Migration testing: black box approach
The process of migration testing starts with the analysis of migration requirements, afterwards the approach is defined. The analysis bases upon such points as:
- Type of data to be migrated
- Data sources
- Documentation analysis, describing the migration process
- Database alterations analysis
- Database structure and type
- Data storage format
- Analysis of migration method
- Migration approach method
As long as the tester is ready with the analysis, it is time to choose between the types of migration approach. There are three of them:
- Black box testing
- White box testing
- Complex approach
The analysis results are not the only parameters for choosing the approach. You are to pay the attention to the task complexity, client and project manager preferences, employee awareness of database management system specifics and some others. Besides, the more difference between the database source, receiver and data storage formats, the more complex the task is.
Black box testing is the most frequently applied approach. The approach includes running functional tests of the migrated data. The tester validates the way the system processes data: data overview, alteration, search, report creation and some other business operations. The approach, in fact, doesn`t require additional knowledge from a tester.
The execution of functional tests in the back box testing approach allows defining the non-compliance with the system performance requirements before the complex process of load testing. It detects the errors of database simultaneous usage by several users and challenges in request processing.
Still functional tests are not the leading preference in data migration testing. Performance and load tests are of great importance also. High operations processing, defines the new database efficiency and accuracy.
In our next post we`ll make the white box testing overview.
