6. Testing

Once the system has been developed it must be tested to ensure that it is working as expected.

Testing Team

A team of testers will have been chosen to test the system. They are known as beta testers. Their role is to check that the system does everything exactly as specified in the system and user specification.

Although this team will check if the system is user friendly that is not their main role. A separate team is usually appointed made up of front end users to 'user test' the system once it has been passed by the beta testers.

Test Plan

In an ideal world a test plan will have been written during the design stage. However, sometimes the test plan gets left until now.

The test plan is a detailed document which a team of testers must follow carefully. It will set out every single test they are to do on the system, what data they should enter and what result they should expect to obtain.

For example, one test might look something like this:

The first five columns are already completed in the test plan. The final two columns are left blank for the testers to complete when they do the test on the system.

The testers follow the plan exactly. They enter the data just as it is shown in the plan and then they record what happened and whether the test passed or failed.

If the test was passed they go onto the next test. If it failed they fill in a form to tell the developers that they need to look at that part of the system again.

The testers normally take screen shots of every test to provide evidence of what they have done. These can be referred to by the developers if they cannot replicate the problem. They can also be used by an audit team at the end of the project to check that the testing was done properly.

This stage may seem a bit pedantic to you - after all why couldn't the developer have run this test when they were coding the software and then fix it instantly? - Answer: Human Nature!

It is a very bad idea to have the person who codes the software to test it! This is because they know too much and so will tend to make assumptions about how real users will use their software.

The best testers are those who know nothing about the system and will do things to the system the developer never imagined! Just like real users!