Software Upgrades.

Upgrading to a new release of Investment Management Software can be a substantial undertaking for a large institutional investor. Testing the functions alone is a major effort in order to assure that functions that worked before still work now, and that new functions are performing as desired. Equally important are reports and interfaces that need to be tested in order to make sure that critical daily functions still work as desired.

ICC uses a variety of techniques and tools to help with this type of effort. They have been developed over the course of numerous client engagements. We use a test case database, which is a tool that we leave behind with the client to use for future upgrades. Our methodology helps the client take a more structured approach to the testing of new releases, and tends to cover a wider range of functional testing than a client might deal with if a less rigorous approach is used.

The critical element for a client in this environment is to have people available who have substantial knowledge of the business of investments. Since these people are often in short supply, and many other projects demand a great deal of their attention, there are often not enough "arms and legs" to do the kind of software testing that the client would really like to perform. In these environments, ICC can perform a valuable service to help get a new release of software implemented, which might otherwise fall off the priority list.

Many times, a critical regulatory release must be implemented by a particular date, but there are not enough in-house resources to get the job done. In other cases, the client feels a need to adopt a more comprehensive approach to software testing, and is uncomfortable with the risk of implementing a new release without adequate testing. ICC can help in all of these situations.