Use Your ESP to Test Software Packages (Continued)

Quality Assurance
Once the initial package has been prepared, it can move to quality assurance testing. The phase includes:

• Package Validation. Is the package valid? Is it well constructed? Does it conform to Windows recommended guidelines?
• Functional Test. Does the product operate as expected once the installation is complete? Are security rights appropriate?
• Conflict Management. The components of the package are integrated into the conflict management inventory database and conflict resolution is performed. It is also important to identify the product category at this stage. Will it be deployed to all systems or will it target only specific systems? This will identify the conflict testing strategy and indicate against which products conflict testing is required.
• Integration Test. How does the product behave when merged with other products it must coexist with? This testing is greatly simplified by Conflict Management, since it tells you what you can expect in terms of coexistence.
• Acceptance Test. Will the product sponsor (final client or user) approve the product as configured and installed?
• Deployment Test. Is remote distribution of this product required? If so, a deployment test must be performed to ensure that it behaves as expected during remote installation.
• Uninstall Test. If uninstallation is required, it should be tested both interactively and remotely.
• Final Quality Assurance. Once all tests have been performed, a final quality assurance test should be performed. Is all documentation correct and complete? Have all testing procedures been followed correctly? These are some of the questions that must be answered during this phase before final release of the product to the corporate network.