Test Plans

After design phase, the next step is to test the system components viz. database, network, program and interfaces before going into implementation phase. Being an important milestone this is to be carefully planned and ensure that each and every component of the system is workable and productive.

 Database Test Plan: Database, for this stand-alone store, was developed on MS Access as a backend and VisualBasic as front end. There are three main things that were considered for testing the database ; addition of data, modification of data and deletion of data. And also the relationship between tables was considered while designing.

In this store an accountant, cashier, salesman and technician enter data. Accountant is responsible for the incoming goods and also ordering goods from the different suppliers. Cashier is on the checkout terminal whereas technician checks damaged/returned products whether it can be repaired for reselling or cannot be repaired and should be returned to the supplier. Salesman can look for the availability of products, their location and any possible product query of the customer.

 The database was populated to check the validation rules of individual table as well as integrity between the tables. There are several validation rules on different tables such as for sales date can’t be a future date, a purchased product can be returned within ten days and if it is more than ten days then the system will display an error message. Some return actions also there in the database like at cashier’s counter if customer doesn’t want any product after checkout that action can be taken back and inventory is updated.

Similarly the integrity of the tables are tested; when salesman enters only the brand name, category and subcategory then the result of the query is the list of available products in store for that particular category, subcategory and brand. This data is pulled out of different tables.

Network: Since no e-commerce will be implemented at this phase all networking will be done through LAN. The Windows NT server will have the central inventory database which will be accessed by all clients via their own terminal and client software developed in this project.  This test plan needs a small private network and still our university does not provide such facility, we were unable to perform networking test.

Conversion Plan: As it is single store and a startup company so there is no existing database and therefore no need of any conversion plan. It’s a completely new database developed according to business requirements of the stakeholders. 

Interfaces: The interfaces were tested on the functions performed by the employees of the store. The activities performed by the staff results in addition of data, modification or deletion of data. For example when customer buys any product the inventory database should be updated or if a customer returns a product then also the inventory database should be modified. Likewise accountant is a key person responsible for updating the inventory database on the arrival of new goods from the supplier and he has rights to view the whole database and modify it. 

Control and Security: Security means security of data, security of system, system should meet the requirements of the users, easy to use. Controls can mini­mize errors in the intranet work activities of an organization and thus provides quality assurance for Information Systems. Without any internet component and no customer part in database, security of data might not be a big issue for this project. 

Access control. -Who all can modify the database, who all can only view the data –for getting the information. These rights are given according to the tasks performed by the different employees. This mechanism will keep the unauthorized users from being got access to the data. Every staff (user) has different view of data. For e.g. a salesman can only query for available products on the basis of category, subcategory and brand. Technician is only concerned with damage processing. So he will not have access to add new items or new products. Cashier will be concerned to return products and new products checkout only.

Data Validation Control- To check the validation of input data different validation rules are used for different tables. Each input and each field, while accepting data, is being checked and verified by logic control. At the same time, fields on the database side are also controlled with data validation rules applicable in MS ACCESS. For example PURCHASE DATE can’t be a future date or EXPIRATION DATE for the credit card should be a future date. For Credit Card Transaction, Credit card information is checked before checkout . 

User Acceptance Plan:- This database is developed for a startup company therefore there are no immediate users. So, this plan is extended one. This plan includes verification and validation testing of data and also to test the database by adding the records or making a query and generating reports according to data. During this testing several other issues like response time during peak hours or is system is easy for the users also need to be tested, which would lead to make decision on total acceptance the project.
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