The Rabobank uses a test method which is based on Risk Based Testing (TMAP Sogeti Nederland BV). The method is well embedded in the development process. Its success is proven in testing Business Applications. Risk Based Testing is also applicable for infrastructure projects but the approach is different.

For Instance, collecting risks for testing Business Applications starts with the business. We believe that collecting risks for an infrastructure project starts on the opposite: the technical change. Asking the business for risks regarding an infrastructure project may lead to extreme test dimensions due to the thought that the impact of a infra-change is (always) extensive. It leads to Fear-Based-Testing instead of Risk & Requirement Based Testing.

A second issue is that requirements and acceptance criteria in the infrastructure area are mostly only on high level available. Detailed requirements are rare. Finding the right requirements and acceptance criteria for infrastructure projects is the challenge for infra testing.

Major infra changes affect mostly a huge amount of business applications. Testing that amount is not advisable and regarding the real risks not necessary. Finding the real risks and the right applications to test is the challenge for infra testing.

This presentation gives a possible answer to these challenges and figures out a coherent method based on Risk Based Testing. This method is proven within several major infrastructural projects for instance: Tandem migration MIPS -> Itanium; the implementation of a new Server Back Bone; the implementation of a new baseline for AIX on 470 servers; Upgrade MQ 5.1 -> 5.3; etc.). The method manages the real risks in an effective way.