[dba-VB] [AccessD] OT: Functional Testing: CTEclassification-tree editor

...I thought that's how everyone does it :)

William
"The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride 
it, but in the end; there it is."

--------------------------------------------------
From: "jwcolby" <jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2008 12:19 PM
To: "Access Developers discussion and problem solving" 
<accessd at databaseadvisors.com>; "VBA" <dba-vb at databaseadvisors.com>; 
"Discussion of Hardware and Software issues" <dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com>
Subject: Re: [dba-VB] [AccessD] OT: Functional Testing: 
CTEclassification-tree editor

> I had a very interesting conversation with my tax guy this
> morning.  He had previously worked at Lowes Hardware in
> their accounting department.
>
> The upshot of the conversation was that Lowes has to
> interface to a huge number of legacy systems, systems from
> suppliers, banks, systems from companies they purchased 10
> years ago and inherited etc.  His comment of interest is
> that in many cases they did not do testing.  Or more
> correctly they threw data at the live system and looked at
> what happened, and then used a feedback loop to work around
> to what the system at the other end would accept.
>
> Sounds like poor Roz at her current assignment.
>
> I have to tell you that I have experienced this same thing.
>  My disability insurance call center software has to
> interface to about 10 (so far) completely different
> insurance companies.  Each company has dozens of legacy
> systems.
>
> We get "specs" for how to receive and transmit data to these
> mainframe systems.  I write code to meet the spec, then we
> send data.  We then get feedback from them about how to
> change the program to meet the "REAL spec" which is never
> the printed spec.  Iterate until the feedback stops and they
> start accepting what we send without complaint.
>
> In one case they had specified how to output claim data that
> they wanted to enter into their system.  In this one
> (admittedly extreme) case it was in a vertical report
> format, which we did.  Some six months later we discovered
> that the format was designed to allow some key entry person
> to key it into their system manually, and the "report order"
> was the order that the data entry fields appeared on her screen.
>
> I got a chuckle out of that one.
>
> John W. Colby
> www.ColbyConsulting.com
>
>
> Gustav Brock wrote:
>> Hi all
>>
>> A local computer paper brought attention to this work related to 
>> Daimler-Chrysler but useful in many areas:
>>
>>   http://www.systematic-testing.com/functional_testing/cte_main.php?cte=1
>>
>> <quote>
>> This page contains papers on the classification-tree method CTM and the 
>> classification-tree editor CTE. The classification-tree method is a 
>> testing method for the systematic design of test cases on basis of the 
>> specification. The classification-tree editor is a graphical editor 
>> supporting the application of the classification-tree method. CTM and CTE 
>> are widely used in industrial practice.
>> </quote>
>>
>> The CTE software is free to download and use and the page contains links 
>> to a bunch of documentation.
>> Here's an intro:
>>
>>   http://www.systematic-testing.com/documents/eurostar2000.pdf
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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