Much best practice has evolved in recent years for how to test and automate the testing of business application logic written in modern programming languages. Many of these business applications rely on database backends, whether they are relational, or latterly No-SQL databases. There is also a recent surge in the use of data warehousing and business intelligence for data interpretation and mining.

Surprisingly, little common practice has emerged for testing in these areas. While tools have appeared and been around for several years to support simple database test automation, the tools are surprisingly low on capability and no clear best practices have been widely documented even though they clearly exist.

In this module, participants are taught the application of best practices to testing databases, their schemas, their queries and stored procedures, their data migration, export and import scripts. A clear focus on test automation and what should be covered by automated tests is given.

The course is very practical, with the taught segment being no more than 40%, the remaining 60% being carried out through hands-on practical DB testing activities. Participants are introduced to direct test automation within the DB, across a connection from test code at the client, and some examples of third party test automation tools.