed in a business and an appropriate new system has been implemented you will need to establish and maintain a liaison with the client. This will enable you to accurately assess the required support needs for the new system. To do this you will need to develop support procedures and assign suitably skilled people to the various support roles.

This unit (ICAS5102A) will give you the knowledge and skills to analyse business IT systems and identify and establish appropriate support systems.

Unit topics

1. Determine support areas

In this topic you will learn how to identify and record information technology used in the organisation. You will also learn how to identify stakeholders of the system, understand the organisational structure, culture and politics in relation to support requirements in order to be able to determine what level of support is required by each organisational unit.

Activity 1.1 Identify information technology

Read the scenario and answer the questions that follow:

Scenario: 4Sale Books Pty Ltd is a bookstore located in the Adelaide central business district. The business occupies two levels of an office building connected by escalators and lifts. 4Sale Books employs approximately six sales staff, one manager, one administrative officer, a bookkeeper and a marketing manager. They have an Ethernet network consisting of six PCs, two switches, a router and three printers. They use the SlowBooks software to manage their entire business, including sales, inventory, ordering, accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll and employee management. They also have two EFTPOS terminals (one on each floor).

4Sale Books has a Linux server that stores all of the data (including the SlowBooks database). The server is backed up to tape regularly. They also have a website on which customers can browse the product catalogue and view current specials. They also lease a telephone system from NWR Telecoms. The phone system consists of a main switchboard and five remote phones with three incoming lines and a message-on-hold queue system.

Q: List the technology in use in 4Sale Books and consider the following:

  • What sort of support does the technology require?
  • Who is likely to provide this support?
  • Does the support arrangement already exist?

Present the analysis in a table such as the one below. Some rows have been filled in as an example to assist you.

Table 1: Technology analysis

A: This following table is a technology analysis that explain about

Table: Technology analysis

Activity 1.2 Identify stakeholders and project sponsor

The questions that follow are based on the organisational chart shown below:

Figure 1: Organisational chart

Q1. If you were building a website for the organisation represented by the organisational chart provided above, who would you identify as the stakeholder in this project?

A: All the staff in the organisation is need to be including in the stakeholder there are consiting with the business owner, the relevant manager, the local workers, and the remote workers as they either affect the project or are affected by it.

Q2. If you were building a website for the organisation represented by the organisational chart provided here, who would you identify as the project sponsor?

A: The project sponsor in this case is the business owner.

Activity 1.3 Identifying support requirements

Q: If you were implementing a website for a customer that consisted of a large number of static and dynamic web pages such as an electronic store with a database backend, what possible support functions could you implement?

A: I am going to implement the following support functions:
  • maintenance of content
  • writing new content
  • checking of links
  • database administration – (eg. users, security, backup, recovery)
  • version control
  • uploading of new content
  • troubleshooting site and server based problems
  • customisation of site
  • web programming
  • user and administrator training
2. Develop support procedures

In this topic you will learn how to verify support needs, establish support procedures and write a service level agreement to meet customer expectations.

Activity 2.1 Customer support procedures

Q: Think about one positive and negative assistance with a telecommunications company an ISP or a computer supplier. What support aspects were professional and unprofessional in each? (Your experience may be via telephone, email or even voice recognition). Think about the following question: How long did the support process take? Were the steps logical? Did they solve your problem? Was the call deflected to another area? Can you think of a strategy to deal with the negative service situation that you described?

A: In my case, i made a call to ask iinet that is my ISP about how to set up my internet connection with new modem. In that case i had talk with a technician support that told me how to set up with step by step. There was very easy for me to follow but that is not success in the first time. So, i have to try again with another way to done set up step that took my time nearly 45 mins. All that period, the technician support was try to suggest and help me to do set up step with a very gentle and genetic voice that make me feel so great. because, i was not to understand quite well in English but he was explain again and again or try to choose easy word to talk with me until we were finished set up.

3. Assign support personnel

In this topic you will identify IT skills required to assist each organisational unit with support activities and assign personnel according to human resource processes. You will also learn how to provide support using agreed procedures and obtain regular feedback on allocated support.

Activity 3.1 Skills categories

Complete the online matching activity on skills categories


Activity 3.2 Review job placement ads

Q: Log on to an online recruitment site such as https://jobs.nsw.gov.au. Look at how their advertisements are written for IT roles and non-IT roles. Are the ads effective? What could be improved? Select two or three samples and analyse them. What is it that makes them effective/ineffective?

A: Most of the ads are have a similar requirement as the following:
  • language
  • length of ad
  • jargon
  • skill mix (is too much expected?)
  • sales pitch (did it motivate or excite you?)
  • title (did it grab your attention?)
  • positioning (was it the first on the list or 131st?).

ICAA5056A Prepare disaster recovery and contingency plans