Can a Virtual CEO Improve Your Test Productivity?

Like any organization, your virtual test department needs a leader to control interactions among the workers. Such leaders of test-software agents fall under the general category of test executive (TE). They don’t need corner offices or stock options, but like real executives in business, TEs come with widely varied backgrounds and abilities. Before you choose one, carefully check résumés.

The TE job description itself can be hard to define. In general, a TE performs one or more of these tasks:

Figure 1. A test executive can provide access to graphical measurement data, such as this voltage waveform derived from a WinSoft TE. (Courtesy of WinSoft.)

Figure 2. TestStand from National Instruments coordinates the tasks performed by virtual instrument modules written in languages like LabView. (Courtesy of National Instruments.)

Figure 3. Control of multivendor virtual instruments is the hallmark of TEs like Teradyne's TestStudio, shown here providing access to various vendors’ programming modules. (Courtesy of Teradyne.)

• During test-program development, it can provide a consistent graphical shell that ties together disparate blocks of test code.

• During debug, it can provide troubleshooting aids such as trace and breakpoints.

• During test-program execution, it can control a sequence of multiple tests on one or more UUTs, making real-time decisions and logging or displaying results (Fig. 1).

• It can provide one-button initiation of complete test sequences as well as provide access to individual test modules.

• It is able to provide instructions to manufacturing test technicians.

• After test, it can analyze data and generate reports, making results available over a network.

A test executive can arise from practically any programming language that supports conditional branching. And almost any Windows-compatible application can support executive functions if it complies with Microsoft’s COM (Common Object Model) standard, which facilitates the transfer of programming objects among applications. By following COM, you can write your own TE in C, C++, or Visual Basic and transfer logged test data to a spreadsheet for analysis or to a word processor for report publication.

But your time could be better spent in writing test programs than in writing a TE. Several firms offer a variety of prepackaged, debugged programs that perform TE functions (see the product survey chart). Yet test-software vendors disagree about what constitutes a TE, with some eschewing the term altogether.

TEs vary greatly in their areas of expertise. Some are virtual one-person operations, where the owner of the company handles all roles from president to mail-room clerk. These are generally very good for a narrowly focused application and often come packaged with preconfigured PC and instrumentation hardware. Some TEs mimic vice presidents of engineering who have a solid grasp of a test application’s technical details. These VP TEs might bring with them their own virtual teams of technicians and administrative support. Other TEs imitate CEOs of global corporations, equally at home in, say, the computer and soft-drink industries. These CEO TEs can provide effective leadership to the software resources already at your disposal. Paralleling these CEOs are the generals and admirals who can lend their expertise to military test requirements.

One-Person Shop
If your application is narrowly focused—communications test, for example—you might consider the one-person-shop approach. Here, you get a TE that knows a lot about your test hardware and UUT; it rolls up its sleeves and knowledgeably controls stimuli, makes measurements, analyzes data, and generates reports.

One TE in this category is Telecom Analysis Systems’ TASKIT, which controls tests of modems and ISDN terminals on ATE systems that the vendor configures for you.

Similarly, Chroma ATE’s PowerPro controls test of telecom power supplies using the firm’s 8100 ATE system; you choose from a library of 18 preconfigured test routines, including measurements of inrush currents, noise, transient response, and output regulation. Roos Instruments’ TE, dedicated to RF and IF IC tests, controls measurement parameters such as noise figure and RF power using the firm’s R7100A PC-based ATE systems.

Specializing in manufacturing test, Checksum’s Visual MDA for Windows works with that firm’s board-test ATE. The TE embodies the expertise to handle manufacturing defect analysis, tracking production yields, identifying problem components, and monitoring component variation trends. Visual MDA for Windows can interface with board CAD data to facilitate test development. It provides histograms and other statistical-analysis tools to generate reports.

Hiring a Team
If system-specific TEs like PowerPro and Visual MDA represent sole-proprietor businesses, then packages like Agilent Technologies’ HP VEE and Geotest’s ATEasy represent the engineering VPs you can bring in to handle test-program development and execution chores in your instrumentation environment. Aimed at modular-instrument-based test applications, both packages include a flexible test-development environment as well as a mini TE, an engineering manager that makes decisions based on individual measurements from multiple instruments. Both are stand-alone packages, but you can hire assistance for them in the form of ActiveX controls that interface to bar-code readers, databases, and project-management utilities.

At the top of the TE ladder are the CEO packages. They don’t get their hands dirty; rather, they delegate measurement tasks. National Instruments’ TestStand (Fig. 2), for example, delegates instrumentation chores to virtual-instrument modules written in graphical programming environments like LabView, LabWindows/CVI, Visual Basic, and Visual C++ as well as to legacy test programs compiled as a DLL, Windows executable, or ActiveX server.

Teradyne omits the TE moniker from its TestStudio product description; nevertheless, TestStudio (Fig. 3) acts as a high-level TE, orchestrating the flow of tests written in languages like HP VEE, LabView, Visual Basic, and Visual C++ plus the company’s Lasar and Victory test-generation tools. Teradyne touts TestStudio’s tight Web integration as a convenient way to provide remote access to test results and control of test sequences.

If you’re targeting the special requirements of military and aerospace applications, look for high-ranking TEs with knowledge beneficial to those markets. TestStudio, for example, supports the generation of Test Program Sets (TPS) that military agencies and contractors require. Using TestStudio’s test-sequencing engine, you can reorder test steps and reuse existing code, preserving your TPS investment. And TYX’s PAWS TE supports Atlas, the military test-programming language. T&MW

You can contact Rick Nelson at rnelson@cahners.com.

T&MW Product Survey:  Representative PC-Based Programs with Test-Executive Functionality