Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A Business View on Testing ERP Systems with Value-Based Requirements Coverage

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Book cover Innovation and Future of Enterprise Information Systems

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation ((LNISO,volume 4))

Abstract

Testing has been identified as a critical factor for a successful implementation of ERP systems. However, most testing activities are still value-neutral and do not utilize the information about the system’s achievable business value, which is a particularly promising improvement for testing of business software and ERP systems. In this paper we therefore present an approach for value-based coverage measurement that can be used to align the testing effort to the value associated with requirements and typical usage scenarios. It has been implemented as part of the commercial test tool TOSCA Testsuite by Tricentis and was successfully applied in real-world projects. The results demonstrated its ability to adequately capture the distribution of the business value involved in different functional units. Furthermore, when compared with a value-neutral and a pure requirements-based approach for test case prioritization, it produced a higher benefit curve and an early positive ROI from testing.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Al-Mashari, M., Al-Mudimigh, A., Zairi, M.: Enterprise resource planning: a taxonomy of critical factors. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 146(2), 352–364 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Bach, J.: Risk and requirements-based testing. IEEE Comput. 32(6), 113–114 (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Boehm, B.: Value-based software engineering: overview and agenda. In: Biffl, S., et al. (eds.) Value-Based Software Engineering, pp. 3–14. Springer, Berlin (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Boehm, B., Basili, V.R.: Software defect reduction top 10 list. Computer 34(1), 135–137 (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Brooks, P.A., Memon, A.M.: Automated GUI testing guided by usage profiles. In: Proceedings of the Twenty-Second IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering. ASE’07, pp. 333–342. ACM, New York (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Chen, C.C., Law, C., Yang, S.C.: Managing ERP implementation failure: a project management perspective. IEEE Trans. Eng. Manage. 56(1), 157–170 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Daneva, M.: ERP requirements engineering practice: lessons learned. Softw. IEEE 21(2), 26–33 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Farago, D.: Nondeterministic coverage metrics as key performance indicator for model- and value-based testing. 31. Treffen der GI-Fachgruppe Test, Analyse and Verifikation von Software (TAV) (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Felderer, M., et al.: Integrating manual and automatic risk assessment for risk-based testing. In: Software Quality. Process Automation in Software Development. Software Quality Days 2012, pp. 159–180. Vienna (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Gerrard, P.: Test methods and tools for ERP implementations. In: IEEE, pp. 40–46 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Gittens, M., Romanufa, K., Godwin, D., Racicot, J.: All code coverage is not created equal: a case study in prioritized code coverage. In: Proceedings of the 2006 Conference of the Center for Advanced Studies on Collaborative Research (CASCON ‘06) (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Holland, C.R., Light, B.: A critical success factors model for ERP implementation. Softw. IEEE 16(3), 30–36 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Huang, L., Boehm, B.: How much software quality investment is enough: a value-based approach. IEEE Softw. 23(5), 88–95 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Krishnamoorthi, R., Mary, S.A.: Factor oriented requirement coverage based system test case prioritization of new and regression test cases. Inf. Softw. Technol. 51(4), 799–808 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Kumar, M., Suresh, A.V., Prashanth, P.: Analyzing the quality issues in ERP implementation: a case study. In: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Emerging Trends in Engineering and Technology, ICETET 2009, pp. 759–764 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Lehtola, L., Kauppinen, M., Kujala, S.: Linking the business view to requirements engineering: long-term product planning by roadmapping. In Proceedings of the 13th IEEE International Conference on Requirements Engineering. RE’05, pp. 439–446. IEEE Computer Society, Washington, DC (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Li, Q., Li, M., Yang, Y., Wang, Q., Tan, T., Boehm, B., Hu, C.: Bridge the gap between software test process and business value: a case study. Proceedings of the International Conference on Software Process: Trustworthy Software Development Processes (ICSP ‘09) (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Li, Q., Yang, Y., Li, M., Wang, Q., Boehm, B., Hu, C.: Improving software testing process: feature prioritization to make winners of success-critical stakeholders. J. Softw. Maint. Evol. Res. Pract. (2010). doi: 10.1002/smr.512

  19. Pandian, C.P.: Applied Software Risk Management: A Guide for Software Project Managers. Auerbach Publications, Boston (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Petschenik, N. H.: Practical priorities in system testing. IEEE Softw. 2(5), 18–23 1985

    Google Scholar 

  21. Ramler, R., Biffl, S. Grünbacher, P.: Value-based management of software testing. In: Biffl, S., et al. (eds.) Value-Based Software Engineering, pp. 225–244. Springer, Berlin (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Ramler, R., Kopetzky, T., Platz, W.: Combinatorial test design in the TOSCA testsuite: lessons learned and practical implications. In: Proceedings of the 2012 Workshop on Combinatorial Testing, ICST 2012 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Srikanth, H., Williams, L.: On the economics of requirements-based test case prioritization. In: Proceedings of the Seventh International Workshop on Economics-Driven Software Engineering Research (EDSER ‘05) (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Srivastva, P.R., Kumar, K., Raghurama, G.: Test case prioritization based on requirements and risk factors. SIGSOFT Softw. Eng. Notes 33(4), Article 7 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Urem, F., Mikulic, Z.: Developing operational profile for ERP software module reliability prediction. In: 2010 Proceedings of the 33rd International Convention MIPRO, pp. 409–413 (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Zhang, D.: Machine learning in value-based software test data generation. In: Proceedings of the 18th IEEE International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence (ICTAI ‘06) (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Zhang, D.A.: Value-based framework for software evolutionary testing. Int J Softw Sci Comput Intell 3(2), 62–82 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Software Competence Center Hagenberg, Hagenberg im Mühlkreis, Austria

    Rudolf Ramler & Theodorich Kopetzky

  2. TRICENTIS Technology and Consulting GmbH, Vienna, Austria

    Wolfgang Platz

Authors
  1. Rudolf Ramler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Theodorich Kopetzky
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Wolfgang Platz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rudolf Ramler .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Strategic Management,, Marketing and Tourism, University of Innsbruck, Universitätsstr. 15, Innsbruck, 5020, Austria

    Felix Piazolo

  2. , Institute of Computer Science, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstr. 21a, Innsbruck, 6020, Austria

    Michael Felderer

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Ramler, R., Kopetzky, T., Platz, W. (2013). A Business View on Testing ERP Systems with Value-Based Requirements Coverage. In: Piazolo, F., Felderer, M. (eds) Innovation and Future of Enterprise Information Systems. Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation, vol 4. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-37021-2_17

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation