When determining who should participate in Parallel Testing activities it is important to think about who your key staff are who can identify where a major business process will have a significant change and are in a position to align their respective teams to how PeopleSoft will work moving forward.  Also key are those staff with analytical skills that can help to identify where calculation logic or payment methods appear to have slight variances between the two systems and can work with the project functional teams to determine root cause and advise them on how to make the appropriate adjustments.  Decision makers should be involved in this process as they may be areas when a configuration adjustment impacts how things work at the college.

Lastly, you will want to involve staff who are comfortable working in test environments and can work well with the mental time shifts necessary in parallel test environments.

For submission steps unzip the Requesting Access to the Parallel Test Environment (Legacy) foldable and follow the directions for submitting your testers.

Be aware that for a standard network connection and HPUX account access it takes 7 to 10 business days to establish the network connection and HPUX account.  Additional time is needed to establish the FAM access, update the Minisoft Configuration and test each user's access.  Optimally College PMs would identify testers and submit their access request 2-3 weeks in advance of the start of testing for each parallel test.

Payroll Parallel

Parallel Testing for Payroll will have a kick-off meeting with College Project Managers on 11/17/2021 to help them plan for this body of work.Activities that will involve College SMEs will commence the week of 12/1/2021 in a series of walk-through sessions for DG6 Colleges in Group A and then 3/2/2022 for those DG6 Colleges in Groups B & C, with SMEs beginning to access the parallel environments starting on 12/01/2021 for Group A colleges and 3/2/2022 for Groups B & C colleges..In order to ensure testers are ready to hit the ground running colleges will want to get their testers submitted and test their connection NO LATER THAN the day before testing starts. This would put the recommended deadline for turning in the college template for Payroll Parallel access: 11/8/2021, to ensure that any issues without working out network access for participants are worked out prior to beginning the activities.

Financial Aid Dual Processing

Financial Aid Dual Processing Testing will commence on 11/15/2021 for DG6 Colleges.  In order to ensure testers are ready to hit the ground running colleges will want to get their testers submitted and test their connection NO LATER THAN the 3 days before testing starts.  

Student Financials Parallel

Parallel Testing for Student Financials (Tuition Calculation Parallel and Go Live Conversion Approach) will commence on 10/28/2021 for DG6 Colleges.  In order to ensure testers are ready to hit the ground running colleges will want to get their testers submitted and test their connection NO LATER THAN the 3 days before testing starts.  

To request access to the legacy Parallel Test environment(s), download the attached template and populate the workbook with all of the testers, their contact information, IP address information and necessary information.  Each college must specify a college Help Desk resource responsible for assisting testers with applying the Minisoft configuration file to point the testers Minisoft application to the relevant parallel test environment.

Preparing the Parallel Test User Workbook to Submit:

1. Download the attachment at the end of this section: ctcLink CollegeName_Parallel Test Users.xlsx
2. Update the file name to include your college name, for example ctcLink Highline_Parallel Test Users.xlsx.
3. Populate the workbook for ALL Parallel Testers, or populate the workbook initially for Payroll Parallel Testers by the deadline (3 weeks prior to test start) and submit, then update for FA Dual Processing Testers and SF Parallel Testers and re-submit.
4. Include the date of request for HPUX and FAM Testers to ensure SB Technical staff can isolate additional testers in future submissions.
5. Include contact information for your local IT Help Desk staff involved in supporting your college in implementing Minisoft/Secure92.
6. Save your input and submit.  Any additions to your testers must be added to the workbook and re-submitted.

To Submit the Workbook to Request Access for Parallel Testers:

1. Email the College Parallel Tester workbook to: [email protected] and be sure to include the name and contact information for the college Help Desk resource for Minisoft.
2. A Service Desk Ticket is created by the Legacy Support Team, with the client listed as the College Project Manager and the test coordinators are cc'd on the ticket:
   1. Amy MacNeill (Testing Coordinator)
   2. Anna Rankin (Testing Coordinator)
3. The Service Desk Ticket is first assigned to the Network Team.
   1. The necessary firewall changes are applied. This step can take between 7 and 10 business days.
4. The Service Desk Ticket is then assigned to the HPUX Account Tech (Wilson Wong) for legacy test environment account access establishment.  
   1. An interim communication will be sent to each user notifying them of their HPUX Username and how to establish their password in the test environment.
   2. The user will wait until their Minisoft access has been established before testing their login.
5. The Service Desk Ticket is then assigned to the FAM Account Tech (Ryan Jackson) for legacy FAM test environment account access establishment.  
   1. An interim communication will be sent to each user notifying them of their FAM Username and how to establish their password in the test environment.
6. The Service Desk Ticket is then assigned to the Minisoft Application Tech (State Board Help Desk Team). The Minisoft Application Tech will contact the designated College Minisoft Help Desk Coordinator to confirm that the Minisoft version at the college is the latest, working version and provide the configuration template to access the DEVX2 environment.  
7. College Minisoft Help Desk Coordinator will work with the tester to ensure they have properly installed the configuration template and test their access.
8. Issues with access should be reported by emailing [email protected] or by calling the Help Desk line at (360) 704-4357 for assistance.
9. When the work is complete to establish the network connection, account access and Minisoft/Secure92 configuration template the ticket will be marked resolved and the client notified.

To add additional testers after the first workbook submission:

1. Add additional rows with a new request date to the workbook.

2. Save the workbook with a UPDATE DATE at the end of the workbook name.

3. Create a NEW Service Desk ticket to request additional testers and attach the updated workbook to the Service Desk ticket. The ticket will be addressed as outlined above.

Payroll Parallel:

By submitting the request for HPUX access the Parallel Test Team will be aware of the testing participants. No additional access request is needed for the PeopleSoft environments.  Standard User Profiles will be established for Parallel Tester access that will include the necessary roles to participate in the activities.  

The Username format follows a standard of: HCM_PP_nnn (where nnn = Company Code)

Financial Aid Dual Processing:

By submitting the request for HPUX access the Parallel Test Team will be aware of the testing participants. No additional access request is needed for the PeopleSoft environments.  Standard User Profiles will be established for Parallel Tester access that will include the necessary roles to participate in the activities.

Student Financials Tuition Calculation Parallel:

By submitting the request for HPUX access the Parallel Test Team will be aware of the testing participants. No additional access request is needed for the PeopleSoft environments.  Standard User Profiles will be established for Parallel Tester access that will include the necessary roles to participate in the activities.

Once the college tester information has been provided the network team will establish a network connection from the college tester's IP address to the copy of the legacy data stored in our test environment (DEVX2).  A firewall change is needed to enable this access for each tester.  Once this change has been made it is possible to execute a 'Ping' test if there is concern that the network connection is at issue; otherwise testing of the network connection will occur once the Minisoft/Secure92 setup is complete and testing of access to the DEVX2 environment upon login to the system will include a confirmation of network connectivity.

Tester IP for Remote Testers:

The request for an IP address for Parallel Testers will require the relevant IP address being used by the tester.  For remote testers who are testing from home using a Remote Desktop access to their regular PC at their office, the IP address of the office PC is needed.  For remote testers, logging in from home using their college's VPN, the IP of the VPN would be provided to ensure the proper firewall change is made to ensure connection.

Before college SMEs can fully engage in Parallel Test activities  they will need to verify they have access to the HPUX environment in our  test location.  To do so, they will require a Minisoft (Secure92)  application installed if they do not already have one.  For those who do  not yet have it installed, the minisoft installation materials have  been placed in this guide (see below) for your convenience.

Minisoft Installation Guide:

DEVX2 Configuration File:

The configuration file above can be stored either on the tester's  machine locally, or on a shared drive.  Once the file is stored, create a  new desktop shortcut and specify the target location of the executable  file.  In the Target field, after specifying the location of the  executable file insert a space and then in quotation marks (") enter the  file path to specify the location of the DEVX2.cfg file.

Doing so will point the tester's Minisoft application to the location  where all 3 parallel test legacy backups have been restored [Ennn for  Payroll Parallel, Dnnn for FA Dual Processing and Fnnn for Student  Financials Tuition Calculation Parallel testing].

Sample of Shortcut Target:

To ensure access to the FAM Test Instance, tester information must be included in the FAM Users tab on the workbook template.  Testers will have a test account established in FAM for their institution, in the QA environment.  Establishing the network connection to the legacy data stored in the test environment (DEVX2) will ensure the tester's access to the same domain as the FAM instance; however testers using FAM will require an additional port to be opened for their access to FAM and ensure they have the FAM link upon login to the legacy test environment.  This access should be tested at the same time the Minisoft/Secure92 testing is completed so any issues with access can be address well ahead of testing commencement.