CPHIMS Review Guide by Himss

Author:Himss
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: CRC Press

Test Controls

System controls are implemented to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data and the overall management of a system during design, development, testing, and deployment. Some of the most common types of test controls include version controls (also called revision controls), security audits, and change controls.2

Version control (or revision control) tracks and provides control over changes to source code. Software developers and testers sometimes use version control software to maintain documentation and configuration files, as well as source code. As teams design, develop, and test software, it is common for multiple versions of the same software to be running in different sites and for the software’s developers to be working simultaneously on updates. Often bugs or features of the software will be present in only certain versions due to the fixing of some problems and the introduction of new ones as the program develops. Therefore, for the purposes of locating and fixing bugs, it is vitally important to be able to retrieve and run different versions of the software to determine in which version(s) a problem occurs.

Security audits are manual or automatic systematic, measurable technical assessments of a system or application. Manual assessments include interviewing staff, performing security vulnerability scans, reviewing application and operating system access controls, and analyzing physical access to the systems. Automated assessments include system-generated audit reports and software that monitors and reports changes to files and settings on a system. Systems that require security audits can include personal computers, servers, network routers, and switches.

Change control is a formal process used to ensure that changes to a product or system are introduced in a controlled and coordinated manner. It reduces the possibility that unnecessary changes will be made to a system without forethought, introducing faults or undoing changes made by other users. Typical activities that would call for change control are patches to software products, system configuration changes, installation of new operating systems, upgrades to network routing systems, and changes to the electrical power systems supporting the infrastructure. Change control is also a means by which the number of changes in an environment at any one time is controlled.

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