IT Testing Issues - Essay Example

Does the technology even exist to support a new inventory system? This would be accomplished by speaking with external vendors, as well as scrutinizing the IS capabilities of other companies (as a benchmark) to uncover whether a system exists which can support a new IS system and end the paper hassles.

Who will support these new systems? This question is a very important one, as the business will be forced to allocate specific workers to monitor the new inventory system and the new Web-based applications. This will represent potential payroll increases, thus it should be addressed to management parties responsible for making these decisions.

How will the new IS system be promoted to build a business? This would be addressed to the appropriate marketing management who must determine how best to let employees and customers know that they have a new system designed to facilitate the exchange of information (regarding inventory and the new website) from one outlet to another.

Step 1: Testing Product Links. Because the new website is designed to assist online customers in making purchases, each product must be appropriately linked to both product support pages and the checkout feature. This will entail running through the testing procedures, moving products to their virtual checkout cart, and assessing whether the application allows for purchase without any disruption to the consumer. 

Step 2: Testing Functionality. Step 2 in this process is to identify whether the site’s background, fonts, screen sizes, etc. are all created in a way that will not slow down the consumers’ computer or make the site difficult to read. Appropriate colors, as well, will make the site more visually friendly and inviting to the customer. To test this, the site will need to be reviewed by the testing group to determine whether the site causes slowdowns or other issues that turn off the customer from making a purchase.

Step 3: Testing Interaction with Web Browsers. Each user will be visiting this product website using a different web browser, such as Mozilla, Internet Explorer, etc. The business must test the new site using a variety of different web browsers to determine whether java script can be supported or whether other issues cause hang-ups or error messages from each different browser. 

Step 4: Consumer Testing. Once the site has been determined to be sound (internally), it might even be a good idea to run the site through a consumer testing process (focus group) to determine the attributes that different consumers find pleasing or displeasing. The data gained from this session could assist in building better visuals, better fonts, etc. This would make the new website more practical for consumers’ needs.

Having already identified the vendors of this specialized software, the following is a hypothetical request for information:
- Does the product maintain the ability to track customer ordering and preferences? If so, will this function give our firm the ability to manipulate this information quickly and easily?
- Will customers be able to track their shipments via our specified carrier to avoid flooding our IS support teams with consumer inquiries?
- Does the system provide an easy method for customers to arrange online merchandise returns?
- How will payments and purchases be handled within the software? Will our team have the ability to cancel such payments without intensive efforts?
- What types of reports will we be able to generate on this new system? For instance, does it track consumer behavior so that the business can determine from what geographical region the majority of our customers are located?
- How much traffic can your software sustain at any given time? At what point will too much traffic congest our site's speed and functionality?

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