Testing in content management projects

Testen in Content Management Projekten

Printer-friendly

E-mail this article to a friend

Your Comment

At the selection of the suitable tool the following questions should be asked:

• Is there a corresponding budget for test tools and how high is it?
• For which kinds of tests do I require a tool?
• Do I need a software for the administration and documentation of tests?
• Are Word and Excel even sufficient for it?
• Does a test software exist in my company and which experiences have been made with it?
• How high is the temporal and financial training expenditure?
• Does the expenditure show a reasonable relation to the project?
• How high is the expenditure of the utilization of tools compared to manual tests?
• What does the customer demand?
• Who can help me with the selection?

Here it always has to be considered that tools are no end in itself but only a means to an end!

The question still remains what is to be tested on which scale. It is the aim to identify those areas of implementation at which there is the highest probability of an error on the one hand as well as the highest priority of the respective area on the other hand.

The following diagram shows an example for a risk clustering:

The result of the evaluation, which has to be implemented individually for each product can be different - depending on the CMS which has to be implemented and the customer requirements. With this examination also those areas at which the test expenditure is the highest or most of the test cases are to be carried out can be identified in a better way. After having drawn up the test cases, having clarified the questions concerning the test data and having selected the right test tools, now the question for the place of test has to be asked. This predominantly depends on the required infrastructure.

Approval stage

The success of the project team during this stage largely depends on the work in the previous project stages. Only if the communication with the customer was sufficient, the requirements were specified and implemented in detail and also sufficiently tested, a critical customer will approve the product.

Here the test team can offer an essential support through its systematic preliminary work by identifying a large part of the criteria as soon as in the run-up and helping to avoid a high number of errors by means of sufficient tests.

An exact definition of the criteria which are essential for the approval is made before this process. The criteria of acceptance should be defined in detail as early as during the stage of quotation in order to not obstruct the process of approval unnecessarily. The criteria of acceptance are guidelines which have to be fulfilled by the system that is to be implemented. These can either be guidelines for the functionality of the system or guidelines for the hardware, but also guidelines for the documentation and training of the employees.

A possible further precise determination of the acceptance criteria during the fine specification stage can only be carried out through a permanent coordination between the individual areas in the project team and with the respective contacts of the customer. Drawing up a compliance matrix has proved to be helpful for the approval process in practice, which lists the individual approval criteria in detail and assigns priorities to them. The individual items can now be forgotten and thus the approval process can be objectified, if possible. "Forgetting" important criteria is not possible any more and prevents a "rude (and expensive!) awakening" for both partners after the termination of the project. With the successful completion of the approval stage the Content Management System can finally be inserted "live". Shortly after that it will be shown how favourable the tests were for a faultless, smooth course.

Result

Efficient tests are an important instrument for quality assurance in content management projects. The test stages run parallel to the individual project stages in order to facilitate a better control. A good planning in the fine specification stage as well as the careful selection of the members of the test team is indispensable in this. Perfectly planned tests from the beginning help to reduce the costs, to avoid a bad image and to make the user more satisfied.

03/2004, Georg Amm

Comments on this article

Testing in content management projects

Technical article

01.03.04

Write your comment on this article...

Subscribe to the newsletter

	Never miss a story and stay informed with our newsletter.
	Your email:
	RSS-Feed: All current newsOur News on your website

More articles on this topic

		Gartner’s 2006 Emerging Technologies Hype Cycle Highlights Key Technology Themes Web 2.0 technologies and business models dominate emerging technologies together with Real World Web and Applications Architecture...
		Best Practices for Implementing RedDot CMS All content management systems hold out a set of gleaming promises - reduced IT involvement in content publishing, streamlined workflow and approval processes, simple rollback features and reduced costs of operation...
		CMS-implementation I: procedure at the implementation of editorial processes An essential argument for the introduction of a content management system (CMS) is the improvement and optimisation of the editorial processes. Particularly bigger online editorial offices with a large number of editorial staff need support...
		CMS-implementation II: descriptionof the workflow through rights and roles A lot of online editorial offices work with a similar role concept which, however, often is only supported insufficiently through the applied publication system. At the introduction of a CMS these role concepts have to be reconsidered...
		NewsML - The new content syndication format The syndicators are dieing off. The bankruptcies have swept 4Content, Tanto, Contonomy, Kontorvisions and 1-Syndicate from the market. Do companies and portals now have to fear for their content for websites, internets and intranets?...

Articles on other topics

		Open Source Software and Source Code Analysis: A natural match Sleepless nights: Six years ago this week, I first came to understand the words “graduate student.” Over the span of five days, I spent a total of two hours sleeping - the rest of my time was hacking, eating, injecting caffeine into my bloodstream ...
		IT controls – the secret of high performing organisations As securitymanager.net discovered when it met with Tripwire’s Paul Gostick, configuration audit and control is more than just a good idea; it’s a business imperative for any organisation that wants to fulfil its business objectives successfully ...
		Compliance – less burden, more benefits Regulatory compliance has become the boardroom issue of the decade. Executives are paying closer attention because compliance affects all aspects of business operations. And while compliance traditionally focussed on legal aspects of managing policies ...