ISTQB CT-TAE – Certified Tester Test Automation Engineer — Question 60

A major company with multiple paper mills uses a standard set of sensors to determine paper thickness, density, tensile strength, etc., at multiple points in the production process. However, each mill currently has its own unique alerting and reporting system. The company will upgrade and centralize their quality control operations so that data from the sensors at each mill will be fed into a database at their headquarters. This central system will supply the alerts and reports to operators and management at all levels. The development team is scaling the network connection requirements, database, and data-collection front-end systems to process 100 samples per second from the sensors at each mill. The development team is almost through designing the high-level system requirements.

Management has asked you, as leader of the test team, how you plan to use automation in testing the system. Which of the following would be the most effective solution?

Answer options

• A. The automation solution will be large and complex. During early development, automation will be designed to separately test each of the individual portions of the SUT (data collection, database functionality, alerting, and reporting), using the most appropriate technologies for each. The level of intrusion will be minimized by using the SUT's native interfaces whenever possible. Once the SUT is integrated, test automation will involve creation and input of selected sensor data, then monitoring its capture by the SUT, and the resultant alerting and reporting.
• B. The automation solution will be large and complex. During early development, automation will be designed to separately test each of the individual portions of the SUT (data collection, database functionality, alerting, and reporting), using the most appropriate technologies for each. The level of intrusion will be minimized by using the SUT's native interfaces whenever possible. Once the SUT is integrated, exploratory testing will be used with the input of selected and simulated sensor data, and the resultant alerting and reporting will be checked to ensure accuracy and completeness.
• C. The automation solution will be based on risk. The initial risk analysis indicates that testing should concentrate on the data import systems. Sets of good and bad data inputs will be created based on samples of real data from selected mills and injected into the data-collection front-end systems. Periodic ad-hoc queries will be used to monitor the database's storage of the data to confirm accuracy.
• D. The automation solution will be focused on end-to-end functionality. Samples of real data captured at selected mills and manually injected data with anomalies will be used. The alerts and reports sent to the operators will be monitored to confirm the correct responses. Summary reports will be generated for management to analyze to ensure accuracy and completeness.

Correct answer: A

Explanation

Option A is correct because it outlines a comprehensive approach to automating the testing of each component of the system, ensuring that the integration is well-tested with minimal intrusion. Options B, C, and D do not provide the same level of thoroughness in testing the individual components and their integration, making them less effective solutions for the company's needs.