The amount of testing and data validation that needs to be performed after an application update varies based on the volume of changes that are being installed, and the number of different parts of the application that are in use at the site being updated.
If updates are being installed on a regular and recurring basis, the number of changes implemented at each time should be minimal, and the testing can be focused on the most recent changes as documented in the program change notes. The Application is tested by Cove prior to release so minor updates should have very minimal impact on operations.
The program change notes will indicate which StreamV systems or programs have been updated and how the changes should affect operations in the system. The change notes will also list any database changes, 3rd party software, or new system control records that need to be installed with the new version of the application. If existing data or data files need to be updated (initializing a new field, or adding an index for examples), the change notes will indicate if the data is updated automatically, or if it needs to be updated manually.
A Post Update Test plan for a minor update is generally focused on a small number of recent changes and it is isolated to the systems which have been modified. It is generally not necessary to re-test the entire application when only a single or a small number of actual programs have been changed.
A Post Update Test Plan for a major application update should include tests to verify that the data in the system is valid (any data and database updates have been successfully completed), and that you can operate without problems in all areas in the application. A major update would be an update that includes a large volume of changes to multiple systems (examples would be moving from the Stream2 or VDF11 versions of the system to current code). When a major update is installed, you may want to have specific teams check the different areas of the system that they are each most familiar with.
A Sample Test Plan for a major application update might include the following procedures. .
• Validate Report Totals
• Subledger Balances - If any changes have been made to the application that could affect subledger balances, you can compare the pre and post update report totals for each subledger to confirm that the amounts match. This procedure requires you to run reports prior to the update, and it requires you to compare the pre and post update reports prior to processing activitiy on the updated system.
• Financial Statements – A Trial Balance report can be used to verify that the General Ledger totals are the same prior to and after the update.
• Open Orders, Puchase Orders, Shop Orders – Open Sales, PO, Shop Order and other reports can be compared to verify all orders in process. This procedure requires you to run reports prior to the update, and it requires you to compare the pre and post update reports prior to processing activitiy on the updated system.
• Datafile record counts. Standard system utilities such as the File Status report allow you to compare the record counts in each datafile prior to and after any system updates.
• Enter new Master Records, Edit existing records – verify new record defaults are loading properly and that you can edit existing records and save new records.
• Customer
• Contact
• Vendor
• Vendor Contact
• Catalog Record
• Inventory or Warehouse record.
• Special Price
• Cross Reference Record
• Enter and Process Transactions – Enter test transactions, or partially enter transactions (temp journal entries, ap distribution lines), to verify the system is ready for Operations on the new version of the application.
• Enter and Process Sales Order
• Enter and Receive Inventory
• Create AR Invoice
• Create AP Invoice
• Create Journal Entry
• Create Incident
• Create Action
• Enter and Process RA
• Enter and Process Shop Order
• Create and Clear Sales Order Hold
• Check Credit Card Approval
• View and Edit Comment
• View, Create Image
• View and Print Documents – verify order confirmations, quotes, pro forma invoices, packing lists, accounting invoices, statements, picklists, pull tickets, etc are outputting properly to display or to print devices.
• Verify email output – confirm that you can generate and send emails with or without documents attached to them.
• Check SQL Query and other reports – verify sortfile and other reports are running properly and that all output options are available.