Hi All,
Being a gap given today my blog about Process Control and its importance in ETL Testing.
Everything in the world should be controlled by something, like how a mom controls her kids
If we do not control the ETL process then we might not do the Correct Inserts and Updates to the target system. The code may be worn out and it behaves crazy. And if something goes wrong then you cant find the root cause of the issue. If you would have lost few records in ETL process without controlling the process then those records will be unknown for ever. Data fix is easy if something goes wrong. We can easily control the source behavior by controlling the ETL Process.
The extract , load and transfer mechanism is controlled by few attributes.
1. Load Date
2. Load Time
4. Process Identifiers
5. Record Active Date
6. Record Expiry Date
Testers should verify these attributes because
1. Are the data loaded for today’s run?
2.Are the data updated correctly?
3.Are we loading the correct data from source system?
4.Are we maintaining the historical data?
5.Are the Insert and Update process is happening correctly?
6. Are we doing the correct Catch up for the delta records
(Catch up means, I have inserted a record today and its delta record is coming one week later, this record should expire the existing record and should insert the new record.)
7. Are the reconciliation is achieved in both Insert and Update scenarios?
In ETL process, the first step is loading into Intermediate Tables – just dumping all the source data into a table for further processing. You cant keep the data in the Intermediate tables for ever, because of the Database size. So you need to delete the data. So you can Truncate or Purge the data.
Truncate – Every time delete and load the data into intermediate tables.
Purge – Keep few days of data into Intermediate tables and delete the older data from Intermediate tables. This will be useful for capturing the historical data to do the catch up.
Here testers need to verify Truncating of records are functioning or not using the Date Columns in the Intermediate tables and Purging of records are happening for given data intervals using the Date and Time columns.
So now we are extracted the Source data and its controlled for Transforming – and we do not have any Delta Logic’s in the Intermediate tables.
Coming to the Warehouse tables, we have Inserts, Updates and Logical Deletes , let me explain you how these process are controlled and how testers needs to verify the same.
Again let me take my Face Book account for better understanding.
Inserts and Process Control
Today I have created a profile using the Face Book sign up page !! and when Face Book engineer load my data into their ware house they attach today’s date as my Effective Date that is 21/12/2013 and Expiry Date as HIGH DATE (coz they don’t know when I will deactivate the account) and they will give me a Process Active Identifier (to denote it is a Insert or update record) for inserting the record and as the record is active so they will not give Process Expiry Identifier .
> Testers needs to verify Date columns and the Identifiers are for the current day load or not.
Updates and Process Control
The very next data I have updated my Display Name, now my record is going for Delta,
what will happen to existing record’s Effective Date,Effective Date,Process Active Identifier ,Process Expiry Identifier ?
and
what will happen to new record’s Effective Date,Effective Date,Process Active Identifier ,Process Expiry Identifier ?
Above questions are based on our requirements. So Testers should verify the transformation for these Process Control values are achieved as per the Source to Target specifications.
Logical Deletes and Process Control
On the third day I’m deactivating the Face Book account. Now my record in the warehouse should be deactivate in the case
what will happen to columns Effective Date,Effective Date,Process Active Identifier ,Process Expiry Identifier for my delete record?
Again testers should verify the correct transformation is achieved for the Deleted records as per the Transformation rules.
By ensuring this Process Control attributes we can ensure that
“Are we inserting the correct records into warehouse”
“Are we updating the correct records”
“Are we logically delete the correct records”
“Catch of the records are achieved”
“Maintaining the historical data and so on :-)”
Cheers
Asik
Filed under: Data Warehouse Testing - Learners Guide Tagged: Accounts receivable, ETL, Extract transform load, Insert, Process Control, Target Corporation, Test, Updates
