By Jon M Quigley We have discussed the Failure Mode Effects technique a few times in the past.  Though Failure Mode Effects and analysis seems to be a powerful tool, the problem is you do not know if the FMEA is effective and perhaps you will never know.  The Failure Mode Effects Analysis tool, theoretically, allows […]

Business Imperative There was a discussion going on LinkedIn and Twitter about technical debt, and management decisions. Sometimes business imperative trumps technical debt, but you must acknowledge the technical debt, and compare the business positives against the technical debt negatives. Technical Debt We should probably start by giving a definition of technical debt.  Technical debt […]

Thinking back I have been working on the introduction to product testing course at Value Transformation’s learning portal.  Working through the material reminded me of some experiences I have had that I think should make it to the rest of the world. I was once a verification and test person; I have been a tester, […]

Register for the free introduction to product (hardware and software) testing in a course online that covers the topics: Stakeholders / Sponsors Project Scope Configuration Management Static Testing Techniques (inspections) Dynamic techniques Approaches to testing Regression , Re-test and Human Interactions Evaluation Putting it together with TIEMPO Test Management This course includes the creation of […]

We have created an online introduction to product testing course. The course is free, and highly interactive. It consists of ten modules on topics listed below with some of the attributes per module.       1.)  Stakeholders and Sponsors   2.) Scope and Requirements   3.) Configuration Management and Testing   4.)  Static Testing Techniques   5.)  Dynamic Testing […]

Testing and Repeat-ability  Repeat-ability of testing results is important to establishing cause and corrective actions. If it is not possible to repeat the sequence of events leading to a failure, it is not possible to replicate and therefore difficult solve the cause of the fault or failure.  The steps that evoked the problem are necessary […]

Not a Verification Problem I recently had a flash of a project from the past. The project had a fixed delivery date.  The project was to deliver a system through iterative and incremental deliveries. Sounds pretty good right? An iterative and incremental delivery of sub systems and components to the verification group in a way […]

Below is an excerpt of our book Testing of Complex and Embedded Systems Pries, K., & Quigley, J. (2011). Chapter 4. In Testing Complex and Embedded Systems (pp. 33-35). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.   Basic Principle of Testing The verification and test group is there to provide some critical and unbiased review of the […]

Qualitative Testing Qualitative tests look for a change in a quality; for example, a color might change. Qualitative tests always involve the use of attributes rather than variables values (e.g., temperature). Consider the Kastle-Meyer test for the presence of blood–an archetype for qualitative forensic testing. The test is impressively quick and functions as a decision […]

Manufacturing Project The project whose scope includes delivery through manufacturing will include some quality assurance steps from the previous blog post to ensure we are able to produce the designed product to the quality expected by the sponsor. Trial Production Run and Problem Discovery The manufacturing team reviews the development of the manufacturing line with […]