Workplace method of operation

Maintaining the workplace, so that it is and remains available to the testers, is usually an activity that is organised as standard within other maintenance activities in an organisation. As regards the PC in the workplace, it is important that the usual maintenance organisations know that this is specially intended for the testers, since it can mean that other agreements apply concerning, for example, authorisations and prioritisation in problem solving.

Test tool method of operation

The test tool can be maintained within the test project by the testers who use it, but also by a separate maintenance department (e.g. a permanent test organisation). An important maintenance element is the regular checking for new versions of the test tool and then providing this to the users. Besides this, the management activities apply as described for the test environment and for the test tool.

Test environment method of operation

The supply of the test environment on an ongoing basis, so that the testers are able to carry out their test cases and analyse their findings, covers a range of activities. These take place during the Execution phase. Examples of these are:

• Solving bottlenecks - The execution of test scripts may be delayed if problems occur in the test environment (e.g.: a batch program has not run). Since the execution of test scripts is often on the critical path of a project, it is important to give the highest priority to solving these bottlenecks.
  
  Example: At a government institution, a project has a fixed deadline because the solution is related to a change in legislation that is to be implemented by a certain date. The Execution phase is on the critical path of this project and it is therefore in everyone’s interest that this phase is not delayed. In consultation with the maintenance department, it is therefore agreed that the infrastructure that the testers use will be given a socalled “production” status. This means that the management department deals with bottlenecks experienced by the testers with the same priority as if it concerned the production environment. This is justified by the fact that, should the project not be completed on time, the legislation could not be implemented and so the primary process could no longer proceed. This separate status only applies during the test execution.
  
• Provision for logging - Systems can provide information in the form of logging, which can be used in retrospect to check the actions that have been carried out. The logging is an important source of information for testers in the analysis of their findings. The provision of this information is therefore also an important activity. It may be decided to make it available on request, but another (less labourintensive) variant is to give the testers themselves access to the logging.
  
• Backup and restore - Particularly in respect of infrastructure used by testers, it is important to secure the data by means of regular backups. This may be for the purpose of securing starting situations and using them repeatedly for the test, but also of investigating particular defects. This concerns not only backups of the test environment, but also of test tools and the PCs in the workplace.
  
• Implementing changes - During the project, the test environment is subject to changes owing to all kinds of internal and external causes, for example:
  
  
  • Phased delivery and changes in the test environment
  • Delivery or redelivery of (parts of) the test object
  • New or changed procedures
  • Changes in the simulation and system software
  • Changes in the equipment, protocols, parameters, et cetera
  • New or changed test tools
  • Changes in the test files, tables, et cetera:
    • Conversion of test input files to a new format
    • Reorganisation of test files
    • Changes in nomenclature

  Changes in the test environment should only be implemented following permission from the test management. Depending on the nature and size of the change, this will be made known generally to the test team. A new intake will then take place in the test environment.
  
  A pitfall in the planning is to assume that the installation of a new version of the test object takes no time. In a particular project, the first couple of versions took weeks because of the great complexity and instability of the entire test environment and test object. Later, this was optimised and subsequently never took more than a few days each time.

• Monitoring - The situation can occasionally arise in which a defect requires further research and deeper technical knowledge than the tester has at his disposal. Assistance can be called upon and he can ‘help to look’ at a technical level (monitoring) at what happens in conjunction with certain actions.

Further information on the maintenance of test environments and the associated management processes is contained in Test Environment.

Products

• Operational and maintained test infrastructure
• Defects test infrastructure.