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November 03, 2008
Testing failures behind T5 'embarrasment', say MPs
Systems testing and training failures wrecked Heathrow opening
By Mike Simons, Computerworld UK
The problems that led to a “national embarrassment” at the Heathrow Terminal 5 opened earlier this year were caused by poor training and systems testing, according to the House of Commons Transport Select Committee.
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The MPs’ report, published today (3 November), highlights the impact of building delays on testing, and failures in basic communications between British Airports Authority (BAA), which owns the £4.3 billion Terminal 5 (T5), and British Airways, who have sole use of the terminal.
The baggage handling system at the heart of T5 was designed by Vanderlande Industries and IBM and is operated by Alstec.
While Vanderlande has constructed baggage handling systems for many of the world’s largest hub airports, the "scale of the system at T5 is greater than anywhere else in the world,” the MPs noted, adding that the system employed "employs no unproven technology".
Despite the well-known risk of baggage system failures when new airport terminals open, BAA’s strategy director Mike Forster said two weeks before T5 opened: “We have a world-class baggage system that is going to work perfectly on day one”.
However, BAA knew of potential problems, the report revealed. BAA subsequently told MPs that, as a consequence of delays in the building programme and its knock on effects, “the end-to-end integration testing of key British Airways operational IT systems was delayed until 31 October (2007), which affected our ability to run both the proving trials and staff familiarisation as planned".
BAA said: "The planned sequence and content of some of the proving trials changed significantly and was reduced in scope because of the inability to access the whole of the Terminal 5 site, with several planned trials being cancelled."
Giving evidence to the MPs, the airline and the airport authority highlighted a series of basic project management failures.
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Comments received
Steve Gedney, Borland said on Tuesday, 04 November 2008
Testing is a crucial part of any project. By not allowing sufficient time to test a system, organisations run the risk of it falling at the first hurdle. Unfortunately, Heathrow’s Terminal 5 is going to be remembered as a text book example of what happens when systems are not tested properly.
Testing needs to take two forms. Testing throughout the lifecycle of the project allows flaws to be identified and rectified before implementation, ensuring that costly adjustments to live projects can be avoided. Performance testing, immediately prior to implementation and live status, allows an organisation to ensure the system can cope with the load it will be required to handle.
By not testing at either or both of these stages, organisations run the risk of repeating Terminal 5’s problems. One can only hope that such a high profile and embarrassing systems failure will demonstrate to other organisations the need to do everything necessary to avoid a similar disaster.