Unsung Heroes: Our Testers/Discover What Role Testers Play

Do you remember the slogan “There’s an app for that!”? Apple first used this phrase in 2009 TV ads to showcase its many applications. Apps are now a part of our daily lives, but how do development teams ensure software is safe to use? Before new services are ready for everyday use, a dedicated team ensures they are ready for real-world scenarios — the important step of testing.

OIT Tech Debt project teams rely on testing, too. From the Network Refresh project to Identity Manager upgrades, the testing process involves executing a series of steps and reporting the findings. Testers are often staff from OIT or partner agencies who lend their time late at night or early in the morning during an upgrade or deployment. Testers ensure new equipment or software works correctly and identify any issues so they can be fixed before they impact users.

OIT Enterprise Applications Manager Christine Coakley has coordinated many testing teams and says enlisting testers from partner agencies is essential. Christine notes that “agency users who work in a system or application daily are invaluable for identifying problems and validating solutions specific to their area. Combining partner agency expertise with OIT's technical skills provides the strongest quality assurance.”

Remember CrowdStrike?

Consider last year’s CrowdStrike outage that impacted over 8.5 million Windows machines worldwide. As part of its post-incident review and response plan, CrowdStrike promised to update its testing process to help avoid another costly event. This type of real-world event underscores the value of testing and its important role.

Robust testing is key to three main outcomes.