IBM Optim Fly safely with fast accurate test

IBM Optim: Fly safely with fast, accurate test data management Jeffrey Crose, SDET – Alaska Airlines June 12, 2018

Why Do Weight and Balance on an Airplane? • Ensure that the plane does not take-off or land with more than its operationally-allowable weight • Ensure that the load carried on the plane is distributed in a manner that balances the aircraft safely • Ensure that items carried on an aircraft are stored properly © 2018 Alaska Airlines 2

History of Weight and Balance at Alaska Airlines: • Pre-1998 weight and balance calculated by hand at each station • 1998 to 2013 Loadmaster used to calculate weight and balance • 2014 Smart 4 Aviation Smart. Load implemented © 2018 Alaska Airlines 3

Challenges: • Stale data • Rare occurrence of specific scenarios • Multiple database platforms o SQL Server o Informix o Oracle • Database design issues • Personally Identifiable Information (PII) © 2018 Alaska Airlines 4

Solutions: • Global date aging • Adding additional test cases • Cross-platform data migration

Additional Benefits: • Complements test automation tools to provide realistic testing environments • Record messages to replay into training environments • Merge additional data feeds with TDM-controlled data © 2018 Alaska Airlines 6