General Responsibilities

The first part of planning any testing program during implementation of a system, whether in-house written or purchased, should be the assignment of responsibilities. There are several areas that should be assigned before testing begins. Some of what follows is part of any normal project plan, but is repeated here for completeness.

Project/Testing Leadership

Normally, responsibility for leading a project rests with the user area for whom the project/testing is being done. Each major application system should have a primary department. This is normally the department(s) that will use the system the most, or the one who is responsible for the data. For successful project development and testing, the primary department should designate one or more individuals who will spend sufficient time over the life of the testing to insure successful testing and implementation.

Communication

This is a rather broad area. But appropriate persons need to be assigned to make sure everyone doing testing is kept suitably informed of how testing is proceeding.

Testing Leader

A person from the user area needs to be assigned to lead the testing effort. This person is responsible for coordinating all phases of the testing project, and should have sufficient authority to assure the testing proceeds smoothly towards inmplementation.

Meetings

The Testing Leader should schedule meetings on a regular basis at a pre-defined time and place. Every meeting should have an agenda, which should be sent, preferably through email, at least one day before the meeting. It is strongly recommended that the agenda be fairly standardized, and should include

testing problems encountered
results of the assigned testing since the previous meeting
testing to be done before the next meeting

Persons assigned to the testing committee should be informed about the meeting, even if regularly scheduled, and least 48 hours prior to the meeting. Meetings should also be scheduled using standard email scheduling techniques by the meeting administrator.

Testing Notes

All notes related to testing should be in electronic form. The Testing Leader should make suitable arrangements for a common electronic area accessible to all on the testing committee where all notes related to testing should be stored.

Meeting Notes

The Testing Leader should appoint a person responsible for taking notes at meetings. These notes should be placed in the area where testing notes are stored within 24 hours of the meeting.

Testing Coordinator

A person needs to be designated by the Testing Leader as a central point for coordination of testing. Problems should be reported here, and any difficulties (e.g., system being shut down) should be reported to this person. Information that needs to be passed along should be done automatically.

Output Distribution

Normal testing produces a lot of output. The testing committee should determine the appropriate method for distribution of output. The Testing Leader should appoint a person to make sure test output gets appropriately distributed.

Output Responsibility

During testing, it is extremely important that test output be reviewed in a timely fashion. Errors not reported for several days can generally not be tracked. If more than one department is involved in the testing, responsibility for reviewing various test reports should be assigned by the Testing Leader.

OIT Applications Support

Last Modified: Tuesday, 06-Feb-2001 13:36:30 CST