Testing for Year 2000 Compliance

by William E. Shackelford

Chicago, August 21-22, 1997

What’s Happening

Even if you have started a Year 2000 project, it is highly unlikely that you will be able to get it all done. The Test Plan needs to start with "What will stop the business?" If you can’t fix everything, why fix something you don’t need anymore? Just like moving, this is a good time to dispose of anything you really are not or should not be using, especially if you really are not sure who wrote it or whether the operating system will be compliant.

Who is going to test the other important systems in the company? For example, who’s responsible for the internal power generators, the elevators, the heat and the phone systems? What if those don’t work? On a more practical matter, what if a core systems software doesn’t really work even though the vendor promised it would? Should you test it? Should everyone test it? Can you afford to bet the farm that it will work? This seminar will force you to answer these questions.

Most consulting firms secretly admit that it’s too late, if you haven’t started installing packaged software by now you will never make it. Projects buying SAP and Oracle Apps should be well under way. The flip side is how trusting can you be? Most feel that it is the external code, not the internal code that will blind-side them. A lot of code bought today was written in the 80s, and reused from modules written in the 70s. Hardware is generally not considered compliant unless it was released after 2Q/96. Remember that Windows 95 conversion? Get ready to do it again. Planning and managing configuration changes is a big part of creating a testing strategy.

About This Seminar

It is estimated that 60% of the time and dollars spent on Year 2000 projects will be spent on testing. Testing offers the biggest return to a company if it is done well. By carefully creating a strategic Test Plan including testing activities, scripts and involving the business clients, companies can improve the odds significantly that they will be compliant by 1/1/00. Testing left as a second thought will rob companies of their only chance to succeed in the overwhelming task of bringing everything to compliance. Managing the projects is critical, software tools can help, but the real jump in productivity comes from strategic testing.

This seminar will answer the following:

• What is compliance?
• What are the roles of Year 2000 compliance testing?
• How do you build a Year 2000 test plan?
• How do you test internal software?
• How do you test external purchased software?
• How do you coordinate the testing of the integration of entire systems?
• Whose job is it?

What Makes This Seminar Unique

This seminar will guide you through case studies that let you practice the techniques before you apply them to your company’s real needs. Participants will build Test Plans, Test Scripts, Test Cases and Test Data to use to perform module, system, integration, interface and user acceptance test. It’s starting to look like you will not have time to find all the right software and all the right people, so it will be imperative that you be able to quickly and efficiently implement a test plan.

Benefits Of This Seminar

• Learn how to avoid common testing gaps that would doom your Year 2000 project
• Gain the ability to choose testing strategies that are minimal, making the most of your investment
• Discover how to create and use a Test Plan, so that your most critical business applications are tested for compliancy first
• Learn to choose software testing tools that will help you make the most of your limited time
• Work with the business areas to create Test Scripts that ensure your business needs are still being met adequately
• Gain the ability to create and use a strategy for testing external software vendors to ensure that you are not blindsided by outside non-compliance

Benefits to Your Company

• Save money on wasted testing and emergency fixes by learning how to develop a strategic Test Plan for your Year 2000 project
• Avoid litigation by stockholders and customers by ensuring that testing has been done correctly
• Save thousands of dollars by catching compliance problems in testing vs. Production
• Ensure that quality conversion occurs by correctly staffing testing activities

Who Should Attend

• IS developers responsible for Year 2000 compliance testing
• IS managers responsible for Year 2000 testing projects
• Test Plan Developers
• Testing Managers
• Capacity Planners

Attendees Will Learn How To:

• Make the most of your Year 2000 dollars through the use of carefully integrating testing compliance techniques
• Plan, organize and control the compliance testing activities of Year 2000 by building a Test Plan
• Manage limited testing resources for maximum results
• Coordinate the testing of multi-tiered architecture
• Create a strategy for validating external vendor compliance
• Determine the roles and skill sets needed for successful Year 2000 testing
• Create the testing documentation necessary to protect against litigation
• Create a test plan for repeatable Year 2000 testing

Seminar Outline

1. Overview of the Year 2000 Cycle

a. Managing risk
b. Risk assessment
c. Testing terminology

i. Test Plan
ii. Test Script
iii. Test Case
iv. Test Data

d. Insuring quality throughout the life cycle

2. Testing roles defined

a. Roles by Functional Area

i. Business Area Roles
ii. Technical Area Roles
iii. Operations Roles
iv. Cross Project Roles

b. Participation in testing by phase

i. Analysis of Year 2000 Testing Needs Impact
ii. Design of Test Script
iii. Development of Test Script, Cases, Data
iv. Execution of Test Script

c. Independent Test Teams for Year 2000
d. Share the Load: User Group Compliance

i. Working with External Vendors on Compliance
ii. Working with Independent User Groups
iii. Working with Other Resources

3. Introduction to Year 2000 Test Planning

a. Testing Scheduling

i. Allocating Time for Testing

b. Project Priorities vs. Testing Constraints
c. Planning requirements

i. Change management
ii. Problem Tracking/Reporting Procedures
iii. Defect analysis and metrics
iv. Configuration management

d. Contents of the Year 2000 Test Plan

i. Introduction
ii. Scope description

a. Requirements of the Year 2000 Work
b. Interface Descriptions
c. Integration Descriptions

iii. Testing strategy

a. Project Size and Complexity
b. Geographical location of software and hardware
c. Reliability and quality objectives
d. Resource Availability
e. Delivery date constraints
f. Time available for testing

iv. Testing activity schedule

a. Who, What, When, How, Why?

v. Environment/Special facilities

e. Review and sign off

4. Testing for Integration

a. Top-down testing
b. Version planning matrix
c. Module testing: white box and black box

i. Path Analysis
ii. Input Value Sensitivity
iii. Equivalence Testing
iv. Boundary Value Analysis
v. Error Guessing

d. Integration test: A Tiered Approach
e. Interface test
f. Cohabitation test: Coordinating External and Internal Compliance
g. Live system test

i. Parallel
ii. Phased Functionality Conversion
iii. Phased Client Conversion
iv. Flash Conversion (Big Bang)

h. Back up/recovery and Disaster Recovery: Does it still work?
i. Types of automated testing tools

i. Program Statement Coverage
ii. Path Analysis Tools
iii. Test Data Generators
iv. File Comparison Tools
v. Test Execution and Debugging
vi. Capture/Playback

5. Other types of testing

a. Regression testing: how much, how often
b. Executing tests on multi-tiered platforms
c. Purchased software testing
d. Litigation and the importance of documenting the testing

6. A Sample Test Plan

7. Final considerations

a. Testing challenges
b. Software tools
c. Bibliography
d. Glossary

About Your Instructor

William Shackelford is a senior learning facilitator for Russell Martin & Associates, a firm specializing in timely technology challenges such as Data Warehouse, Year 2000 and Project Management. He has also been President of Shackelford and Associates since 1982. He has done his undergraduate and graduate studies at Indiana University, Universitat Hamburg, Illinois Institute of Technology and the University of Illinois in music, accounting, business administration and computer science. His extensive background in business systems development involving systems alaysis, design, testing and support experience has brought success to his customers including Amoco, Kemper, R.R. Donnelley, Avon and Dean Witter. Bill has the unique ability to take technical issues such as Year 2000 testing and make them manageable. His lighthearted and knowledgeable delivery of his workshops ensures that each student will leave with real, applicable skills. Bill is also an accomplished musician, music critic and music editor.

Meeting Site and Hotel Information

Chicago
Hyatt on Printers Row
(312) 986-1234

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Managing Year 2000 Projects:
The Key Issues Internal and External

$995

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