A list of functional requirements has been developed by the Texas Test Plan Team (TTPT) for tools that support the market in testing retail transactions in an automated fashion. These requirements have been broken into 3 functional groups.
Transaction Validation
File Transfer Protocol Requirements
Transaction Samples
Reason:
The benefits of an automated testing system include:
Improve the quality of transactions during the market test flights - There is significant potential to reduce or eliminate transaction formatting problems in the middle of testing flights, where many MPs could be delayed because of one MPs failure to comply with Tx SET EDI standards. ERCOT has been asked to provide error statistics. ERCOT will track during flight 0105 and provide an error percentage that could have been caught by an Automated Test System. ERCOT will report back at the end of flight prior to TAC submission.
Improve the quality of the data in the ERCOT marketplace “ Market participants will use automated testing to verify internal system changes that do not require market testing.
Reduce the effort required to complete certification testing for all MPs, decreasing the costs associated with market testing, and increasing market savings - Current testing protocols require significant resource commitments from all MPs and from ERCOT. It is hoped that an automated testing system will help reduce the number of dedicated testing resources. ETOD served as the primary certification tool in Tx SET versions 1.4, 1.5, & 1.6 for 3 TDSPs. Feedback from those parties was that the system used at that time met their requirements while reducing costs.
Improve the 'time-to-market' for new REPs or REPs entering new TDSP territories, enhancing competition in the market€“ An automated testing system could be used for certain scenarios that would otherwise require End-to-End certification testing. These Testing scenarios (Tracks) could include business functionality and changes in service territories. This would improve the ’s time-to-market when implementing these changes. In addition, the use of automated transaction verification should reduce the need for contingency scripts which could also improve the time to market.