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Summary: Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) School Testing for the 2003-2004 Award Year

Publication Date: February 25, 2003

Author: General Manager: FSA Schools Channel

Summary: Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) School Testing for the 2003-2004 Award Year


Posted on 02-25-2003


TO: All Destination Points
FROM: Common Origination and Disbursement
RE: Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) School Testing for the 2003-2004 Award Year

The COD System will conduct school testing for the 2003-2004 award year from February 2003 through July 2003. School testing provides schools, third-party servicers, and software vendors with an opportunity to test business processes and system software with COD. It also allows schools, third-party servicers, and software vendors to make corrections or enhancements to software applications and processes before entering the “live” production environment.

You can find complete testing instructions in the School Testing Guide, located in Volume 7 of the 2003-2004 COD Technical Reference. This is available at: http://fsadownload.ed.gov/index.htm.

Who should participate in School Testing?Schools are not required to test with COD. However, Full Participants are strongly encouraged to participate in testing. Phase In Participants, if they choose to test, may only participate in Phase II testing (see below).

Vendors/third-party servicers may perform their own product testing on behalf of their customers. The Department will test the EDExpress software before releasing it to schools. Additional school testing is at the option of the school. Schools should contact their vendor/third-party servicer to discuss testing concerns.

Schools new to the Direct Loan and/or Pell Grant Programs must complete school testing with COD before sending data into production.

What are the testing phases?School testing is comprised of two phases, Phase I- Common Record Manual Verification and Phase II- Structured Application Testing.

Phase I - Common Record Manual VerificationThe purpose of the Common Record Manual Verification testing is to ensure that the school’s XML Common Record is properly structured according to the rules of the XML Common Record Schema. Phase I testing will not validate the data submitted within the Common Record. This testing phase is available from February 2003 through July 2003. If you would like to participate in Phase I of testing, you must sign up by July 10, 2003. Full Participants must complete Phase I testing before participating in Phase II testing. Phase In Participants do not participate in Phase I testing.

Phase II – Structured Application TestingThe purpose of the Structured Application Testing is to ensure that participants can send, receive, and process batches of records using detailed input instructions with detailed expected results issued by COD. This testing phase is available from March 2003 through July 2003. If you would like to participate in Phase II testing, you must sign up by July 10, 2003.

How Do I Sign Up for School Testing?If you would like to sign up for school testing, you must complete a COD School Testing Signup document, found in the School Testing Guide of the COD Technical Reference. After submission, allow three weeks for scheduling. You can submit the document via email to codsupport@acs-inc.com, or fax it to (716) 284-6767.

If you have questions regarding school testing, please refer to the COD School Testing Guide, located on FSA Download, at http://fsadownload.ed.gov/index.htm. You may also contact the COD School Relations Center at 800/848-0978, 800/4PGRANT or via email at codsupport@acs-inc.com.