Chandrashekhar M V and Manini Sharma, Intel Corporation
Standardized Specification for Unified Test Library and Automatic Test Script creation with Fault Tolerance System for Systemic Recovery of Complex Test Beds
The process of test content development, test automation of complex systems, involving unstable or under-development hardware & software, is a challenging task. How do we curb the churn in test content, automation reliability efforts, and stability issues, and save resources with maximum reuse? At Intel, multiple programs are executed in parallel and incrementally. With traditional test development, it was tedious to accurately identify
Target Audience: Intermediate
Chandrashekhar M V and Manini Sharma, 2016 Technical Paper, Abstract, Paper, Slides, Notes, Video.
test re-use, and also traceability of re-use when the test cases were cloned and modified to suit various program needs. System test designs are complex in nature for the hardware, firmware and software system as single product deliverable. A solution was needed which allowed test content convergence, effortless scalable automation, and reliable execution infrastructure.
The approach comprised of 4 components: Unified test class, A Metadata based test syntax, Auto Script Generator, and Fault tolerance system. The approach is scalable on multiple factors of Platform and OS independence (including Internet of Things, Wearables, Phones, Tablets etc. on iOS, Android and Windows), with data-driven capability of input/output parameters. Metadata approach enables custom report capability, re-use of information, e-mail notifications, APIs to integrate with other tool chains and also provides debugging ease with logs. This approach also enables continuous integration in a distributed environment. This was implemented on Intel’s highest revenue generating platforms across two product families. It has given 9X test development effort savings, increased automatable content from 50% to 80%, overall cost avoidance of ~$1M. The approach also resulted in 15% improvement in the test coverage on stability state dependency of tests. To conclude, Unified Test Class, UDL and FTS is a powerful solution to have a tightly coupled, secure automation focused test development which can be used as a standardized software testing product.
