System testing resources for direct connection

To ensure a safe, secure and reliable service, and with many parties connecting to the pensions dashboards ecosystem, it’s crucial that connection is tested thoroughly. The Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP) website has numerous resources to support with testing.

Here is an overview of the system testing guidance and resources available for those connecting directly to the ecosystem. This is relevant for you if you are a test manager or administrator at a connecting organisation.

Direct vs indirect connection

The testing resources highlighted here are for organisations connecting directly to the dashboards ecosystem. Many pension providers and schemes will however be connecting via a third party rather than directly. This third party may be an administrator or an integrated service provider (ISP).

If you’re connecting via a third party, you don’t need to make use of these testing resources. This will be taken care of by the third party. The most important thing you can be doing in your run-up to connection is preparing your member data and deciding your approach to data matching. Keep an eye on the PDP website where we will be publishing further guidance in due course.

Types of testing

System testing is an important step in the process that makes sure the required standards are met before connecting organisations are allowed to connect to the PDP pre-production environment.

This is different to integration testing, which takes place after system testing. Integration testing involves running a series of tests in PDP’s pre-production environment. It checks that providers have built their solution to PDP’s standards, including processing find and view requests and registering matches.

System testing resources

Below is an outline of the resources available to help connecting organisations with system testing.

System test pack

The system test pack is a set of guidelines to assist participants through system testing. It helps ensure participants meet the necessary requirements before they’re accepted into the PDP pre-production environment. Once they’ve reached that stage, integration testing can take place.

The pack covers where system testing fits into the onboarding process, reference documents to be used in conjunction with the test pack, test script and test data high-level information. It also includes the benefits of using the PDP test harness and support offered.

Test harness administrator guide

This is the administrator guide for the PDP test harness consent and authorisation stub. It explains how to deploy, configure and operate the consent and authorisation stub to facilitate system testing.

It’s aimed at those responsible for setting up and operating the environment for system testing, such as administrators and testers at organisations connecting directly to the ecosystem.

Test harness testing guide

The test harness testing guide explains how to use the test harness to execute the test scripts. It provides information and instructions on running the test scripts and evidencing results. It should be used once the consent and authorisation stub is up and running.

It contains several downloadable files including the crypto pack for system testing, error scenarios postman collection, and supplementary crypto material for system testing.

mTLS guide

Mutual TLS, or mTLS for short, is a method for verifying the identity of both parties at each end of a network connection. It is used in PDP to ensure that a server will authenticate the client when a TLS connection is being established. This is enforced throughout the PDP architecture.

The mTLS guide on the PDP website provides an overview of mTLS to help participants with system testing. It is assumed that the reader has a good understanding of mTLS.

To explore these system testing resources in more detail, please visit the PDP website. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us directly at [email protected].