expected
environment
Knowledge:
expected
characterization
and behavior of
runtime/test time
environment
Manual
Process
Paper
Medium
specification
and Design
Documents
Knowledge:
specified/designed
behavior and
functionality
test setup
Knowledge:
initial system,
environment, data,
and input states
automated
Process
software Medium
system under test
Knowledge:
as constructed (executable)
behavior and functionality
test execution system
Knowledge:
executable behavior
and functionality
of test system
expected
test Results
Knowledge:
expected behavior
and functionality
test Results
comparison
Knowledge:
difference
between expected
and observed
behavior
actual
test Results
Knowledge:
actual exhibited/
executed behavior
and functionality
systems predict the possible failure of
commercial aircraft, power stations,
and oil rigs sometimes weeks before
a failure might actually occur.” Cerny
is the quality assurance manager at
SmartSignal,b an Illinois-based data
analytics company.
To manage predictive analytics,
large and complex systems must be
instrumented and enormous amounts
of complicated data must be collected
from many different sources: pumps,
power meters, pressure switches,
maintenance databases, and other
devices. Sometimes data is collected
in real time, sometimes it is batched.
Simple data is monitored for thresh-
old conditions and complex interac-
tive data is analyzed for combinational
conditions. The analysis system must
recognize patterns that indicate the
future possibility of component, sub-
system, or systemic failure and what
the probability of that failure might
be. And then it needs to report what
b http://www.smartsignal.com
it finds. Sometimes these reports are
large and detailed; sometimes they are
urgent and immediate.
testing a system
Testing is the interaction of several
knowledge-containing artifacts, as
shown in the accompanying figure.
Some of these artifacts must be in ex-
ecutable software form, but many oth-
ers are often in a paper format and are
processed manually.