software testing?

[Mark_Yedinak]

---

@acheo wrote:

Ok, I'm glad to hear that. We are testing software against DO-178B.

What are the skills set required to design a test case with LabView?

---

The answer is, it depends. Somethings may be easier to do in LabVIEW and some may be easier in TestStand. Regardless, based on your questions so far I have to assume that this is a non-trivial application and you should really get some experienced and qualified people on the team. Just because someone has years of experience with LabVIEW/TestStand doesn't necessarily mean they have the expertise to design a good automated test system. I think you need both experienced designers and developers. The system I have been working took a solid year to develop with a team of experienced people. We are in the process of making some major changes based on what we have learned with the first versions of the system and how to generalize more of the system to support a wide range of tests.

[acheo]

Thank you guys. I really appreciate your comments.

[Mark_Yedinak]

Since the thread has been revived, I'll provide a quick update on the system that I had mentioned earlier. We have redesigned the system and eliminated the use of TestStand. While the system worked, we found deployment to be somewhat problematic and we were pushing more things to the database. Our system is now a combination of LabVIEW and MySQL stored procedures. The system relies very heavily on the DB for managing the test cases and the test data. The LabVIEW application handles interacting with the DB to retrieve the appropriate tests for the selected product and then executes the tests. Test steps are loadable plugins. We have an abstract base class called step type. Test steps are derived from that base abstract class.

All data for the tests is in the DB. The underlying execution engine is generalized so we can easily test different types of products simply by loading a different set of test step classes. Given the large number of test cases and test steps that we have, the database is an absolute must for managing the test data and test cases. The sequence of tests is also stored in the database. We have a web based front end for users to develop and modify test cases. That front end looks similar to how th TestStand editor works in that you drag test steps into a sequence and use a form to configure the necessary data.

Overall, after having gone the TestStand route we found that the using it for very large number of tests and sequences it was not worth the effort to continue using it. Our execution engine if much more flexible and the use of classes for the test steps and DUTs provide a very flexible and powerful system.

[agyna]

Hi,

We are about to do the same thing: software against DO-178B, probably using labview, can someone guide me or give me any idea or document about how to proceed?

[billko]

---

@agyna wrote:

Hi,

We are about to do the same thing: software against DO-178B, probably using labview, can someone guide me or give me any idea or document about how to proceed?

---

This is so important that you shouldn't rely on advice from a forum.  You should put together a task force of engineers familiar with the standard.