Data Dictionary based Testing (DDbT) for Business Intelligence Applications

This Paper tries to present a new test methodology which can help us better test Business Intelligence (BI) or Data warehouse (DW) with more coverage, more data centric approach and with less time. The horizon's to cover with this idea are endless to explore.
Assume that we want to test a Business Intelligence (BI) or Data warehouse (DW) application , and we normally start to think that it’s going to be black box testing or data quality testing, or both.

Our test plans are towards how to make sure data is correct, functionality is working, jobs are completing etc. and how do we achieve it…?Normally using black box techniques. This is where the twist lies..

Do we really test a BI/DW using black box techniques? Theoretically the answer may be Yes, but practically No. What we need is essentially a data verification testing methodology to test BI/DW applications.

This is what we are calling in more technical term – ‘Data dictionary Based Testing Framework’ “A test framework wherein the data dictionary is leveraged to describe each and every element of the data residing in database server objects, their relationships within the data, the data lineage between the elements, which in turn when rationalized would help us to test the data quality and functionality of the application”.

Entire paper is attached herewit for your further read and comments....

 

- Naren

Views or Opinions expressed in this blog represnt only author and not any company or organization or person.

DDbT v1.7.pdf