Software Testability: Lessons from Hardware Testing

摘要

Years ago computer system hardware faced quality and reliability problems similar to those faced today by computer system software. The hardware problems have seen dramatic resolution in the past few decades. A major reason for this improvement was the integration of testing and test automation into the hardware development process. When hardware development responsibility included testing, design features were added to support and reduce the cost of testing. Perhaps parallels can be drawn with software. This paper looks at some hardware testability features and attempts to define parallels in software. Hardware testability features include parts lists, full reset, test points, controls, 2nd sourcing, self checking, test jigs, and vendor qualification. Each of these has an analogy and application to software testability engineering. Simply identified the software parallels are respectively, component lists, full variable initialization, test access to data (fetch and store), compatibility of low level functionality, assertions, limitation of allowed calling sequences and qualification of outsourced software components. This paper details those analogies with examples. This paper was inspired by and should be attributed, in part, to the 2nd Austin Workshop on Test Automation (Software Testability).