Why should I test my E-business system?
With the E-business industry moving so fast it is easy to overlook system testing. During the testing process potential errors should be picked up and time given to fix them. Should these errors not be picked up until the site is in production it could be embarrassing and potentially damaging to your business. Studies suggest that a fault found during user acceptance is between 40 and 1000 times more expensive than one found in the design stage.

What is a reliable E-business system?
A reliable E-business system is one that works each time, all of the time, and is able to service requests accurately. If you order a toaster from a website, you are charged for a toaster and you receive a toaster, whether you are the only customer or the 10,000th simultaneous customer.

What is a scalable system?
With the continual growth of the Internet and the E-business industry, E-business systems have to be scalable, in that as the number of customers accessing the site increases, the system has the resources to maintain an effective service. Scaling is often described in 2 ways. Scaling up refers to the ability to increase the hardware specification to meet growing demand and is reliant on advances in technology staying ahead of that demand. Scaling out refers to the ability to increase the number of servers, thus supporting increasing capacity. This is reliant on good architecture design. Aspects of a scalable system are not just limited to system hardware but the software must also be scalable.

What is a secure system?
You wouldn't buy anything over the Internet if you thought there was any chance that a hacker could gain access to your credit card details. With this in mind an E-business system must be secure, not only for credit card detail, but what about personnel details, these can be just as valuable. A secure system is one that does not allow unauthorised access to the system. However your customers must still be able to view your site and do business with you, without feeling intimidated with tight security.

What is performance testing?
Recent studies suggest that after 8 seconds of waiting, customers will give up and move to another site, this is why ensuring your site performs to a consistent standard is essential. Performance testing involves putting your system under load, running through different transactions to ensure that your site can perform. Getting 10,000 of your employees to all access your site can be somewhat of a problem, however there are plenty of tools out there to help in putting your system through its paces.

What is B2B?
B2B is the term used to describe Business-to-Business E-commerce, where one company does business with another over the Internet. It is the exchange of products, services or information between businesses. Some sources think that worldwide B2B Business will be worth $7.29 Trillion Dollars by 2004.

What is B2C?
B2C is Business to Consumer, for example if you were to buy something from amazon.com this would be a B2C transaction. B2C can include purchasing items such as CD players or services such as car insurance, or breakdown cover.

What issues should I be addressing in the planning stages?
The planning stage is the most important when testing any system, during this stage you can often find faults with the system before you even touch a keyboard. Tests need to be planned carefully with detailed test scripts of what you are testing, with the expected results.