Testing pays off for National Lottery systems

National Lottery operator Camelot says rigorous testing was the key to the successful introduction of new electronic lottery games.

The company has recently introduced internet and digital TV channels, allowing people to play without leaving home for the first time. It is also working on a mobile platform.

Camelot is spending £45m over seven years on development and running of the new channels.

Head of interactive technology Eric Brown said the company could not risk its reputation by releasing new channels that failed to work.

"The integrity of the National Lottery is paramount, so the technology has to deliver first time to very high standards," he said.

"The internet is a graveyard of reputation. We wanted to leverage other people's mistakes."

Camelot is receiving 10,000 online registrations a week, and hopes five per cent of sales will go through the interactive channels.

The company worked with specialist supplier Tescom, and outsourced its software testing.

"Testing isn't really linked to technology," said Brown. "It's about risk mitigation and we are very risk averse."

Tescom tested the software, which was developed in-house, throughout the product lifecycle, ensuring that everything worked as it should at all stages of development.

The software is based on IBM WebSphere and a DB2 database running on an RS6000 server with the AIX operating system.

"Tescom developed a very automated testing suite so we can run checks against the software and make sure we haven't broken anything that's already working," said Brown.

"What we have been able to do is launch a system we really understand. We understand what works and what doesn't work."

Camelot said the investment in testing was invaluable.

"The return on quality, set in terms of National Lottery's integrity, was seen on day one," said Brown.

"There's a lot of controversy around Camelot and the National Lottery but one thing that has never been on the agenda is the technology. It works. There was no way that, coming onto the internet or Sky or mobile in the future, that that could change in even the smallest way."