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Testing Case Studies
Sun Life of Canada – Data Migration
Programs
Pinnacle Business Solutions provided staff to operate as part of team of 6
testers. The project involved migration of life insurance data from an old
database system into a new one where any mistakes could potentially have
serious financial consequences for the company, customers and insurance
policy beneficiaries. Testing was largely associated with unit tests of C
programs written to migrate data where data element mappings were less
than straightforward and often extremely complex.
Work entailed production of test plans based around the specified unit
functionality, occasionally requiring clarification with the business
analysts; preparation of test data and execution of unit code. Test
reports were compiled, sometimes requiring discussion with the programming
team (that also included Pinnacle staff) to resolve any bugs that may then
lead to re-test.
Cedar Knowledge Solutions (now
Kognitio)
Testing Match and Merge Software. This was to provide a component part of
the companies Data Factory Tool Kit and involved a comprehensive facility
basically allowing duplicate records to be located in various data feed
types and then the merge processing allowing the best fields to be merged
to consolidate matching records to produce a single new record. Numerous
rules could be applied with various data manipulation functions to
ascertain match criteria and merge results. Test plans were produced and
unit tests undertaken; additionally system and performance testing was
undertaken, all with test reports recording results.
Contracted work was extended to undertake some of the technical authoring
needed to prepare system guides and training information. Further contract
extension involved sample data matching and merging together with written
input to a tender submission for the provision of long term services to
create and manage a big data warehouse for Marks & Spencer. The tender was
successful and led to further Pinnacle contracted services to undertake
additional testing of programs used to process data to be fed in batches
into the data warehouse being extended through several development phases
and special projects. In addition to continued development of testing
skills, this project provided valuable experience in working with large
Oracle databases (approaching Terabyte size), data warehousing, post code
and address validation software, and Experion data. It was also satisfying
to appreciate that the end result quality of the originally tested Match &
Merge software contained more extensive capabilities than alternative
tools that would then result in some substantial cost savings for the
client through avoidance of duplicated mail shot deliveries in their
promotional campaigns.
Systems Interface Program Developments
Pinnacle Business Solutions have been undertaking development projects
over a number of years to produce programs that interface financial
database information with other systems. These have involved numerous
end-user clients throughout the UK, predominantly within Local Government,
Police and Universities. The undertaking of Unit testing is an integral
part of the services provided to ensure that developed programs operate
correctly. In some instances, services have extended to end to end testing
and working with the clients to undertake User Acceptance Tests.
In-House MatriX suite testing
The routine, ongoing development of components within the MatriX suite
results in a substantial amount of testing of all types being undertaken
that has involved every member within the company in some form or other.
This helps to develop the ethos of quality assurance and the maintenance
of quality standards and testing at all levels within Pinnacle Business
Solutions.
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