The Card Services Platform — rapid delivery of giant systems

Abstract

This paper describes the top-level integration strategy for delivering the Card Services Platform (CSP), formerly known as Cashless Services Replacement System (CSRS), probably the largest successful integration by a single BT team to date. This paper explains the need for such a strategy to evolve, leading to significant efficiency improvements. It identifies the need for the careful management of integration testing of the complex interfaces involved in a system comprised of over 40 large computer systems, spread across the country. It shows how potential operational difficulties can be identified in the system testing phase and eradicated before impacting the product in a ‘live’ situation. It outlines testing techniques, test coverage, granularity of test results and ‘measure of goodness’ of the tested product.