The Skeptical Tester

backend financials.

But some time later, I learned that the product set with which the e-commerce site was going to launch contained mostly items that the upstream systems lacked in their test data. Preparing a new coordinated dataset for the upstream systems would be both time-consuming and expensive. The managers of those teams balked at taking on the work, yet the end-to-end test was considered critical for successful launch of the strategic e-commerce site.

Ultimately, I found a way to segregate the upstream systems and their existing data without compromising the critical flows in the end-to-end test, but it was a close call. I hadn’t asked enough questions early enough about the data, and it could have killed my test.

At two other clients, I was told that the general ledger (GL) system was out of scope for the project, and hence for the end-to-end test. It’s understandable that managers would stipulate this. The more systems you test with, the greater the cost. Why include the backend financial systems if nothing there has changed? I didn’t accept this in either case, and I gently probed until I confirmed my suspicions.

On the first project, where we were developing a new bank teller system, the solution architect had left the GL off the system context diagram because it was “not needed.” But our teller system had a direct batch interface to the GL, and it didn’t make sense to me to leave it out. In our first integrated test with the GL, we found that all the credits and debits from our system were reversed—an easy bug to fix, but it hadn’t been detected until we tested with the GL. Through continuing to incorporate the GL in our test, we found several more obscure and complex bugs in our system.

I discovered an even more interesting situation on the second project, which involved ordering, provisioning, and billing for telecom services. Since there would be new financial outcomes, I naturally included the GL system in my end-to-end test scope. But when I reviewed my strategy with the project sponsor, he said it was out of scope—no work being done—and I should remove it. That didn’t feel right to me, and I said I’d like to do a little more investigation before definitely ruling it out. “Well, OK,” he said, “but don’t waste too much time on this. It’s not in scope.”

There was a solution review coming up, so I shelved the question till then. It was a three-day whiteboard session, with each team drawing its systems and data flows, and the integration architects and me asking questions. When the team responsible for the billing and financials had done its diagram, I said, “I must be missing something. I don’t see a line out to the GL, but I thought we were dividing the accounting between two lines of business.”

“That’s right,” their architect replied, “and we’ve created two new sets of GL accounts.”

“Great,” I responded, “but where are we actually dividing the revenues and doing the accounting?”

There was a silence, and then their project manager spoke up. “Um, I think we might have forgotten that. I’ll look into it and get back to this group.” The result was a $250,000 change request. The GL was definitely in scope.

Testers ask questions and then question the answers. It’s our job.

Think about this the next time you start a new project. Or stop for a moment and think about the questions you haven’t asked on your current project. What have you been told that might be wrong or not the