Highway to Test

We’ve tested on production. There, I said it, the word is out. Despite all test-ethical objections one might have, we’ve tested on production. What for? Well, for testing a free flow toll collection system of a new highway near Rotterdam in The Netherlands. Join this talk and I’ll tell you how and why!

First some context. I’ll tell briefly about the new highway and how the toll process functions. After that I will discuss the most important risks, which ones were motivators for the production test and how the main goal of the test was formed. Next step: the production test itself. I will show how it is built up and executed. Which considerations we had to make and which challenges, possibilities, but also restrictions we encountered. How would we normally do this in test and why is that (often) different in production? Think off:

• Can we and do we want to time travel?
• Can we and do we want to manipulate data?
• Will we use production data and how about privacy?
• Are we going to use real vehicles?
• Is my test environment really a highway…?

Finally I will show the results of the test together with several conclusions and I will give a short live demonstration of some of the applications involved in the test. The session will be supported by a lot of footage: a mixture of photos and videos of the test site, the opening of the highway and a lot more! Hope you will join me!