Summary
The High Assurance Gateways programme enables Interoperability Services – a global information sharing network, between the Ministry of Defence (MoD), Government departments, and multinational partners.
Capabilities Employed
The Challenge
In order to be successful, the programme required extensive liaison with multiple stakeholders. This, combined with rigorous user and system testing of the High Assurance Gateways, were fundamental to success of the programme.
The Solution
Assurer and Trials Manager roles were assumed by SA Group. In the Assurer role, the SA Group team ratified the Supplier’s test plans, along with test events for the Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) and System Acceptance Test (SAT), and completed the signing off process.
In the Trials Manager role, efficient day-to-day management of the trial was undertaken, and SA Group were responsible for all planning, delivery and reporting. The SA Group team identified relevant requirements and developed related documentation to ensure that the whole Test and Trials process was planned and professionally managed throughout. The test strategy was developed, along with an Integrated Test Evaluation and Acceptance Plan (ITEAP), defining the acceptance approach of the gateways.
Once the SAT report was accepted, our Trials Manager produced a Trials Plan for the User Acceptance Testing (UAT) detailing how the trial would be conducted, and developed scenarios and trials scripts against the User Requirements Document (URD). The scripts were followed by the users to test the gateways against the requirements. Following the trial, the Test Manager produced a detailed report to distribute to the sponsor and the joint user.
Skills
The SA Group team possess the following skills, gained from years of experience undertaking test and trials within the public and private sector:
- Trials Management and Design
- Development of Test Cases
- Test Script Authoring
- Selenium Test Tool Expertise, Scripting
- Test Plan Development
- Writing Reports, collating results
- Advice on Trials methodology
Our test and trials engineers continue to build skills and qualifications through continued access to professional development courses provided by the company, and internal mentoring. These courses are used to develop our people and broaden their knowledge in this area of expertise. SA Group are also an Enterprise Partner with the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET).
The Result
SA Group ensured that all test events were conducted in line with the initial plan. They reviewed all supplier documentation and testing, and managed the User Acceptance Testing, ensuring that all requirements, including those within both the System Requirements Document and URD were met. Testing was performed for all aspects of the project delivery including test strategies and cases covering agreed requirements, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
The presence of SA Group throughout the delivery of the interoperability gateways ensured the process was done thoroughly and consistently. Above all, they ensured repeatability which is integral to testing accuracy, and rigour was provided against the requirements, and at the conclusion of the UAT’s Initial Operating Capability (IOC). Subsequently, Full Operating Capability (FOC) was achieved.
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