NetDocuments is synonymous with document management in the legal industry, but as with many other document management systems (DMS) it poses several challenges for the software testers tasked with keeping it optimised.
One of the main issues when it comes to testing your NetDocuments implementation is not so much the testing itself, but deciding which requirements, connection points, dependencies and others facets of the system’s coverage in your organisation will need to be taken into account during testing. For example:
- Which other systems does NetDocuments integrate with?
- What customisations have been done to NetDocuments that could affect test results?
- Who has access to NetDocuments and how will testing affect these users?
- Which data stores may be affected by testing?
Once the exact coverage of the testing requirements has been established, testers will face more specific challenges, depending on the type of testing they’re doing. Here are the top five challenges a typical firm can expect when testing a NetDocuments deployment:
- Multiple platforms: functional and performance testing will likely need to account for the different platforms across which NetDocuments is accessible and available to users, including various desktop platforms, remote platforms, and mobile devices.
- Security concerns: it goes without saying the data managed by NetDocuments is highly sensitive and security levels cannot be compromised under any circumstances. This typically requires multiple simulated data sets – or even user accounts – to be created well before any meaningful testing can take place.
- Comparative performance: it’s difficult to gauge how well a NetDocuments implementation is performing without some sort of baseline. Usually this entails testing it against another DMS, but if this is not practical, a performance benchmark needs to be established against which future performance testing scripts can be written and measured.
- Cloud-based testing: NetDocuments is often deployed globally via the Cloud, so testing needs to take into account relative performance and latency issues.
- User-based testing: the success of any NetDocuments deployment ultimately comes down to user acceptance, so it’s important to create as smooth as transition for users (with new deployments), or present new features and customisations to existing users while taking stock of their feedback.
The benefits of NetDocuments far outweigh the challenges of a successful deployment. Maintaining fictionality, performance and user acceptance is equally important, and should be considered part of a holistic approach to testing and managing your NetDocuments deployment.