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What is testing?

Structured testing of information systems

Nowadays, it's impossible to imagine day-to-day life without information systems. Another aspect is that people experience damage in their everyday lives more and more often because of defects in the software of information systems.      

  • It is becoming more and more challenging to design, build and test information systems that perform well. 
  • The number of information systems continues to increase.
  • Almost all information systems are part of larger chains of information systems.
  • The expectations of users of systems continue to increase.
  • The number of legal rules and regulations with which the systems must comply continues to increase.
  • The number of development methods continues to increase and they tend to become faster and faster, causing software to become more and more sensitive to defects. 
  • The period within which the systems must be built is becoming shorter.
  • Building processes are outsourced more and more frequently.
  • Testing must be performed against increasingly lower costs.

Due to a combination of these factors, the prevention of defects and problems in production has become more and more important, and definitely more difficult as well. Testing is the process intended to provide knowledge of the quality of information systems and to reduce the risk of defects during production.    

Polteq is specialized in the structured testing of information systems and is very experienced in this increasingly complex field of tension. Polteq’s test specialists see to it that the software is not released until risks of problems with the information system are exposed and reduced sufficiently.  

What is structured testing?

Many books and methodologies for structured testing are available. Frequently used methodologies include TMap® (Test Management Approach) and ISTQB. The main aspects for testing are:  

  • a test process linked up with the development cycle and existing of a series of test activities; 
  • a sound and organization-oriented embedding of testing;
  • the proper tools and infrastructure; 
  • usable techniques for the test activities.

Test process

For permanent control over the test process, a structured model is required. This model is the guiding theme throughout the test process. By noting down what must happen when, how, where, with what, by whom, etc., along the lines of the test process, a structure will emerge in which aspects including organization (organizational model), techniques and infrastructure occupy an important position. Each test model will have to contain the following aspects:  

  • planning and control – determining what should happen in which order and how to keep in control; 
  • preparation and analysis – working out what should be tested and against what requirements and wishes; 
  • specification – describing the tests to be executed and any test data; 
  • execution – executing the tests (manually or automated) to the information system and reporting the results; 
  • completion – drawing up the final report containing the final release advice, and filing all test documentation.
  • infrastructure – determining all activities that must take place on an appropriate infrastructure, which must be prepared and controlled during the test activities.

Organization

The tester is a “spider in the web”, a central person maintaining relations with different parties concerned (users, suppliers of the information system, management teams, developers, etc.) in order to be able to give good advice on the quality of the information system. Since a test process is performed and guided by human beings, it needs forms of organization. On the one hand there is the organization within the test team, where each must be assigned his own tasks and responsibilities; on the other hand there is the test team’s embedding in the project organization. A sound organization is a precondition for the test process to proceed orderly.    

Infrastructure

For the execution of tests, a “test environment” is required. This environment needs to be stable, controllable and representative. For development testing, the development system is sufficient. For functional tests, the environment must be independent of other environments (e.g., the development environment). For acceptance purposes, it is advised to work in an environment that has been copied from, or resembles the production environment. It is only under these conditions that reproducible tests can be executed. In order to be able to execute the tests efficiently as well, test tools are required (e.g., test execution tools or tools for progress and results reports).   

Techniques

The word “test” has been derived from the Latin word for an earthen pot (testum), used to determine the purity of metals.


Testing can be supported by many techniques. There are techniques supporting the planning process, techniques for intake and reporting techniques. A major set of techniques consists of the so-called test design techniques. The application of these techniques enables variation in depth and coverage of the tests. Furthermore, with a test design technique specific quality characteristics of an information system can be measured, such as functionality, but also characteristics including user-friendliness, performance and security.