The third Test Fest, held remotely from 18 to 20 November 2025, marked another important step in the continuous effort to validate and refine the emerging eFTI ecosystem. Building on the momentum of the previous Test Fest organised from 25 to 27 March 2025, this edition brought together experts, national teams, and technology developers from six countries and involved nine Gate implementations. Over three days, participants engaged in intensive testing, collaboration, and exchange, helping to progressively shape how cross-border eFTI interactions will function in practice.
Test Fest events have become a cornerstone of the technical collaboration between Member States and industry actors. Each edition provides an opportunity to test interoperability, identify challenges early, and share practical insights—ensuring that knowledge accumulates over time and that each Test Fest builds on the lessons of the last.
A Three-Day Programme Combining Functional and Performance Testing
The focus of Test Fest 3 was cross-border performance testing—a critical aspect for ensuring that the future eFTI ecosystem can scale reliably as the volume of digital freight information grows.
- Day 1 was dedicated to functional testing, allowing participants to validate the basic interactions between different implementations.
- Days 2 and 3 shifted to performance and scalability testing, where teams examined system behaviour under increasing loads. This included identifying bottlenecks, detecting potential errors, analysing resource consumption, and evaluating how systems react when faced with higher data volumes and more simultaneous users.
All test materials and scenarios were prepared in advance and validated by the participating teams, ensuring that the exercises reflected realistic operational conditions.
Key Takeaways and Lessons Learned
One of the most valuable outcomes of each Test Fest is the collective learning it produces. During this third edition, participants identified several insights that will guide future testing activities:
- Performance testing across the eFTI network should continue both jointly and independently.
- Preparing a Test Fest requires at least two months, and three days of testing appears to be the minimum duration for meaningful results.
- A shared preparation checklist would help streamline the process for all teams.
- The event highlighted important eDelivery communication issues, which can now be addressed collaboratively thanks to the Test Fest setup.
- The test network will remain active, enabling follow-up work and further discussions among participants via the dedicated Slack channel #efti4eu-testfest.
A Successful Step Towards a Reliable European eFTI Network
Overall, Test Fest 3 successfully demonstrated that a cross-border eFTI test network can be deployed and used effectively for performance assessments. Participants were able to evaluate their own systems’ scalability, identify improvement areas, and better understand how different national implementations interact within a shared European framework.
The hope is that this experience will inspire participants to continue testing autonomously between official Test Fests, helping to build a more resilient and interoperable eFTI ecosystem across Europe.
The eFTI4EU project extends its gratitude to the French team for hosting and coordinating this edition, and to all partners and experts who contributed to the success of Test Fest 3.
