MetaSuite and_hp_quality_center_enterprise

Collect, Transform, Generate and Test
MetaSuite and HP Quality Center Enterprise, generating Test Data
from any data source from any platform, including mainframe

Table of contents
Executive Summary ...........................................................................................................................3
MetaSuite ...........................................................................................................................................3
Problem Statement ...........................................................................................................................4
1. Testing Cost .............................................................................................................................4
2. Storage Cost ............................................................................................................................4
3. Privacy-related issues .............................................................................................................4
4. Reputation damage and direct business loss .......................................................................4
Major Challenges for Preparing and Managing Test Data ................................................................5
Realistic data are hard to collect and sort ................................................................................5
Correct test data are diff icult to assemble and need high IT skills ..........................................5
Unmasked sensitive data put the business at risk ....................................................................5
Re-using or adjusting test data is diff icult to accomplish ........................................................5
Solution Description ..........................................................................................................................6
Step 1 ▶ COLLECT ......................................................................................................................6
Step 2 ▶ TRANSFORM ................................................................................................................6
Step 3 ▶ GENERATE ....................................................................................................................7
Step 4 ▶ TEST .............................................................................................................................7
Benefi ts ..............................................................................................................................................7
Use Case 1 – Test Data Wizard ...........................................................................................................8
1. Collect the source data ...........................................................................................................8
2. Sample .....................................................................................................................................8
3. Transform and mask ...............................................................................................................9
4. Generate and run the program ..............................................................................................9
5. Input for HP Quality Center Enterprise ................................................................................10
Use Case 2 – Standard MetaSuite ...................................................................................................11
1. Collect the source data .........................................................................................................11
2. Sample ...................................................................................................................................12
3. Transform and mask .............................................................................................................13
4. Generate and run the program ............................................................................................13
5. Input for HP Quality Center Enterprise ................................................................................13
Summary / Conclusion ....................................................................................................................13
2 MetaSuite and HP Quality Center Enterprise

Executive Summary
Uniquely, MetaSuite is capable of integrating data
from any source to any target on any platform
(e.g., Windows, a fl avor of Unix or Linux, or a main-frame
system like z/OS or BS2000). Using MetaSuite,
organizations can fully capitalize on the wealth of
data in all their business-critical solutions.
In this document, we will concentrate on the aspect
of MetaSuite that complements HP Quality Center
Enterprise, namely its rich and extensive Test
Data Management capabilities, which are one of
MetaSuite’s major assets.
This powerful solution is designed to automate the
generation or extraction of test data, off ering pow-erful
sampling and masking functions. Such test
data can be generated based on real production
data or using substitution data sets.
The main benefi ts of this solution include reduced
development eff orts and costs, enhanced reliability
and security of your applications and compliancy
with privacy regulations.
This White Paper targets all parties technically
interested in MetaSuite, be it executives, technical
managers, soft ware architects, operations people
or developers, and specifi cally everyone involved
in Test Data Management.
MetaSuite and HP Quality Center Enterprise 3
MetaSuite
MetaSuite is a soft ware solution to rapidly
generate or extract, transform and deliver
large and complex data volumes.
It is a powerful Data Integration solution
that can be used for different objectives
such as data acquisition for Business
Intelligence and data warehousing, con-solidation
and delivery of master data in
support of Master Data Management, data
migrations and conversions, and Test Data
Management.

Problem Statement
Before delivering an application to the market, it is essen-tial
to submit it to extensive testing.
Such testing processes must be cost-eff ective, compliant,
reliable and secure, but they should also be repeatable in
order to reduce the application development lead-time
and costs.
Therefore, Test Data Management is an essential step
in the development process of an application. Test Data
Management addresses the following issues:
1. Testing Cost
When using a full copy of your production data for test-ing
purposes, it is obvious that the testing process will
consume a lot of computer time and resources, as well as
an increased management cost for handling such large
volumes of data. A smaller, representative sample of the
data would be enough for your testing needs.
When working with production data for your testing
activities, your company might lose time and money with
every disruption of the day-to-day operational activities.
As generating test data is a recurring process, automat-ing
this process will not only speed up the process, but
will also reduce the costs and the risks of error involved.
2. Storage Cost
Full copies of production data are not only time consum-ing,
both in computer time and lead time, but they also
require storage space.
Performing your tests on a representative sample of
the data would reduce the required space and the time
needed to copy and store the production data.
3. Privacy-related issues
The use of production data also involves privacy-related
legal issues. All over the world, governments have pri-vacy
laws.
The USA have Sarbanes- Oxley for Data Protection &
Integrity, PCI OSS for payment card data security and
HIPAA for federal protections regarding personal health
information. In Europe, we have the Data Protection
Directive.
4. Reputation damage and direct busi-ness
loss
Violation of the above-mentioned privacy laws can not
only lead to huge fi nes, but also to reputation damage,
which is another important reason for implementing test
data management.

Major Challenges for Preparing and Managing Test Data
Realistic data are hard to collect and
sort
Business application data are typically spread across the
organization and stored in diff erent ways. This can turn
the extraction of data into a time-consuming and com-plex
process.
Accessing and extracting test data usually takes a large
portion of the testing eff ort. In addition, testing teams
usually have limited skills for dealing with the complexity
of all the data sources. They oft en have to rely on other
people to retrieve the necessary data.
Correct test data are diff icult to assem-ble
and need high IT skills
To reduce the amount of test data, you need to make sure
that your sample is representative for all of the produc-tion
data. This means that you need to use statistically
relevant and correct sampling formulas.
For your samples, you also have to make sure that you
keep the correct links between, for example, customer
data, related invoices and payments.
Unmasked sensitive data put the busi-ness
at risk
Business information stored in the operational data hold
a large number of sensitive personal and business infor-mation.
Due to the privacy laws, such information cannot
be shared for testing purposes.
Therefore, is it important that these data can be com-pletely
and irreversibly masked, so they can be shared
with everyone in the testing environment, in or outside
the company.
Re-using or adjusting test data is diff i-cult
to accomplish
Manually creating and maintaining test data is an expen-sive
and time-consuming activity. That is why you should
have a repeatable process that is able to refresh the test
data by executing a pre-defined program against the
actual production data or using substitution data sets.

Solution Description
MetaSuite provides a functionality for generating test data in a fast, smooth and secure way. First you collect or describe
the defi nition of your test data and secondly, you create the test data itself.
MetaSuite provides two ways for generating those test data:
1. By using the standard MetaSuite functionalities.
2. By using the MetaSuite Test Data Wizard.
The Test Data Wizard generates test data on a one-to-one basis (one source is mapped to one target). In 80% of the
cases this will be suff icient. For more complex generations of test data, whereby you want to add extra fi elds, combine
multiple fi le defi nitions, etc., you have to use the standard MetaSuite functionalities.
In both cases, the principle is the same: the data are collected, the sampling and masking parameters are specifi ed, the
test data are generated and the output is made available to HP Quality Center Enterprise for testing purposes.
Step 1 ▶ COLLECT
The first step consists in establishing the cor-rect
defi nitions for your data (using MetaStore
Manager).
The source data can be your own production
data, but you can also use substitution files
and tables such as lists of addresses or names.
Data sources from any platform, including main-frame,
can be used as input.
MetaSuite MetaStore Manager provides a simple
“collect” function that will collect those defi ni-tions
for you. Once collected, MetaSuite will
present these defi nitions in an internal, easy-to-use,
uniform format.
MetaSuite MetaMap Manager lets you specify
the mapping rules, and the required sampling
and masking parameters.
Step 2 ▶ TRANSFORM
When using the Test Data Wizard, these actions
can be performed in a few simple clicks:
1. Select the data defi nition
The fi rst step consists in specifying the data defi -
nition to be used for selecting the data.
2. Select a sampling method
Once the data definition has been specified,
you can select the sampling method, by using
pre-defi ned sampling formulas.
3. Mask or anonymize the data
Using the same wizard, you have the following
masking possibilities:
• Select a system-defi ned masking or ano-nymization
routine.
• Create your own sampling formula as a
user-defi ned function. Once defi ned, it can
be made available for use by others.
• Use the content of a table in order to mask
your data.

Benefi ts
The integration of MetaSuite with HP Quality Center Enterprise provides the following benefi ts:
✓ Reduced testing and storage costs
✓ Secured and anonymized test data
✓ Compliancy with privacy regulations
✓ Protection against reputation damage and direct business loss
✓ Automated sampling and masking process
✓ Accelerated application testing
✓ No disruption of the day-to-day operational activities
✓ Supports all input sources, including mainframe
✓ Outputs to a great variety of formats, including XML
Step 3 ▶ GENERATE
Once you have executed Step 1 (Collect) and
Step 2 (Transform), you can generate a program
that will run on the platform of your choice, be
it Windows, a fl avor of Unix or Linux or a main-frame
system like z/OS or BS2000.
Step 4 ▶ TEST
Now you can execute the generated program.
As a result, you will obtain a system overview
report (fi les read, records excluded by the sam-pling
process) and the fi nal output data. If the
result is not what you want, you can change
the sampling routine or the masking and ano-nymization
routines until you obtain the desired
result.
Once the results are satisfactory, you can make
the program available to others.

Use Case 1 – Test Data Wizard
In 80% of the cases, the Test Data Wizard will cover your needs for generating test data. For very complex generations
of test data, you will have to execute the diff erent steps using the standard MetaSuite components (see Use Case 2 –
Standard MetaSuite).
1. Collect the source data
Collect the correct defi nitions for your source data in the required format.
The source data can be your own production data, but you can also use substitution fi les and tables such as lists of
employees, addresses, names. Data sources from any platform, including mainframe, can be used as input.
2. Sample
Extract the sample fi le by selecting one of the pre-defi ned sample routines.
▶ Select the Dictionary File and
Dictionary Record
▶ Select the Target Type
▶ Select the sampling routine
▶ Specify the sampling para-meters

3. Transform and mask
Apply the required masking or anonymization routine.
4. Generate and run the program
The program is now ready to be generated.
▶ Double-click the target field
you want to mask or anony-mize
▶ Select the required function
type
Click the Generate button to
generate and to run the program
in order to obtain the fi nal out-put
data.

The result:
Notice in the example above that the fi rst and last name have been replaced by the system functions “FIRST-NAME” and
“SUR-NAME”, i.e., Osama;BOOTH has become Henry;Neys.
5. Input for HP Quality Center Enterprise
Use the test data in HP Quality Center. The test data generated by MetaSuite can be loaded into the database used by
HP Quality Center Enterprise to run the tests. This process is repeatable and allows you to refresh test data with actual
values.
MetaSuite
Input data
Result
Collect Transform Generate
Transform data
with
Test Data Wizard
Export and
Generate Test Data
HP Quality Center Enterprise
Collect
Data definitions

Use Case 2 – Standard MetaSuite
For more complex test data, you cannot make use of the Test Data Wizard. For example, if the target fi le does not have
the same structure as the source fi le, or if many input fi les have to be joined together, … In such cases, you need to use
the standard MetaSuite functionalities to obtain the test data.
MetaSuite contains two basic components: MetaStore Manager and MetaMap Manager.
• MetaStore Manager is used in order to maintain all data defi nitions, also called metadata.
• MetaMap Manager is used in order to create models: logical relationships between the data defi nitions which can
be used both as source or target fi le. He can also add procedures. Models can be transformed into executable pro-grams
by means of the Generate functionality.
The following sections describe the steps in more detail:
1. Collect the source data
MetaStore allows you to collect the data defi nitions of the source and target structures you want to work on. Aft er col-lecting
the data defi nitions in the original format, MetaSuite translates these defi nitions in an internal, uniform format.
▲ Example of the MetaStore Collect of an XML fi le.
MetaStore provides a hierarchical view of your data fi les or database tables and gives you full access to the details of
your data. Once you have the data defi nitions, you can use MetaMap to develop your program and specify the sampling
and masking parameters.

2. Sample
MetaMap, the second component, allows you to defi ne the subset (sampling) and to mask or anonymize the data. By
using the look-a-head-parser, you can select one of the predefi ned sampling routines.
In this example, we take a sample that represents 20% of the source data, chosen at random. Note that several other,
more complex, sampling routines are available or that you could easily create your own sampling routine, which later
on can be made available to others by defi ning it as a user-defi ned routine.
Once you have defi ned the sample, you just need to map the sample to your target. MetaSuite disposes of an easy-to-use
Mapping Wizard to do this. The Mapping Wizard maps by fi eld sequence or by name.
The result:

3. Transform and mask
In the next step, you can mask the data. The same simple principle applies: you use one of MetaSuite’s pre-defi ned
masking routines or your own user-defi ned sampling routines.
In the example below, the numeric OrderId fi eld will be replaced with a random number between 123 and 1234:
4. Generate and run the program
Once all defi nitions have been selected and all parameters have been defi ned, you generate an executable program.
This program can run on a range of platforms including mainframe, BS2000, Unix, Windows, VMS and I-series. More
information on how MetaSuite helps with generating test data can be found in the standard user documentation on our
product website: www.metasuite.be/infocenter.
5. Input for HP Quality Center Enterprise
Use the test data in HP Quality Center. The test data generated by MetaSuite can be loaded into the database used by
HP Quality Center Enterprise to run the tests.
This process is repeatable and allows you to refresh test data with actual values.
Summary / Conclusion
MetaSuite complements the HP Quality Center Enterprise by providing a test data generation tool which
allows creating a representative sample that can be used to eff ectively test your application in a realistic
business-like environment using masked data.
It supports all kinds of sources, including mainframe, and outputs to a variety of formats.
This highly increases the quality of the application testing process while reducing the costs and speeding up
the time-to-market.
For More Information
To know more, visit http://www.metasuite.com. Contact IKAN Solutions: info@minerva-soft care.de

IKAN Solutions N.V.
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Tel. +32 (0)15 44 50 40
info@ikan.be
www.ikan.be
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part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically
or mechanically, for any purpose, without the express written permission of IKAN Solutions N.V.
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info@minerva-softcare.de
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