Operational testing is done for a software application before releasing software to the production phase. The operational testing environment is called a pilot or pre-prod environment. Operational acceptance testing is the final step after User acceptance testing and before releasing software to the market, this is the last testing step. Operational testing is done in a live state by real-time users. Operational testing is done in software maintenance and software support.
It is a non-functional testing Operational acceptance testing is also known as operational readiness testing as the main focus of this type of testing is on operational readiness of the system. Operational acceptance testing includes installation testing, security testing, robustness, data integrity, reliability, code analysis, recovery testing, and network installation. It also involves procedure verification like stress, security, support, the existence of alerts.
Before starting OAT, a plan is made which has main focus on data integrity, manageability, recoverability, reliability, robustness.
Use of Oprational Testing
- After operation testing it can be ensured that operating system and data can be restored at same or different sites, if required.
- In Operational acceptance testing, implementation of any changes (functional or structural) are tested and will also not affect existing production services
- Failback can be performed and original state can be achieved, if failover is invoked
- Operational acceptance testing verifies that an application can be deployed to network or not according to IT Infrastructure Library standards.
- OAT also determines that software should operate the way it should without interrupting installation or business that uses the software.
- Threshold monitoring alerts should be generated if maintained threshold exceeds.
- OAT makes sure that software is operating the way it is designed without interrupting any business process.
- OAT focus mainly on the ability of software to recover, support and maintenance or network installation.
- OAT makes sure that service is not disrupting when the system is switched off or restarted.
- The changes and improvements in the application can be performed with minimum risk involved.
- The application has a minimum risk for shared environment and also application is safe for hardware setup.
- OAT address the non-functional attributes of system.
How much operational acceptance testing is needed is determined by Change driven risk management (CDRM). By this OAT will be much more efficient and much more focused in identifying risks.
OAT can also be automated as doing it manually can sometimes be very time consuming. The clients and end users expect the software to be fully functional when officially released. And the updates provided by clients should be well implemented that it’s not affecting utility of tool. So automating OAT is the much better and efficient option rather than doing it manually, as software and application these days requires constant updates and improvements.
OAT process test an environment mitigation of following:
- Failure of component.
- Alerts
- Shutdown and restart
- Implementation of change
- Change Back-out
- Operational procedures and support
CDRM techniques determines this checklist and usually managed in a non-functional test environment which is replica of production. Automating OAT can also be cost effective in the long run by reducing cost of maintenance.
Some of The OAT Examples
- If the threshold increases, alerts will be issued.
- By using documentation, the implementation process can be replicated.
- At the set time frame, each component should start and end.
- If the Backup is taken at one site it can be recovered at the same or different site.
- If any new feature is implemented, it should not affect already existing feature in the production.
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