What does ERP project management include?

Acceptance test is a kind of validity test or qualification test. It is user-oriented and involves software developers, implementers and quality assurance personnel. ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is a powerful tool to improve the management innovation ability of enterprises, and its definition, design, development, implementation and application all follow certain rules. These laws are embodied in software process control, quality assurance and software testing. Acceptance test is related to whether ERP can be accepted smoothly, whether it can enter the maintenance period smoothly and whether it can realize benefits quickly. The comprehensiveness, efficiency, scientificity, standardization and thoroughness of ERP acceptance test are still a brand-new topic for manufacturing enterprises and ERP software suppliers.

At present, many people have some misunderstandings about ERP acceptance testing:

(1) Due to the complexity and scale of ERP software, people may pay more attention to its changeable requirements definition, personalized solutions and customized development processes, while ignoring project acceptance. The most direct consequence of these practices of "only paying attention to the opening and process, not paying attention to the ending and maintenance" is the formation of delayed projects or "unfinished" projects.

(2) After the implementation of 2)ERP, the user enterprise can run the system, the document is handed over, and the customer has signed it. What are the requirements for acceptance testing? This misunderstanding stems from the lack of understanding of the purpose, process, method and significance of acceptance testing.

(3) Acceptance testing is a matter for the user enterprise, and has nothing to do with the software service provider. In fact, only the close cooperation of the two can improve the testing efficiency.

(4) Understanding the acceptance test as a demonstration to users. Acceptance testing should pay attention to strategy, not go through the motions, carry out activities in a planned and step-by-step manner, and carry out scientific use case design.

(5) The acceptance test is to verify the correctness of the software. Acceptance testing, like other tests, not only verifies the correctness of software, but also finds software errors. But the acceptance test is mainly to confirm whether the software function meets the requirements.

2, ERP acceptance test process and method principle

Software includes programs, data and documents. The object of ERP acceptance test should cover these three aspects. The main body of acceptance test should be user enterprises, and ERP software service providers should actively cooperate; Third-party testing is still the main method, and users and software vendors * * * cooperate with each other.

The basic process of ERP acceptance test is shown in the following figure. Software implementers should cooperate with and urge users to prepare for acceptance test in time, conduct acceptance test step by step as planned, form standardized test documents, objectively analyze and evaluate test results, and track unqualified phenomena. Software problems should be managed by layers and categories, and regression tests should be conducted when necessary to ensure that all problems can be closed and finally pass the acceptance.

In terms of testing methods, due to the particularity of the acceptance stage, black-box testing and configuration review are generally the main methods, supplemented by automatic testing and special performance testing, and users, software developers and quality assurance personnel participate together.

ERP acceptance test should pay attention to the following principles:

(1) The acceptance test shall always be based on the ERP requirement specification and technical contract confirmed by both parties to confirm whether all requirements are met and whether all contract terms are implemented.

(2) Acceptance testing is different from unit testing and integration testing. It focuses on verifying the correctness of software, rather than finding software errors.

(3) Classify the software errors found in the acceptance test until they pass the acceptance test.

(4) The use case design in the acceptance test should be comprehensive, multidimensional and efficient, and it can confirm whether the function and performance of the software meet the requirements in the shortest time.

3. The content and use case design of 3.ERP acceptance test.

The purpose of ERP acceptance test is to confirm whether the system meets the product requirements, specifications and technical contracts. Confirm the functional requirements, performance requirements and documentation requirements of the software by implementing the scheduled test plan and test execution activities. ERP is a complex large-scale software, and its acceptance test should cover two aspects: confirmation test and system test. Specifically, it includes the following test contents: installation test, function test, interface test, performance test, document test, load stress test, recovery test, safety test, compatibility test, etc. Let's talk about the precautions of use case design with the specific content of ERP acceptance test.

(1) installation test

The purpose of the installation test is to verify whether the software can be installed in different configurations and to confirm whether it can run normally. ERP installation test case design should pay attention to the following points:

First, according to the portability of ERP, choose different operating systems.

Secondly, choose different levels of hardware configuration and software configuration, generally choose the lowest, medium and highest three configurations for testing to verify the inertia of the system to the software and hardware environment.

Thirdly, observe whether the ERP installation program can be installed normally with sufficient software and hardware resources, whether enough hints are given during the installation process, whether rogue software has some disadvantages, whether it can run normally after installation and whether it can be completely deleted.

Fourth, in the case of insufficient resources, such as insufficient disk space and insufficient content. , the system can be installed, can give all kinds of tips.

(2) Functional testing

Functional testing is the main content of acceptance testing. ERP function test should include the following items: query, add, delete, modify, save and other operations of a single module; Input and output of data; Data processing operations, such as import and carry-over; Accuracy of basic data definition; Accuracy of calculation, such as whether the historical inventory, current inventory and location inventory of the warehouse are accurate; Data * * * enjoyment ability; Authentication and authority management; Interface parameters and system control parameters; Document circulation; State control, such as whether the system recognizes the state of MPS before and after performing MRP decomposition, work order release, workshop task scheduling and other operations, and whether the state change is correct; A printed copy of the report; Define the approval process and various approval and anti-approval operations; SMS sending and management; Operation of post and department business, such as requisition management, purchase plan, purchase order management, and then purchase arrival management; Cross-departmental business operations, such as from sales orders to master production plans, from workshops to warehouses.

The use case design of ERP function test should pay attention to the following points:

First of all, the input fields of the test project should be comprehensive. There must be legal data input and illegal data input. For example, when testing the definition of basic data, if you specify a number, you need to enter both numbers and non-numbers such as letters and spaces for testing. Numbers include integers, negative numbers and decimals, so you need to enter these different numbers to verify the accuracy of the numbers.

Second, divide equivalence classes to improve testing efficiency. On the basis of considering the comprehensiveness of the testing field, we divide the equivalence classes and select a few representative use cases to test, so as to improve the testing efficiency. For example, if the MRP record has four states: just formed, scheduled, being executed and completed, and the system only allows partial modification or deletion of the newly formed MRP record, then during the test, the MRP record is divided into four categories, one for each state, and one for each category can be selected as a test case.

Third, we should use the boundary value to test in time. For example, in "order pre-scheduling", the number of pre-scheduling is generally required to be greater than 0, so the test data can be 0,-1, 1 000000 (a very large positive number) respectively.

Fourth, submit the same transaction repeatedly.

Fifth, the functional operations are not executed in the normal order.

Sixth, verify the relationship between entities. There are three relationships between entities: one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-many For example, one MPS corresponds to multiple MRP, and one MRP corresponds to multiple workshop tasks.

Seventh, carry out normal operation and observe the abnormality of output results. For example, the impact of deleting a record on sorting; Whether the status of the document changes after approval.

(3) Interface testing

ERP interface should conform to current standards and user habits. Software enterprises can form their own characteristics, but they must ensure the consistency of the whole software style. Interface testing should start with friendliness, operability, beauty, reasonable layout, scientific classification and accurate title description. The design of test cases should pay attention to the following points:

First, whether the colors of the background and foreground are coordinated and whether the color contrast is used properly.

Second, whether the appearance style of icons, buttons, dialog boxes, etc. The software is consistent with the aesthetic effect required by the screen resolution.

Third, whether the layout of window elements is reasonable and consistent.

Fourth, whether the information description of various field titles is accurate.

Fifth, whether the operations of shortcut keys, buttons and mouse in the software are consistent.

Sixth, whether the display ratio and format of windows and reports can meet the expected needs of users.

Seventh, whether the error prompt caused by misoperation is friendly.

Eighth, whether the active window and the selected record are highlighted.

Ninth, whether there is help information and whether the menu navigation can be carried out normally.

Tenth, check whether some special fields and special controls can run.

(4) Performance test

Performance testing mainly tests the running speed and resource consumption of software. By adjusting the software and hardware configuration, network expansion structure, number of workstations, data volume and service requests, the portability, running speed, stability and reliability of the software are tested. Generally, with the help of enterprise-level automated testing tools such as WinRunner, the software performance is analyzed and evaluated through extreme testing.

(5) Document testing

Documentation is an important part of software, and it is also an important content of software quality assurance and software configuration management. Document testing mainly checks the completeness, accuracy, consistency, traceability and understandability of documents through review. As a large-scale software, ERP covers all kinds of business of enterprises. It must have at least five types of documents: requirements definition, development and design, testing and evaluation, project management and user application. Specifically, it shall include the 14 software file specified in GB8567-88.

Please pay special attention to the following points when reviewing documents:

First of all, the standard of document acceptance should be made clear, and software enterprises and user enterprises should reach an agreement.

Second, determine the importance of the document and the requirements of the project document. For example, in the acceptance stage, user documents (user manual, operation manual, maintenance manual, online help file) are particularly important and need to be carefully reviewed.

Third, check the integrity of the document, mainly the type and content integrity of the document.

Fourth, check the consistency and traceability of documents, mainly: whether the software design description is carried out according to the requirements definition; Whether the application is consistent with the description in the design documents; Whether the user document objectively describes the actual operation of the application; Whether there are different opinions on the description of the same problem.

Fifth, to test the accuracy of the document, it is mainly whether the description of the document is accurate, whether there is ambiguity, and whether there is any error in the text expression.

Sixth, check the understandability of the document, mainly checking whether the document is aimed at a specific reader group and whether the expression is detailed. For example, the ERP operation manual should not only describe the operation of each module, but also provide the operation instructions of related post business, departmental business and inter-departmental business.

(6) Other tests

In addition to the above tests, it is necessary to test other characteristics and requirements of the system. For example, the ability of detecting software to recover data after sudden failure, the security and confidentiality of software, the compatibility of hardware, software and data, the maximum data volume and robustness that the system can withstand, etc.

Other tests usually include the following:

First, the load pressure test. It mainly includes concurrent performance test, fatigue strength test, large data volume test and speed test. Usually, automation technology is used to test on client, server and network respectively. When designing use cases, we should choose representative and key business operations as test objects based on real business.

Second, resume testing. By simulating hardware failure or deliberately causing software errors, the data damage and recoverability of the system are detected.

Third, safety inspection. The robustness of security protection strategies such as authentication mechanism, encryption mechanism and anti-virus function of the system is tested by illegal login, vulnerability scanning and simulated attack.

Fourth, compatibility testing. Through hardware compatibility test, software compatibility test and data compatibility test, the cross-platform and portability of the software are investigated.

4. Conclusion

ERP users and software developers should be clear about the real intention of acceptance testing. Developers and implementers should not cover up software errors or care about unfamiliar test projects. Users can't shelve acceptance work because some requirements can't be realized at present. On the contrary, the two should cooperate sincerely, trust each other, and see through the clouds. For those unfeasible requirements or unclear requirements, both parties should negotiate to change the requirements and reach an agreement. Only such acceptance test can promote the rapid and successful acceptance of ERP projects.