DWBI Testing Methodology
DWBI Testing Methodology:
Above diagram depicts typical test activities for a data warehouse application as per
testing life cycle.
Basic testing steps for a data warehouse project are (not limited to above diagram):
1) Understanding Requirement
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Review Business Specification
Attend Business Specification and Technical Specification walkthroughs
 Review Data Models, Mapping documents
 High Level Test Approach
 Test Estimation
2) Test plan creation, review and walk-through
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Prepare test plan as per the standard with specific mention to below:
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Scope definition
 Test Data Procurement approach
 Exit and Entry criteria
3) Test case creation, review and walk-through
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Test cases should be created for each layer based on business understanding and
mapping document
Design SQL queries for various validations, like:
 Record Count
 Duplication check
 Integrity check
 Transformation logic verification etc.
Design test scripts for file format validation
Design test cases for BI reports validation
Design test scripts for upstream/downstream application as applicable
Analyse and assess validation types mentioned below after this section and include
those steps accordingly.
4) Test Bed & Environment setup
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Identify data requirements and create plan to fulfil data needs both in terms of short
term and long term
 Verify the connection details of the test environments
 If test environment is your responsibility then make sure that the build and
configuration details are proper
5) Test case execution
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Execute identified test cases
 Rework on test queries and retest as applicable
 Raise defects and assign severity accordingly
 Retest once fixed and update status accordingly
6) Test Result and Signoff
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Capture test results for every run
 Prepare test exit report and schedule a demo, if required
 Get a consensus of all stakeholders based on test runs
7) Deployment
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Validate that the changes are promoted in higher environments, as intended
More on Test activities and validation:
The above can be depicted with high level test activities per phase as:
Data warehouse validation involves:
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ETL Testing
 Core Validations ( Record Count, DDL Validation, Duplicate Check, Data
Validation, IUD Validation)
 Secondary Validations (Anomaly Check, Plumbing Column Check, Surrogate
Key Check, Referential Integrity)
Integration Testing – Validating data flow from upstream to downstream
application
 Reports Testing
 Testing Reports in terms of requirement, accuracy, completeness, formatting
etc. including UI, export/import, sorting
 Testing of all Report Types – Drill Down/Dashboard
Basic validation at each layer can be represented as:
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Successful completion of any phase can be based on below entry/exit criteria: