OPERATIONAL ASSURANCE
Testing readiness before deployment
I spent six months designing test steps and testing simulated transactions for a replacement retail system, then led eight development-team members because of my store and operational experience. I helped refine processes and assisted the stock team with its stock-movement solution.
Designing and testing operational scenarios before leading the test team
Live trading simulation in the test environment
My contribution
After many fixes, I ran a five-day store simulation covering opening, stock receipt, transfers, sales and closing. We could not complete one trading day without errors. The supplier treated defects as chargeable change requests, making recovery increasingly costly.
What followed
When the VP requested my assessment, I advised that the system was not fit for purpose and that I saw no viable recovery route with that supplier. He mothballed the project; it was not revisited for about three years.