CONDUCT TEST AND DOCUMENTATION

INFORMATION SHEET 1.5-1

Michael U. Mamitag
LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After reading this INFORMATION SHEET, STUDENT(S) MUST be able to:

Know how to conduct documentation and test installed software(s).

Michael U. Mamitag
INTRODUCTION

Documentation is the collection of documents that

are designed to help people who need to manage,
operate or maintain computer hardware or
software.

Michael U. Mamitag
Computer documentation can generally be
divided into two broad categories:
•User documentation. This is designed for the end
user of the computer hardware or software. The user
may not be a computer specialist. As a computer
user yourself, you will have seen a considerable
amount of user documentation, in varying forms and
of varying quality. Examples of user documentation
are manuals, on-line help, wizards and on-line
tutorials.

Michael U. Mamitag
Documentation usually consists of a combination of
text and diagrams. Types of user documentation
include:
 Instructional material – usually accompanies the
computer system, be it hardware or software, and
provides information on how to use the system or
particular aspects of it.
 Training material – aims to teach people how to
use a computer system, usually a software
application. It can be used as a self-study guide or
as a resource by a trainer.

Michael U. Mamitag
 Policies or procedures documents – describe
organisational rules and guidelines and explain how
to do a particular job or jobs. They also help with
quality assurance as a check that standard
procedures are being followed.
 Reference documentation - provides neither an
instructional nor a training role; it is simply a
repository of information. It is used by users who are
already trained, to remind them of intricate details
that they cannot be expected to remember. Reference
documentation will be at the user’s fingertips while
the product is being used.

Michael U. Mamitag
•Technical documentation. This is designed for the
people responsible for producing or maintaining the
hardware or software. When you buy a new
computer, you generally get a certain amount of
technical documentation of the hardware, so that
you (or a technician you employ) know what
upgrades and so on are applicable to your computer.
Computer users almost never see technical
documentation of software, which is generally
confined to the organisation(s) where the software is
developed.

Michael U. Mamitag
Technical documentation describes the
design and construction of a hardware or
software product. It is not intended for
users of the product, but for the people
who build and maintain the product.
Technical documentation therefore tends
to be more detailed and formal than user
documentation. It is generally written and
maintained by the same people that it
serves, for example: Computer Engineers
and programmers.

Michael U. Mamitag
Can be either
 Printed or
 On-line (computer based)
Includes information that describes
 The construction of the computer (hardware) or
 The software that runs the computer
Examples of technical documentation include:
Data documentation, Program documentation, and
Hardware documentation.

Michael U. Mamitag
Media for Documentation
Computer documentation is presented in a wide
range of forms, from the traditional paper books to
various computerised media. These media can
generally be divided into three groups:
 Paper documentation (print media)
 Static on-line documentation
 Dynamic on-line documentation

Michael U. Mamitag
The choice of medium is determined by many factors.
The most important is usability – how well the
documentation helps the users of the application.
This is determined by the nature of the user’s
requirements and the appropriateness of the medium
to the task.
When developing documentation, it is important to
understand the user’s requirements to know which
medium is preferable. In a lot of cases both forms
may be required.

Michael U. Mamitag
Testing Installed Hardware and Software
Installation testing is a kind of quality assurance
work in the software industry that focuses on what
customers will need to do to install and set up the
new software successfully. The testing process may
involve full, partial or upgrades install/uninstall
processes.

Michael U. Mamitag
The simplest installation approach is to run an install
program, sometimes called package software. This package
software typically uses a setup program which acts as a
multi-configuration wrapper and which may allow the
software to be installed on a variety of machine and/or
operating environments. Every possible configuration
should receive an appropriate level of testing so that it can
be released to customers with confidence.

Michael U. Mamitag
Stress test (sometimes called a torture test) is a form of
deliberately intense and thorough testing used to determine
the stability of a given system or entity. It involves testing
beyond normal operational capacity, often to a breaking
point, in order to observe the results.
Reasons can include: to determine breaking points and safe
usage limits; to confirm that the intended specifications are
being met; to determine modes of failure (how exactly a
system may fail), and to test stable operation of a part or
system outside standard usage.

Michael U. Mamitag
In software testing, a system stress test refers to tests
that put a greater emphasis on robustness, availability,
and error handling under a heavy load, rather than on
what would be considered correct behavior under
normal circumstances.
To prevent sort of headache, I always recommend giving
new systems a thorough stress-test to shake out the
bugs before you spend too much time on the system.
Yes, it takes some time and effort, but it is well worth it
in the long run as you can usually identify (or even
push over the edge) components that were likely to give
you problems in the short to medium term.

Michael U. Mamitag
Example Stress Test
a. Stress-testing the CPU (Critical)
The CPU is one of the most important
components to test because overheating here
can lead to all sorts of problems, from
crashes to total system death.
Software Tool:
Prime 95
(http://www.mersenne.org/download/)

Michael U. Mamitag
How to use?
Download using the link
provided>unpack>run the
executable file.

Run a torture Test

Source: http://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-stress-test-
your-new-pc-to-shake-out-any-faults/
Michael U. Mamitag
b. Stress-testing RAM (Critical)
Another critical component that needs thorough
testing in a new PC is the RAM. Bad RAM can
cause all sorts of annoying problems, from
application crashes to random system restarts.
The best tool for testing RAM is Memtest86+
(another free tool). You download this tool and
run it from a CD/DVD or USB flash drive.
Like testing the CPU, testing the RAM will take a
long time (patience is a virtue).

Michael U. Mamitag
 MemTest86+ v1.00 Interface
Souce: http://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-stress-test-your-
new-pc-to-shake-out-any-faults

Michael U. Mamitag
c. Stress-testing the hard drive (Optional)
Stress testing hard drives. If you have a good
backup then losing a hard drive isn't that big of a
deal.

These are some stress test for different hardware.

All software used in the preceding procedures were
used according to its license agreement. Using
cracked or pre-activated software is strongly
prohibited please use open source software to avoid
intellectual piracy.

Michael U. Mamitag
 Available Open Source Stress Test Software

a. MemTest 86+ (http://www.memtest.org/)

b. Prime 95 (http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft/)
c. HDTune Commercial (http://www.hdtune.com/)
d. Furmark (
http://www.ozone3d.net/benchmarks/fur/)

Michael U. Mamitag
 HDTune Pro 4.60
Source:
http://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-stress-test-yo
ur-new-pc-to-shake-out-any-faults/
Michael U. Mamitag