InformationWeek

September 15, 1997

Virginia Insurer Sends In The Testers

he business knowledge needed for testing is supposedly the only aspect of a year 2000 project that can't be outsourced. But Trigon Blue Cross Blue Shield, with 6,000 programs and 14 million lines of mainframe computer code to convert and test for year 2000 compliance, didn't have a choice. So the Richmond, Va., health insurer hired temporary end users.

"End users have to be involved from the beginning to help us determine what date fields are critical and what transactions would adequately exercise those date fields," says Dan Clark, director of application services at Trigon. Last year, after Trigon bus iness units helped out on the first two of nine system groups to be converted and tested, they said whoa. "The business folks have more than they can handle," Clark says. "Trying to saddle them with testing something this big can't be done; they have no time for it."

In fact, developing repeatable test beds is a full-time job for 10 people over two months, says Clark-and all of the business-unit staff used last year were highly experienced senior employees, some with supervisory responsibilities. There was no way Trigon's business experts could spare that much time for the long haul.

The solution: Last November, Linda Brulé, Trigon's century-date-change test manager, hired 12 substitute testers and gave them two months of training, including the internal training programs for new hires in the business units, before turning them loose on testing. In January, 10 more were hired, trained, and put to work on the next group of systems. Trigon's year 2000 project is scheduled to begin work on a new group of systems every quarter and complete each group within nine months. "We hired our own testers and trained them in how to test and in the systems they would be responsible for testing," says Clark.

Trigon's business units weren't entirely off the hook, however. The substitute end users are supplemented with real end users who look over their shoulders, do quality assurance, and make sure the testers produce adequate test cases.

Much of Trigon's other year 2000 project was already outsourced, notes Clark. Cap Gemini America, using proprietary tools, is carrying out the code remediation and performing so-called 19xx and 20xx tests, two of the four stages of testing used in the project. Both 19xx and 20xx refer to tests after remediation that make sure the functionality is intact and will work both in this century and the next.

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