VALTE - methodology for VALidation and TEsting of supply chain software components

This paper presents the VAL TE methodology, developed for validation and testing of supply chain software components, in the context of evaluating a collaborative supply chain planning environment based on CPFR (Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment) guidelines addressing the interoperability challenges of deploying a CPFR process within a supply chain consortium. VAL TE follows the standard process defined on the evaluation reference model and guide ISO/IEC CD 25040 of the SQuaRE series of standards. This standard details the activities and tasks providing their purposes, outcomes and complementary information that can be used to guide a software product quality evaluation. The outcomes of applying a standard process approach for the evaluation activities will be the repeatability, reproducibility, impartiality and objectivity of all validation and testing processes. The paper after presenting the principal standard steps for the evaluation strategy (prepare, establish, specify, design, execute, report), describes the procedures used to generate the evaluation criteria to be applied for the functional and non-functional characteristics, i.e., functionality, reliability, usability, efficiency, maintainability and portability. VALTE has been validated under the European Commission funded project i-Surf, by evaluating the project architecture components through the use of functional tests, unit tests, fault tolerance analysis, user interface analysis, execution time measurements, inspection of documentation and analysis of software installation procedures.