With the increasing pace of change in the Emergency Services, Essex Police wanted to develop a common framework for the specification, testing and acceptance of all Essex Police Information Systems. With this in mind, Syntech Systems was asked to run a series of workshops to train Essex Police IS staff. Presenters Dr Brian Williams and Simon Orbell used a mixture of theory-based presentations and practical exercises to demonstrate how to apply effective test and acceptance processes in the real world. The workshops covered key areas such as:

• The importance of User Requirements
• The difference between Requirements and Technical Specifications
• Tracing User Requirements through design to verification and acceptance
• Gap analysis
• Developing test scripts in the real world
• The difference between functional and performance testing
• Repeating tests and regressions testing

Each session of the workshop started with a presentation on the theory of testing and acceptance. Delegates were then presented with real-life exercises and, working in groups, had an opportunity to put theory into practice. The exercises provided a view from the suppliers’ perspective and targeted one of the key skills of test and acceptance work – writing clear, simple and accurate user requirements. Each session closed with a presentation of a real-life project, which highlighted the most effective way to approach test and acceptance of the project in the real world.

The workshops examined the whole lifecycle of the test and verification process from requirements capture to acceptance into service and beyond to identify what needed to be done in order to ensure that the delivered system satisfied all its requirements. Syntech Systems Managing Director Simon Orbell maintains:

“Key to the success of any user specification is that each requirement must be testable and proven to be effective with a measurable outcome.”

At the end of the course delegates were presented with an information pack covering course content and test examples. Commenting on Syntech’s testing workshops and their results, Brian Jaggs, the Essex Police IT Manager, said:

“The workshops were clearly delivered ensuring all participants were involved.  They brought home to all of us the importance of thoroughly planning all user specifications and testing processes before rushing headlong into implementing a system and then having to deal with issues that could have been solved before implementation.”  

The workshop is now available to Emergency Services throughout the UK. For further information please contact Lucy Adams ( This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it , 01483 569853).