SPA Conference session: Multi-System Testing and What to Do About It | |||
| One-line description: | A workshop where we will try to understand what makes testing multi-system change so difficult and what we could do about it. | ||
| Session format: | Workshop 150 [read about the different session types] | ||
| Abstract: | Most enterprise applications are not very useful unless integrated into the system-of-systems within their host enterprise. Such environments exhibit the classic “system of systems” characteristics of operational and management independence where each system has its own management, development team, operational environment and so on. This means that making a significant business change often involves changing a large number of systems at once and that’s where the problems begin. In particular, testing these cross-system changes proves to be terribly difficult for a range of reasons including differences in data, schedules, technologies, priorities and even philosophies between the various systems who are trying to coordinate an overarching change. In this workshop we will start by role-playing a group of applications trying to make and test a set of coordinated changes. We’ll then draw on the skills and experience of the attendees to try to understand what makes testing “end to end” system change so difficult and then attempt to identify solutions to these problems. | ||
| Audience background: | Anyone involved in software development and testing will have something to offer and will probably find the session quite interesting, either through the therapeutic value of reliving their own painful experiences or the enjoyment of hearing about other peoples’. | ||
| Benefits of participating: | An understanding of what it is that makes testing cross-system change so difficult. A selection of techniques to try to apply to these situations in the work environment. | ||
| Materials provided: | • Presentation slides • Scenario descriptions and checklist for the role play • Worksheets for the exercises | ||
| Process: | • A brief introductory presentation, simply setting the scene. • People are organised into working groups. • Role Play: o Each group is allocated an application in a “front to back” scenario (e.g. Order System, Processing System, Accounting System, Billing System). Their scenario description will explain how the systems are connected and the responsibilities and interfaces for their system. The scenario will also describe a change being made that affects all the systems (e.g. “customers may now be international, not just domestic”) o In isolation, each group (quickly) defines how they will perform their part of front-to-back testing for the defined change from the perspective of their particular system (i.e. “what do we have to do” not “what needs to be done overall”). We will provide a checklist of factors to consider to help to structure the exercise. o We collect the approach from each group in typical SPA “flipchart at the front” style – there will probably (hopefully) be significant incompatibilities and gaps between them because each group will be thinking about their own application rather than the entire problem. • Exercise 1: o Brainstorm the problems with front-to-back testing in an enterprise multi-system environment (stimulated by the role play) o Refine the list of problems into categories and classes • Exercise 2: o Identify practical and tangible mitigation strategies for each type of problem (technique, management approach, avoidance, …). In the interests of time, groups should focus on one or two types of problems from Ex1 rather than trying to cover everything. • Presentations: o Working Groups present their findings to the session | ||
| Detailed timetable: | 00:00 - 00:10 Presentation 1: Introductions and overview - 00:10 - 00:15 Organise into groups, explain the role play - 00:15 – 00:45 Role play - 00:45 – 00:55 Presentation 2: present our analysis of the problems and explain the exercises - 00:55 – 01:15 Exercise 1 (Identify the Problems) - 01:15 – 01:30 Break - 01:30 – 02:15 Exercise 2 (Identify the Solutions) - 02:15 – 02:30 Presentations | ||
| Outputs: | A wiki page summarising the presentations from each group with their summaries of the problems and the solutions. Social media postings. | ||
| History: | New session for SPA2014 | ||
| Presenters | |||
| 1. Eoin Woods UBS |
2. Andy Longshaw Advanced Legal |
3. Chris Cooper-Bland Endava (UK) Ltd |
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