Year 2000 Validation
Organization Year 2000 Program Phase or Activity Questions:
Awareness Assessment
Renovation Validation
Implementation Program
Management
Organizations Year 2000 Program Phase or Activity -- Processes:
4.0 Validation
We expect that agencies may need over a year to adequately validate and
test converted or replaced
mission-critical systems for Year 2000 compliance, and that the testing
and validation process may
consume over half of the Year 2000 program resources and budget. The
length of the validation
and test phase and its cost are driven by the complexity inherent in
the Year 2000 problem.
Agencies must not only test Year 2000 compliance of individual applications,
but also the complex
interactions between scores of converted or replaced computer platforms,
operating systems,
utilities, applications, databases, and interfaces. Moreover, in some
instances, agencies may not be
able to shut down their production systems for testing, and may thus
have to operate parallel
systems implemented on a Year 2000 test facility.
All converted or replaced system components must be thoroughly validated
and tested to
(1) uncover errors introduced during the renovation phase,
(2) validate Year 2000 compliance, and
(3) verify operational readiness.
The testing should account for application, database
interdependencies, and interfaces. The testing should take place in
a realistic test environment. A
Year 2000 test facility may be required to ensure adequate testing
of licensed software and
converted applications while preventing the contamination or the corruption
of operational
information systems and related databases. Agencies should assess their
testing procedures and
tools to ensure that all converted system components meet quality standards
and are Year 2000
compliant.
Key Processes
4.1. Develop and document test and compliance plans and schedules
4.2. Develop strategy for managing the testing of contractor-converted
systems
4.3. Implement Year 2000 test facility
4.4. Implement automated test tools and test scripts
4.5. Perform unit, integration, and system testing
4.6. Define, collect, and use test metrics to manage the testing
and validation process
4.7. Initiate acceptance testing
4.1. For each converted or replaced application or system component, develop
and document test and compliance plans and schedules
Establish a compliance validation process. Most suppliers of COTS software
do not
disclose their source code or the internal logic of their products;
therefore, testing should
be complemented by a careful review of warranties and/or guarantees.
4.2. Develop a strategy for managing the testing of contractor-converted
systems
In many instances, the organization will contract for the conversion of
selected systems and their
components. The contract conversion must be closely managed to ensure
that the
contractor follows the organization’s Year 2000 conversion standards.
In addition, the organization
must ensure that the contractor-converted systems are adequately tested.
4.3. Implement Year 2000 test facility
Testing the converted or replaced systems and their components for Year
2000 compliance
will likely require an isolated test facility capable of simulating
Year 2000 requirements.
The test facility should provide sufficient disk storage for large
test databases and multiple
versions of the application software.
4.4. Implement automated test tools and test scripts
The use of computer-aided software testing tools and test scripts has the
potential to
significantly reduce the testing and validation burden. Test management
tools may help in
the preparation and management of test data, in the automation of the
comparison of test
results, in scheduling and incident tracking, and in managing test
documentation.
4.5. Perform unit, integration, and system testing
Using a phased approach, perform unit, integration, and system testing.
Use selected
testing techniques to ensure that the converted or replaced systems
and accompanying
components are functionally correct and Year 2000 compliant. The testing
should include
regression, performance, stress, and forward and backward time testing.
4.6. Define, collect, and use test metrics to manage the testing and validation
process
4.7. Initiate acceptance testing
Acceptance testing is the final stage of the multiphase testing and validation
process.
During this phase, the entire information system--including data interfaces--is
tested with
operational data. In general, acceptance testing should be done on
the Year 2000 test
facility with duplicate databases to avoid risk to the production systems
and the potential
contamination of data.
The Disaster Center Year 2000
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