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Case Study 4
Utilities
TestIT is currently engaged by a large water utilities
company on a complex GIS (Geographical Information System)
testing project. This is a business-critical application
that provides a company-wide mobilisation, planning
and maintenance solution.
This is a follow-on project to an earlier telemetry
management system testing project. This was a bespoke
software development by a third party and the application
was developed to manage the entire live telemetry system.
Project Background: The Application under Test
(AUT) was a new application which covered the creation
and maintenance of standards, configuration of telemetry
systems and definition of site units. Also this incorporated
a sophisticated database which made live information
available to all field technicians. The application
linked together with several other systems to ensure
that the whole business process was covered.
TestIT’s responsibility was to verify that the product
was fit for purpose before it was accepted from the
vendor.
From the start of the project, it was clear that this
was going to be a complex and difficult challenge. TestIT’s
approach was to break down the whole into a series of
smaller manageable projects, culminating in a suite
of concurrent and sequential tests. Several of the identified
tests include data input and data management tests which
were relatively straight-forward but demonstrated that
key parts of the product were working as expected. Other
tests however were far more complex end-to-end user
scenarios; these tests were able to demonstrate that
actual system users had accessibility with full expected
functionality from the system. The live system had to
communicate with existing systems, and therefore the
tests had to be carried out on live data and on parts
of the live telemetry system. Obviously great care needed
to be taken under these circumstances. Many problems
were encountered and reported during testing, some relating
to missing data or even perhaps older systems not behaving
as expected, subsequently returning incompatibility
issues.
Many functional areas were deemed to be safety-critical
and it was imperative that the testing carried out ensured
that the systems were fit for purpose.
The testing identified several significant issues which
may not have otherwise been found until later, saving
significant time and money. Later re-tests (regression
testing) by TestIT then ensured the issues were fixed
– and with no impact on other areas of functionality
- before final acceptance of the product from the vendor.
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