the beginning of staggered and overlapping testing. Online system testing may
overlap batch unit testing.
32.5.7 System Testing
In system testing the goal is to go through the online applications and verify that
the outputs from each operating system are similar. In the systems test phase
each application is tested in more detail and each application′s output is verified
as being close to the production system.
Online
Online application tests continue with full-size application functional testing
involving a joint effort of the conversion team, applications support staff and a
few selected end users willing to cooperate. User exceptions are filtered and
corrected by applications support. Test exceptions created by improper
conversion are identified and passed over to the conversion team for resolution.
Temporary manual by-pass corrections are applied to the OS/390 application, in
order to quickly resume testing. But each conversion error is also fully analyzed
(qualitative and quantitative analysis), and a permanent and global (all
occurrences) solution is developed by refining the custom modification of the
conversion tools, or by developing additional conversion tools. Additional mass
or partial conversions generate new and correct OS/390 application material. Per
design, the test of online transactions often requires the execution of batch jobs.
Both batch and online tests are integrated at this point.
Batch
The objective of this task in batch is to execute the converted jobs in MVS to
verify that they function as they did in VSE, and to correct software conversion
errors or file migration errors that generate test exceptions.
Full size copies of the VSE production files are migrated to MVS, and in the
process, the file migration procedure to be used later on at switchover, is tested.
In system testing you are testing the code more as an application. This is where
JOB A feeds JOB B which feeds JOB C and so on. It may be general ledger or
accounts payable. At this time a key task is ensuring that all the input and output
are correct.
Batch application tests continue with full-size application functional testing
involving a joint effort of the conversion team, production control and
applications support staff. User exceptions are filtered and corrected by the
production control or applications support. Test exceptions created by improper
conversion are identified and passed over to the conversion team for resolution.
Temporary manual by-pass corrections are applied to the OS/390 application, in
order to quickly resume testing. But each conversion error is also fully analyzed
(qualitative and quantitative analysis), and a permanent and global (all
occurrences) solution is developed by refining the custom modification of the
conversion tools, or by developing additional conversion tools. Additional mass
or partial conversions generate new and correct OS/390 application material. Per
design, the test of batch applications often requires the execution of online
transactions. Both batch and online tests are integrated at this point.
One problem that can surface in this phase of testing is with data set definitions
and the use of temporary data sets. A problem can surface when the data from
Chapter 32. Conversion Process 513
