Importance Of Workflow In Application Support

A workflow is a systematic repeatable pattern of business activity that is followed by an organization to provide services, process information etc. The workflow may be simple or complex, it depends on the working consortium. Workflow in Application Support is a building block that is combined with an organization’s structure for e.g. information technology, projects. Workflow is a very important as it helps in identifying gaps, creating transparency and providing a smooth flow execution. Workflow is made by high committee in an organization, which gets approved or rejected, if its accepted then it is followed by an organization for execution of project. Thus, for a well smooth execution of a project, proper workflow is necessary. It is important because it helps in improving efficiency, helps in better business process controls, improves customer services etc. 

There are different types of workflows in an organization. Some of the workflows are as below:

• Escalation Workflow in Application Support:

In any project, an escalation workflow is very important. Escalation workflow helps clients in easily contacting Team Leads / Project Delivery Manager’s / COO. Whenever, there is an escalation point, client can easily escalate or contact responsible person. Thus, it will help an organization for providing good quality and quick support in future. Almost, every company has escalation workflow. If not, then it may cause difficulty for an organization to provide application support in an effective way. Normally this escalation workflow is time and quality based. To explain in detail time based is when a Service request or issue is not resolved or responded in a given or speculated time frame. Quality based is when the deliverables or solutions are not meeting the set quality standards. A simple example of an escalation workflow in an Application Support project is as shown below:

• Ticket Workflow in Application Support Project: 

Whenever a new ticket or a new request comes in, then a workflow is been followed for completing respective request / ticket. This workflow is called as a ticket workflow. For e.g. whenever a new request comes in then a ticket is been raised on Service Desk. Also, the request is based on scope of the project. If the request is in scope then a new ticket is raised on Service Desk by filling required details i.e. whether it is a query or change request. The system generates a ticket number which is used for future reference which helps in maintaining database of tickets. Later, ticket is resolved or executed and at the same user is been informed. If user confirms within specific interval then ticket is closed else follow-up is to be done. If ticket is out of scope then user is been guided that where can a user contact or escalate for respective query. Then the ticket is been closed. In this way a task / request is completed in a workflow process. A basic ticket workflow is shown below:

Conclusion:

Workflow in Application Support is a guided path which helps in enhancement of the process thus improving efficiency, cut out unnecessary work, better use of human resources etc. Also, it is important to have workflow in an organization else there may be chances of incorrect steps processed which may be time consuming. Workflow in Application Support thus helps organization improve and grow faster.

About Author:

Mikhil Chauhan is a consultant in Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. Within Systems Plus, he actively contributes to the areas of Technology and Information Security. He can be contacted at:  mikhil.chauhan@spluspl.com

Negative Testing in Software testing

Definition: Negative testing is a testing process where validation is done by passing Invalid, Incorrect and False-Positive Input test data & also with scenarios which have a negative impact on business functionality.

The survey shows that count of issue related to negative testing is much more than count of issues of positive testing this shows the importance of negative testing towards user experience. Negative testing ensures application is fault proof.

Some of Negative scenarios

 1>  Negative  scenarios

a.    Null (if mandatory)    : Invalid test data

b.    Less than minimum   : Incorrect length test data

c.    More than maximum  : Incorrect length test data

d.    Other than defined data type : Invalid test data

e.    Duplication check

f.     False Positive test

g.    Less/More than stock/balance quantity

h.    Less/More than available amount

i.      Disaster recovery -  Roll back

Listed Negative testing scenarios also included in Smoke test as passing negative testing scenarios gives extra confidence on Quality of application & delivery.

Negative scenarios are identified as per type of application, User who will be using application, rollback scenarios, 

By knowing type of application & users who will be using it, identification of negative scenarios becomes much more effective for example: if an application would be used by Layman user then all possible negative scenarios should be listed whereas for application which will be used by trained executive would not require all negative scenarios.

Sometimes it become difficult to take decision, should we resolve all reported negative issues in such cases management may sort as per priority (must have), good to have & known issue

The following are some of the benefits of negative testing:

• It benefits in measuring the functional transparency.
• It benefits identifying the risk conditions under which the system crashes.
• It assists in preventing/detecting serious flaws in the exception handling mechanisms.
• Ensures that the function/application accept the data correctly and handles invalid data in the right way.

Positive testing is done to ensure that the happy business functionality is achieved, negative testing ensures that there is no fault & user experience is good. Negative testing helps to find more defect thus including negative scenarios in test case would have more defect prevention approach.

About Author:

Vinayak Jadhav is a consultant in Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. Within Systems Plus, he actively contributes to the areas of Technology and Information Security. He can be contacted at:  vinayak.j@spluspl.com