The Go Live decision
There has to be some form of acceptance criteria against which the final decision to go-live should be made. These criteria will comprise functional capability investigated in the UAT phase together with key performance indicators.
The criteria for testing the functional capability of the system comprise the validation, processing and output checks described above under System/Functionality Testing and repeated on a larger scale for the UAT phase. These checks will prove that the software functionality supports the business processes and that data integrity is maintained between the various software modules or elements of the system.
In addition to the software functioning correctly, users are dependent on the availability of all other aspects of the system. These include:
- the software as a whole
- the different software modules
- links to networking facilities
- the central server
- desktop services
- the support environment (e.g. helpdesk)
- system documentation (e.g. on-line help screens, training manuals, system set-up information, details of customisations, business process manuals)
Users will become disgruntled if any of the above are unavailable on a regular basis. Therefore, key performance indicators should be prepared, agreed and published as service standards to present a simple and recognisable set of tests against which the system can be checked during implementations and upgrades, and also at regular intervals during the normal operation and running of the system.
These service standards should comprise:
- simple response and processing times (i.e. those guiding response times and performance conditions used for Volume and Performance Testing)
- normal transaction rates and similar load factors (e.g. daily throughput of different types of transactions from a typical number of users)
- standard times for system and component availability for all and different groups of users (N.B. these should not only be set for the benefit of users, but should also recognise the maintenance, security and housekeeping duties required to be carried out by IT Services and other technical service departments)
These will indicate that the system is running normally and providing an acceptable level of service. These checks should be made on a regular basis and reported to the user community so as to provide a benchmark. If the number and nature of the indicators used are few and simple, they can be assessed at a glance and compared easily with previously reported statistics and trends become instantly recognisable.
