Description

This course introduces the student to the phases of testing and validation in a data warehouse or other decision support systems project.  Students will learn the role of the testing process as part of a software development project, see how business requirements become the foundation for testing cases and test plans, develop a testing strategy develop audience profiles and learn about how to develop and execute effective tests, all as part of a data warehouse / decision support initiative.  Students will be able to apply the data warehouse concepts in a series of related exercises that enable them to create and refine the various artifacts of testing for their data warehouse programs.

What Makes This Certified Course Unique

This ICCP-certified course provides participants with practical, in-depth understanding of how to create accurate data models for complex Business Intelligence solutions. Hands-on workshops throughout the course will reinforce the learning experience and provide the attendees with concrete results that can be utilized in their organizations.


Course Objectives:
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Review the fundamental concepts of data warehousing and its place in an information management environment
• Learn about the role of the testing process as part of software development and as part of data warehouse development
• Learn about test strategies, test plans and test cases – what they are and how to develop them, specifically for data warehouses and decision support systems
• Create effective test cases and scenarios based on business and user requirements for the data warehouse
• Plan and coordinate usability testing for data warehousing
• Conduct reviews and inspections for validation and verification
• Participate in the change management process and document relevant changes to decision support requirements

Prerequisites:

• Experience as a test analyst, business analyst or experience in the testing process

Audience:

• Testing analysts, business analysts, project managers, business staff members who will participate in the testing function; data warehouse architects, data analysts

Course Topics:
Understanding Business Intelligence

• Analyze the current state of the data warehousing industry
• Data warehousing fundamentals
• Operational data store (ODS) concepts
• Data mart fundamentals
• Defining meta data and its critical role in data warehousing and testing

Key Principles in Testing

• Introduction
• Testing concepts
• Overview of the testing and quality assurance phases

Project Management Overview

• Basic project management concepts
• Project management in software development and data warehousing
• Testing and quality assurance as part of software project management

Requirements Definition for Data Warehouses

• Requirements management workflow
• Characteristics of good requirements for decision support systems
• Requirements-based testing concepts and techniques

Audiences in Testing

• Audiences and their profiles
• User profiles
• Customer profiles
• Functional profiles
• Testing strategies by audience
• Test management overview

Risk Analysis and Testing

• Risk analysis overview for testing

Test Methods and Testing Levels

• Static vs. dynamic tests
• Black, grey and white box testing
• Prioritizing testing activities
• Testing from unit to user acceptance

Test Plans and Procedures

• Writing and managing test plans and procedures
• Test plan structure and test design specifications

Test Cases Overview

• Test case components
• Designing test scenarios for data warehouse usage
• Creating and executing test cases from scenarios

Validation and Verification

• Validating customer needs for decision support
• Tools and techniques for validation, verification and assessment

Acceptance Testing for Data Warehouses

• Ways to capture informal and formal user issues and concerns

• Test readiness review
• Iterative testing for data warehouse projects

Reviews and Walk-throughs

• Reviews versus walkthroughs

• Inspections in testing and quality assurance

Testing Traceability

• Linking tests to requirements with a traceability matrix

• Change management in decision support systems and testing

Test Execution and Documentation

• Managing the testing and quality assurance process
• Documentation for the testing process

Conclusion
Summary, advanced exercises, resources for further study