How is Grand Avenue Software tested before it is released to customers?
Grand Avenue Software Overview
Validation Package
Grand Avenue performs comprehensive testing to ensure that their software works as designed and meets customer requirements. Evidence of this testing is provided in a release-specific validation package that is available to all customers at no additional charge from the Grand Avenue customer support website (http://www.grandavenue.com/site/Support.html). The purpose of the validation package is to give customers the information needed to make risk-based decisions about the type and amount of software validation they should perform on new Grand Avenue installations and upgrades.
Test Environment
When planning a Grand Avenue Software validation, it’s important to know that the software tested internally prior to release is identical to the released software installed in customer environments.
Customization (the process of adding to, modifying, or removing code) to change the behavior of an application can invalidate functional testing performed by a software vendor, which means customers with the modified software must repeat functional testing as part of their validation. Grand Avenue Software can be configured to align with customers' business processes, but it cannot be altered through customization, so the functional testing performed by Grand Avenue prior to product release applies equally to the software installed in customer environments.
Rather than repeating the testing performed by Grand Avenue, customers are encouraged to leverage the test data in the validation package as evidence of completed functional testing and focus their resources on performing User Acceptance Testing (UAT) to validate that the software, as configured, is suitable for use in their quality system.
Test Strategy
The validation package contains evidence of multiple types of tests performed on Grand Avenue Software before the product is released to customers.
Automated unit tests
Automated acceptance tests
Manual tests
Thousands of automated unit tests and acceptance tests are executed daily throughout the software development life cycle. These tests verify that the software’s Quality Management System (QMS) features (e.g., creating, editing, activating/deactivating, updating, deleting, viewing, and importing/exporting process items) and administrative functions (e.g., managing departments, users, and access permissions) work as expected. Automated unit tests and acceptance test are executed in several installed environments covering different combinations of supported server platforms (Microsoft Windows and SQL Server versions).
The Graphical User Interface (GUI) is tested manually near the end of the software development life cycle. These tests confirm that users can interact with Grand Avenue Software through the visual components displayed in their web browsers such as calendars, popup windows, buttons, links, tables, and dropdown lists. This testing is executed from a pre-defined test checklist on various combinations of supported client platforms (operating system versions and web browsers).
The following sections describe in more detail the purpose of each type of testing performed by Grand Avenue Software and give examples of how the information in the validation package can be used as evidence of that testing.
Automated Unit Tests
Unit tests are the lowest level of tests written and executed when developing Grand Avenue Software. In software development terms, unit testing isolates the smallest piece of testable software from the remainder of the the product code and verifies that it behaves as expected. In quality system terminology, unit tests provide evidence that the design and development outputs for each feature meet the design and development input requirements.
Grand Avenue executes the complete set of thousands of unit tests daily as part of its automated test process. The validation package includes the name of every unit test and evidence that all executed successfully on the software released to customers.
Unit test results are in the file GAS XX.X Unit Test Results.xml, where XX.X is the Grand Avenue version (e.g. 14.7).
The "skipped" tests are all diagnostic test code used during development to investigate specific behaviors (such as performance). These investigative tests may be left in the code as documentation of how something works, or as a useful tool when investigating a problem, but they are marked with an "Explicit" flag to indicate that they are not part of the normal test suite that is run with each nightly build and with the final set of release tests. All tests of that type that were listed as "skipped" were marked with that flag.
Unit test results are in the file GAS XX.X Unit Test Results.xlsx, where XX.X is the Grand Avenue version (e.g. 15.0)
The "skipped" tests are all diagnostic test code used during development to investigate specific behaviors (such as performance). These investigative tests may be left in the code as documentation of how something works, or as a useful tool when investigating a problem, but they are marked with an "Explicit" flag to indicate that they are not part of the normal test suite that is run with each nightly build and with the final set of release tests. All tests of that type that were listed as "skipped" were marked with that flag.
Automated Acceptance Tests
Acceptance tests are the next level of tests developed and executed when developing Grand Avenue Software. Development of every Grand Avenue feature begins with user requirements, which are then translated into acceptance criteria. Acceptance criteria are then coded into acceptance tests. In quality system terminology, acceptance tests confirm that software software specifications conform to user needs and intended uses, and that the requirements implemented through software can be consistently fulfilled.
Grand Avenue executes the complete set of hundreds of acceptance tests daily as part of its automated test process. The validation package includes the acceptance criteria, the name of the corresponding acceptance test, and evidence that all tests executed successfully on the software released to customers.
Manual Tests
There are some remaining aspects of the software that Grand Avenue’s automated test tools cannot directly assess, requiring some additional manual testing by Grand Avenue personnel prior to release. The results of this manual testing are in the file GAS XX.X Manual Validation Checklists.pdf, where XX.X is the Grand Avenue version (e.g. 15.0). Each page shows the name and version of the web browser used used, the version of the operating system used, and evidence of successful completion of user interface testing on that platform.
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