Business Intelligence (BI) Testing

Business Intelligence (BI) is the process of gathering, analyzing, and converting raw data into efficient, accurate, and meaningful information which is used by organizations to make wise business decisions and develop effective business strategies. BI testing helps create detailed and improved insight on data which helps to make better decisions.

There are many advantages to BI testing, including:

•      Helps to identify data acquisition errors
•      Reduces maintenance and test creation time     
•      Identifies defects early in the lifecycle
•      Helps to improve the quality of data 
•      Reduces the delay time from manual testing

Testing the Source Data

In Business Intelligence, one must test the entire flow of the data, the time which the data is extracted from the source until the end. Business data usually comes from multiple sources and is in different formats, so there must be a validation to check whether source data matches with the data being sent. This stage is usually called the Extraction Phase.

Validating the data sources happens in multiple ways. This is generally called the DQ (data quality) check. Some of the data quality checks include: 

•      Performing the data count check
•      Verifying that the table's datatype meets the specification of the data model
•      Removing duplicates by using check constraints
•      Validating the accuracy and completeness of data
•      Performing the consistency check 

Testing Data Transformation

Data transformation is executed by applying business logic on raw data and converting it into Data Warehouse format. Below are the data transformation techniques used most frequently:

•      Transform the source data into destination datatype.
•      Create constraints or keys, which uniquely identify one or more data
•      Cleanse the data by removing corrupted, inaccurate, incomplete, and duplicated data

Test Data Loading

The loading of data into Data Warehouse or datamart is done in this stage.

Data Loading includes the following:

•      Validating data storage system for performance and scalability
•      Checking that the target and source database are connected (if the tool insists)
•      Verifying the logs are updated 
•      Verifying mapping parameters are configured 
•      Validating the number of tables in source and destination
•      Perform a count check before and after the load
•      Verify that invalid data are rejected and replaced with default values 
•      Verify all the source data are transformed and loaded in the target (d/w)

Test BI Report

BI Reporting is the process of gathering data and presenting it into different formats such as graphs, tables, and charts. In reports, one must check the readability and the ability to customize the data to perform operations such as searching, grouping, sorting, etc.

A Report can:

•      Convert or convey data into different visualizations for ease of understanding
•      Provides functionality like Drill down, Filters, Sort, Search, etc.  
•      Group visualization into Dashboard, Stories, etc.
•      Publish and Collaborate
•      Integrate with other tools