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3.5 Validation Manager
02 Service Validation
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3.5.02 Service Validation:
1. The business is a journey without a destination, continual improvements are mandated to stay ahead of the competition and to stand still is to fall behind and decline.
2. Eliza operates over a large number of data centers and each data center has its own unique infrastructure.   Hardware and system software continually improve, but those improvements can only be obtained by phasing out older equipment and phasing in new equipment.   Energy consumption reduction has been a notable improvement with the current set of servers.
3. As a policy, infrastructure maximum life cycle of dynamic application services is 25 months and static application services is 50 months.   Any equipment more than three years old has a higher failure rate, has a higher cooling requirement and a higher energy consumption than current equipment.   Real cost benefits can be made by recyling older server parts and building new dedicated servers to match exact business requirements.

2. What To Do:
1. When a new data center is commissioned, bespoke application services are cloned and prepared for operational use.   Online test and validation is the final step before the data center is enabled to act as a production environment.
2. Operational validation has a number threads that run in parallel:-
  (1) Application procedures are verified against a test database to simulate how people use the service. The Support Manager and first line support staff who understand each application are responsible to sign-off each web page.
  (2) Technology is verified against a test dtabase to pedantically verify that each and every business rule is working as expected. The Servce Validation Manager is responsible to tick off each business rule.
  (3) Performance is verified using test scripts that can simulate many hours of high user activity. The Operations Manager is responsible for test simulations and performance benchmarking.

3. Evolution:
1. Application design is evolving to depend on massive amounts of flash memory to hold arrays of continually used data.   Rotating hard disks have been phased out as Solid State Devices (SSD) have become faster and more energy efficient.   As the hardware and system software become more sophisticated, Eliza must continue to provide an identical experience to approved people.
2. The limits of SQL have been reached as more secure methods of encrypted data storage must be deployed to prevent data from being stolen.   April 2018 is the target where the possibility of a data breach must be eliminated by encrypting everything that an agency may want to copy.   As the storage of business data become more encrypted, Eliza must continue to provide an identical experience to approved people.
3. Service validation is about detecting any timing issue or storage issue that may be inadvertantly caused by the new data center configuration.   A lot of design work is done to make sure that Eliza is 100% portable to any pending environment, but final validation of the service is still a basic requirment.

4. Simplify:
1. A proposal is on the table to grossly simplify the user interface - to follow Google and Microsoft into an era of a lot less information.   It is well known and can be proven that the vast majority of people totally ignore most of what is on any web page.   It is possible that the majority may not even notice if 50% of the information provided was hidden.
2. The very low use made of the self-service support dashboard may be as a direct result of it looking too complex to the point where people fear to start.   An alternative "simple" self-service facility is proposed as a single query area where people can ask any question.   Eliza will analyse the query and respond with the most applicable options.
3. Rather than a page of 50 or more buttons, a person can ask for a report by name, description or distinguishing characteristic and it will appear.   An effect is that a lot more standard reports can exist so people do not need to select a report and then select various options from the menu.   A google like search bar is proven, people are comfortable using it and it can provide productivity benefits with ease of use.

5. Action Plan:
1. A unique domain name has been provided to access the new data center with a test database - normal production authentication is deployed.   This database shall be replaced, so any test data can be created without any operation concerns.
2. Three people are involved with a target switch-on date as 25 Dec - at a time when approved person activity is very low.   PW is responsible for the performance simulation.   TW is responsible for the technical validation.   MP is responsible for the application validation.
3. It is expected that application services will appear to work as normal, so its the legacy problems like unique Masters that need to be checked out and properly tested.   139 special reports exist to be tested - this is where unusual rules may exist that are impacted by the new infrastructure.

6. Application Checklist (2714 files):
1. Unique Master needs to be verified.
1. EORI Lookup needs testing.
1. Upload of documents needs to be tested.
1. Email services need testing for HRM and Quotes and Imports and Concerns.
1. Upload viewer to be tested.
1. Download to be tested.
1. Shipments entered and accrual specials to be tested.
1. Template documents to be tested.
1. Self-Service facilities to be tested.
1. Concern escalation rules to be tested.

7. Eliza Checklist (205 files):
1. Show Page and Menu Manager has many hundreds of services that can be proven by showing hundreds of different web pages.
1. Show List and Show Menu is obsolete but still in use.
1. Show Sheet and Show Menu has a consistent style with few exceptions.
1. Show History has a consistent style with few exceptions.
1. Show Update has administration rather than application usage.
1. Monica needs to be configured - Today to be switched off.
1. Geographic needs to be upgraded to the latest RIPE geo-location database.
1. Sign-In manager will be tested but IP constraints must be verified.
1. DB Update uniqueness to be verified.
1. Reference manager in multiple modes to be tested.
1. Debug and trace mode to be tested.
1. Logging to be tested.
1. One-Off Trigger to be tested.
1. Application permissions to be cycled thru.
1. ASP Engineering functions to be tested.
1. Cookies to be reset and simplified.

Document Control:
1. Document Title: Service Validation.
2. Reference: 163502.
3. Keywords: Service Validation, Service Test, Performance Benchmark.
4. Description: New data centers must be validated before thay can be enabled for operational use.
5. Privacy: Public education service as a benefit to humanity.
6. Issued: 15 Dec 2016.
7. Edition: 1.0.