Deploying systems, whether it’s an update to an existing system or a new set of applications, is getting quite challenging.
We’ve been working through updates on our own systems and the "fingers" of the systems touch so many things that it’s truly difficult to work through all of the iterations that people may encounter as they use different systems. With so many things inter-related, it gets exponentially more complex.
How do you approach this? Do you have a dedicated testing team or teams? Even if you do, how do you go about making sure they know about all of the different aspects of your system that they need to test and confirm functionality for at your company? From reporting (remember, ad-hoc and "prepared" reporting have continue to work and you may not even know what ad-hoc reporting there is out there), to applications to tools and … you get the idea.
What’s the best way to go about this? Is it a learn and document as you go? I’m reminded of a joking solution to security I’ve talked about before when you’re not sure who’s using your systems. Pull the passwords and see who complains. Surely that can’t be where we are with data systems? If you’re giving access for reporting, for extracts and the like – it seems that it may be the case though.
Best practices are to document, sure. Are you? Do you? How do you attack this? How do you know what’s really happening and what the expected results are (the definition of testing)?
So many questions.