HK$9 million systems fail again: Easy Invigilation suspended, Easy Check-in remains in use; HKEAA says stress tests were conducted
900萬元系統再故障 監考易停用報到易續用 考評局：有做壓測
The Easy Check-in and Easy Invigilation systems, developed at a cost of nearly HK$9 million for use in check-in and candidate identity verification respectively for the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination, malfunctioned for two consecutive days. The Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority announced last night that Easy Invigilation would be suspended from today and attendance would instead be checked manually on paper, while candidates would continue to check in using Easy Check-in. HKEAA Secretary General Xiangdong Wei said it would take some time to fix the problem and that the authority did not want it to affect the examinations ahead. The authority disclosed that it had completed stress testing with the contractor a month and a half ago, without third-party testing being involved; the cause of the problem is still under investigation. Francis Fong Po-kiu, honorary president of the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation, estimated that if the system failure was unrelated to network or traffic problems, it could have been caused by too much data overlapping simultaneously, or by a programming problem. He suggested that the authority and the developer remove the errors and conduct sufficient user and stress testing.
斥資近900萬元研發、分別用作中學文憑試報到及核對考生身分的「報到易」及「監考易」系統連續兩日故障。考評局昨晚宣布今起停用「監考易」，改用人手紙本方式點名，考生則繼續用「報到易」報到。考評局秘書長魏向東稱需一段時間才可修復問題，不希望問題影響接下來的考試。局方透露，個半月前與承辦商完成壓力測試，不涉第三方測試，問題成因仍待調查。香港資訊科技商會榮譽會長方保僑估計若系統故障不涉網絡或流量問題，不排除是太多數據同時重疊出事，或程式設計有問題，建議局方與開發商移除錯誤，並作足夠的用家測試與壓力測試。