How would you use test data to test the control that every new employee is assigned to a valid department?

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

To evaluate how to test the control that assigns every new employee to a valid department, I will examine each option in turn and discuss what it tests and whether it aligns with the intended control.

Option a: 'Use a valid code test to ensure that employees can only be entered into the system if their employee number is already present in the departments table.' This focuses on ensuring the employee number exists in the departments table, which is conceptually wrong because employee numbers are not the link to departments. The key relationship is that the department number for an employee must reference an existing department. This option tests a referential integrity constraint in the wrong direction and does not directly test that the department field on a new employee is valid. It misses validating the department reference itself.

Option b: 'Use cascading updates to ensure that when a department number is changed in the departments table that all records in the employees table have their departments numbers changed to the new number.' This describes a cascade update behavior, which is about maintaining consistency when a department’s identifier changes. While related to referential integrity, it is not a test of how a new employee is assigned to a valid department. It tests an update propagation scenario rather than input validation at creation time. It also assumes the department number could change, which is less about creating a valid assignment and more about keeping existing records in sync.

Option c: 'Create a new employee record in the employees table and enter an invalid department number in the department field and see if the computer rejects it. Then create a new employee record with a valid department number and see if the computer accepts it.' This directly targets the core control: when inserting a new employee, the department reference must be validated. The test first checks that invalid input is rejected (ensuring validation exists), then verifies that valid input is accepted (positive path). This approach exercises both negative and positive scenarios for the department foreign key and confirms proper enforcement of the valid-department constraint.

Option d: 'Create a new employee record in the employees table and check that the department number is autonumbered.' If the department number were autonumbered, that would imply the system automatically assigns a department value, which is not typical for a foreign key relationship where the department must be chosen from existing departments. This option describes automatic generation rather than validating a given department value, and it ignores the requirement that the department be valid. It also could introduce referential integrity issues if the autonumbering semantics are not aligned with the departments table.

In summary, option a misinterprets the referential link, option b focuses on cascading updates rather than creation-time validation, option d describes an unrelated autopopulation behavior, and option c directly tests the essential validation of the department foreign key during new employee creation, including both invalid and valid inputs. The reasoning above shows why each incorrect choice fails to address the control, while option c aligns with the intended testing goal of ensuring that only valid departments are assigned to new employees.

How would you use test data to test the control that every new employee is assigned to a valid department?Single choice

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