The installation was for an upgrade to an existing personnel system within a large UK organisation.
The software development of the personnel system had recently been out-sourced to a third party supplier. The unit and systems testing had also been out-sourced to the same third party supplier.
Prior to the upgrade, individual stand alone personnel systems existed at each of the 120 sites across the country and at the organisations headquarters in London.
The upgrade involved the conversion of the existing databases to provide site identification details. It also involved the creation of a new corporate database that would contain all personnel details across the organisation. This corporate database would be maintained at the organisation headquarters in London and would be updated via an overnight batch run.
The conversion of the personnel databases to their new format would be conducted out as part of the installation process itself with instructions for this process detailed in the installation manual.
There were three different types of site:
- Headquarters site
- Non-headquarters - 120 of these sites
- A new corporate database site - to be created
The personnel system consisted of a number of ‘bolt-on modules’, which may or may not be loaded at a particular site dependant on the type of site. For example, both the corporate database and headquarters site produced a variety of different reports and statistics for senior management, which were not required at the non-headquarters sites.
As the personnel system contained sensitive personal information such as pay roll and disciplinary offences details, different levels of security existed at different sites.
The confidence test stage was to take place on delivery of the new personnel system. This test stage would be performed prior to the start of the user acceptance testing. Once the personnel system had been seen to pass the confidence test stage, it would then be accepted from the third party suppliers for the purposes of conducting the user acceptance test.
The installation test would be conducted as the first part of the confidence test stage.
The overall installation testing objective is to measure the successful installation of the new personnel system on the three different types of site. To complete the cycle an additional test will be conducted to ensure that the test corporate database can be populated with personnel details from the other two test sites via the overnight batch run.
General prerequisites, including test environment
Three test environments would be required, one for the test headquarters site, one for a test non-headquarters site and one for the test corporate database site.
Mostly live data would be used during the confidence test. To ensure the confidentially of the sensitive personnel details, this data would be scrambled making the individuals details unrecognisable.
The capability for performing both pre and post-installation audit checks on all test environments must be available.
Identify high-level acceptance criteria
Acceptance of the application from the third party supplier for the purpose of conducting the user acceptance test, would be dependent on all the following tests being completed successfully:
AC201 - The test headquarters site personnel database can be successfully converted to the new format
AC202 - The test non-headquarters site personnel database can be successfully converted to the new format
AC203 - The existing test headquarters site personnel system can be successfully upgraded to the new version by following the instructions in the installation manual
AC204 - The existing test non-headquarters site personnel system can be successfully upgraded to the new version by following the instructions in the installation manual
AC205 - A copy of the personnel system can be successfully installed on the new test corporate database site by following the instructions in the installation manual
AC206 - The test corporate database site personnel database can be successfully populated with the personnel details from both the headquarters and non-headquarters sites via the overnight batch update
The installation tester would be a typical non-technical user who would normally be expected to conduct the actual installations.
This test case has two objectives:
· To measure that the test headquarters site personnel database can be successfully converted to the new format.
· To measure that by following the instructions in the installation manual, the existing test headquarters site personnel system can be successfully upgraded to the new version.
The scope of this test case is the test headquarters site personnel system conversion and upgrade.
AC201 - The test headquarters site personnel database can be successfully converted to the new format
AC203 - The existing test headquarters site personnel system can be successfully upgraded to the new version by following the instructions in the installation manual
The installation manual must have been successfully reviewed.
Test headquarters site environment preparation must be complete.
The upgraded personnel system on the test headquarters site has the correct site location displayed. (AC201)
The test headquarters site environment has the correct personnel system modules installed and that they can be accessed using correct user profiles. (AC203)
This test case has two objectives:
· To measure that the test non-headquarters site personnel database can be successfully converted to the new format.
· To measure that by following the instructions in the installation manual, the existing test non-headquarters site personnel system can be successfully upgraded to the new version.
The scope of this test case is the test non-headquarters site personnel system conversion and upgrade.
AC202 - The test non-headquarters site personnel database can be successfully converted to the new format
AC204 - The existing test non-headquarters site personnel system can be successfully upgraded to the new version by following the instructions in the installation manual
The installation manual must have been successfully reviewed.
Test non-headquarters headquarters site environment preparation complete.
1. Perform upgrade of existing non-headquarters site personnel system following instructions in installation manual.
2. Check the non-headquarters database has been converted correctly - i.e. does the new non-headquarters personnel system have the correct site location displayed on the main menu.
3. Check the non-headquarters site test environment has the correct modules installed and that they can be accessed using correct user profiles.
The upgraded personnel system on the test non-headquarters site has the correct site location displayed. (AC202)
The test non-headquarters site environment has the correct personnel system modules installed and that they can be accessed using correct user profiles. (AC204)
The test case has two objectives:
 | To measure that by following the instructions in the installation manual, the personnel system can be successfully installed on the test corporate database site. |
| To measure that the test corporate database site personnel database can be successfully populated with the personnel details from both the headquarters and non-headquarters sites via the overnight batch update |
The scope of this test case is initially the installation of the personnel system on the test corporate database site. This is followed by the running of the overnight batch update and subsequent population of the test corporate database site personnel database with the personnel details from both the headquarters and non-headquarters sites.
AC205 - The personnel system can be successfully installed on the test corporate database site by following the instructions in the installation manual
AC206 - The corporate database site personnel database can be successfully populated with the personnel details from both the headquarters and non-headquarters sites via the overnight batch update
The installation manual must have been successfully reviewed.
Test corporate database site environment preparation complete with no personnel system present.
Prior to the overnight batch run test cases TC201 and TC202 must have been completed successfully.
The test corporate database site environment has the correct site location displayed. The correct personnel system modules have been installed and they can be accessed using correct user profiles. (AC205)
Selected personnel details from test headquarters and test non-headquarters sites can be viewed on corporate database. (AC206)
Three test environments would be required, one for the headquarters site, one for a non-headquarters site and one for the corporate database site.
Headquarters environment
The test headquarters environment would be as close to the live headquarters environment as possible. To achieve this the following steps would be taken:
· Install existing version of personnel system on to the test headquarters environment.
· Copy live headquarters site database to this test environment.
· Scramble data on test environment to ensure confidentially of sensitive personnel details.
· Update test headquarters site database with additional test scenario data to be used during user acceptance testing.
Non-headquarters site environment
The test non-headquarters environment would be as close to a typical live non-headquarters environment as possible. To achieve this the following steps would be taken:
· Install existing version of personnel system on to the test non-headquarters environment.
· Copy one of the live non-headquarters site databases to this test environment.
· Scramble data on test environment to ensure confidentially of sensitive personnel details.
· Update test headquarters site database with additional test scenario data to be used during user acceptance testing.
Corporate database site environment
The test corporate database environment would be as close as possible to what will be the live environment. No personnel system would be present on this environment at the start of the confidence test stage.
A pre-installation audit check will be conducted on all test environments to establish a base list to be checked against after the post-installation audit check has been performed.
The installation tester performs the installation manual review.
The above test cases will be executed and the actual results matched against the expected results.
A post-installation audit check will be conducted on all test environments. This will be matched to the results of the pre-installation audit check to ensure that all software and files present are as expected.
The success of the installation testing in this scenario will be measured in terms of the following:
· Were the acceptance criteria defined earlier measured satisfactorily?
· Were the results of the pre and post-installation audit check satisfactorily?
· After installation is the personnel system in all three environments resident and run-able?