ATEC's Approach to Integrated Testing

摘要

Integrated testing is not new to anyone in the acquisition/testing field. When asking members of the Service testing communities if they are doing integrated testing, the reply is almost always going to be affirmative. With that said, what do they mean by integrated testing. Historically, different people have offered different definitions. In an effort to provide a common point of reference, the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) provided a definition of integrated testing to the Services in 2008. They defined it as '...the collaborative planning and collaborative execution of test phases and events to provide shared data in support of independent analysis, evaluation and reporting by all stakeholders particularly the developmental (both contractor and government) and operational test and evaluation communities.'(OSD, 2008) U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC) has further refined this definition to obtain a better understanding of where we can go beyond integrated testing. When talking about integrating testing, ATEC uses the terms 'Integrated' Developmental Test and Operational Test (DT/OT) as well as 'Combined' DT/ OT. Integrated DT/OT, a special case of a Combined DT/OT, is a single-phased event that generates data to address developmental and operational issues simultaneously under operational conditions. The execution strategy for this event is based on the requirements of the program. Combined DT/OT is a single event that produces data to answer developmental and operational system issues. A Combined DT/OT is usually conducted as a series of distinct DT and OT phases at a single location using the same test items. For the case in which a single phase can be used to simultaneously meet developmental and operational issues, this testing will be referred to as an Integrated DT/OT.