Southern Water

TestIT was engaged by Southern Water on a complex GIS (Geographical Information System) software assurance project. This is a business-critical application, which provides a company-wide mobilisation, planning and maintenance solution.

The project was a follow-on to an earlier telemetry management system assurance project. It was a bespoke software development by a third party and the application was developed to manage the entire live telemetry system. This was a new

application which covered the creation and maintenance of standards, configuration of telemetry systems and the definition of site units. The system also incorporated a sophisticated database, which made live information available to

all the field technicians. The application linked together with several other systems, to ensure that the whole business process was covered.

TestIT's responsibility was to verify that the product was fit for purpose before it was accepted from the vendor.

From the start of the project, it was clear that this was going to be a complex and difficult challenge. TestIT's approach was to break down the whole into a series of smaller manageable projects, culminating in a suite of concurrent and sequential tasks. Several of the identified tests include data input and data management tests, which were relatively straight-forward, but which demonstrated that key parts of the product were working as expected. Other tests, however, were far more complex end-to-end user scenarios. These tests were able to demonstrate that actual system users had accessibility with full expected functionality from the system. The live system had to communicate with existing systems and, therefore, the tests had to be carried out on live data and on parts of the live telemetry system. Obviously, great care needed to be taken under these circumstances. Many problems were encountered and reported during testing, some relating to missing data or even perhaps older systems not behaving as expected, subsequently returning incompatibility issues.

Many functional areas were deemed to be safety-critical and it was imperative that TestIT's Software Assurance methods ensured that the systems were fit for purpose.

TestIT identified several significant issues, which may not have otherwise been found until later, saving significant time and a considerable amount of money. Later re-tests (regression testing) by TestIT then ensured the issues were fixed and with no impact on other areas of functionality - before final acceptance of the product from the vendor.