what people do manually with the automated version of the same,” said Kacek, “…once it works.” Bell added: “While the management team understood the advantages of test automation and we all have an engineering background, we had to keep asking: how to get buy-in?” “Our driver was to find creative ways for our customers to make decisions, what we call ‘speed to value’” Kacek asserted.

some steps

Cerny described a few of the steps they took at SmartSignal to build their automated test system:

˲ ˲Build to virtual machines and virtualization to isolate device dependence;

˲ ˲ Start simply using comma delimited scripts and hierarchical tree data views;

˲ ˲ Build up a name directory of functions;

˲ ˲ Separate global (run in any environment) from local variables;

˲ ˲Keep object recognition out of scripts, use both static and dynamic binding; and

˲ ˲ Initially automate within the development team to prove the concept before moving to production.

test knowledge is
system knowledge

These steps are typical engineering design actions anyone might take in automating testing or, indeed, in automating any process or any system. But in this case there was a difference.

“Asset configuration is a big issue
in the power industry.” Cerny said in
his presentation at Quest. “Imagine
setting up a power station: what equip-
ment should go where? Which pumps
are used and connected to which other
equipment? Where are sensors to be
placed? What is the ‘best’ configura-
tion of equipment that will most likely
reduce the overall failure rate of the
plant?”
The analytics test system is designed
to prove the analytical system itself
works. To do this, the test system must
be set up (automatically, of course) to
the appropriate target system configu-
ration. The normal test function is
meant to show that the analytical sys-
tem will work as built for that particu-
lar target system. But what if we turn

the knowledge of
how to set up the test
system is also the
knowledge of how
to set up the target
production system.

this around? What if we use our testing capability to find out what configuration would show the lowest likely failure rate Doing this allows field engineers and power plant designers to model different configurations of systems for least likelihood of failure before they actually build and install them.

The knowledge in the test system is the same as the knowledge in the target system. The knowledge of how to set up the test system is also the knowledge of how to set up the target production system. Automating this knowledge allows simulation of a system before it is built.

a Really Good idea

This is what Jason Kalich and the panel at Quest were looking for. Automating the test system at SmartSignal ended up being not simply about speeding things up a bit, making the testers’ lives easier, or saving a few dollars. It was not just about cranking through a few more tests in limited time or reducing test setup, analysis, and reporting time. It became something different— it became a configuration simulator and that’s a new product.

If we automate knowledge in the right way, even internal software process knowledge, it can be used in many different ways and it can even be used to create new functionality and new products that our customers will pay for.

Now that’s a good idea.

 

Reference

1. Humphrey, W. Managing the Software Process.

Prentice Hall, New York, 1989, 54.

Phillip G. Armour ( [e-mail]) is a senior consultant at Corvus International Inc., Deer Park, IL.

Copyright held by author.

Calendar
of Events

January 17–20
the thirteenth australiasian
Computing education
Conference,
Perth QLD australia,
Contact: michael de Raadt,
email: [e-mail]

January 22–26
fifth International Conference
on tangible, embedded, and
embodied Interaction,
funchal, Portugal,
Contact: mark D. Gross,
email: [e-mail]

January 23–29
the 38th annual aCm SIGPLaN-
SIGaCt Symposium on
Principles
of Programming, Languages
austin, tX,
Sponsored: SIGPLaN,
Contact: thomas J. Ball,
email: [e-mail]

January 25–28
16th asia and South Pacific
Design automation Conference,
Yokohama, Japan,
Sponsored: SIGDa,
Contact: Kunihiro asada,
email: asada@silicon.u-tokyo.
ac.jp

January 28–30 Global Game Jam, multiple Locations (tBa), Contact: Bellamy Gordon, email: [e-mail]

february 2–5
fourth aCm International
Conference on web Search and
Data mining,
Kowloon, hong Kong,
Sponsored: SIGKDD, SIGmoD,
SIGweB, SIGIR,
Contact: Irwin K. King,
email: [e-mail]

february 9–10
International Symposium on
engineering Secure Software
and Systems,
madrid, Spain,
Contact: Ulfar erlingsson,
email: [e-mail]

february 9–12
fourth aCm International
Conference on web Search and
Data mining,
Kowloon, hong Kong,
Sponsored: SIGweB, SIGIR,
SIGKDD, and SIGmoD,
Contact: Irwin K. King,
email: [e-mail]