Sailors R M, East T D, Wallace C J, Carlson D A, Franklin M A, Heermann L K, Kinder A T, Bradshaw R L, Randolph A G, Morris A H
Department of Medical Informatics, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, USA.
Proc AMIA Annu Fall Symp. 1996:234-8.
Systematic, through testing of decision support systems (DSSs) prior to release to general users is a critical aspect of high quality software design. Omission of this step may lead to the dangerous, and potentially fatal, condition of relying on a system with outputs of uncertain quality. Thorough testing requires a great deal of effort and is a difficult job because tools necessary to facilitate testing are not well developed. Testing is a job ill-suited to humans because it requires tireless attention to a large number of details. For these reasons, the majority of DSSs available are probably not well tested prior to release. We have successfully implemented a software design and testing plan which has helped us meet our goal of continuously improving the quality of our DSS software prior to release. While requiring large amounts of effort, we feel that the process of documenting and standardizing our testing methods are important steps toward meeting recognized national and international quality standards. Our testing methodology includes both functional and structural testing and requires input from all levels of development. Our system does not focus solely on meeting design requirements but also addresses the robustness of the system and the completeness of testing.
在将决策支持系统（DSS）发布给普通用户之前进行系统全面的测试，是高质量软件设计的关键环节。省略这一步骤可能会导致依赖一个输出质量不确定的系统这种危险甚至可能致命的情况。全面测试需要付出巨大努力，而且是一项艰巨的工作，因为便于测试的工具尚未得到充分开发。测试工作并不适合由人工完成，因为它需要对大量细节保持不懈关注。由于这些原因，大多数现有的决策支持系统在发布之前可能没有得到充分测试。我们成功实施了一项软件设计和测试计划，这有助于我们实现预先发布前持续提高决策支持系统软件质量的目标。虽然需要大量精力，但我们认为记录和规范测试方法的过程是朝着符合公认的国家和国际质量标准迈出的重要一步。我们的测试方法包括功能测试和结构测试，并且需要各级开发人员的参与。我们的系统不仅专注于满足设计要求，还注重系统的稳健性和测试的完整性。
