A "perfect storm" of factors is challenging test teams today: more software to test, far more complex architectures being used, and much tighter production schedules. These factors are exacerbated when agile or iterative development methodologies are added to the mix. For most embedded companies, this combination of market and technology trends is outpacing the capabilities of their traditional testing systems and processes.
Wind River Test Management leverages operational feedback from devices under test to achieve the highest quality in the least amount of time
As the gap between testing requirements and testing capabilities grows, embedded companies are running increased risk of product failures occurring in the field. To avoid these costly, disruptive and damaging incidents, executives and team leaders need to recognize and address the problem.
The Wind River Test Management solution is designed to address these problems. It does so by enabling a fast and effective transition from "black-box" to "white-box" testing. Most testing today is limited to a black-box view of the device under test. Testers work from the "outside" and observe results through whatever pass/fail information, static logs, or error codes are available. With the white-box approach provided by Wind River Test Management, teams gain views into actual device operations when under test. They can gather critical information from running equipment, providing a clearer picture of test effectiveness, performance, defects, and more. The net result is testers can gather the key feedback they need from complex devices and store and manage this information in sync with test execution.
Find Untested Code
- Gather critical information about code that is not being tested with run-time test coverage.
- Dynamically deploy instrumentation to selected modules and functions to determine whether expected software is really executed under test.
- Validate the effectiveness of your test suites and focus development on filling the gaps.
Change-Driven, Optimized Testing
- Identify changes between software builds automatically (changed, new, and deleted code).
- Gain the capabilities needed by test teams to handle the demands of agile or iterative development environments—support rapid-fire build cycles and fast and frequent feedback loops.
- Generate a traceability map that shows the linkage between test cases and code at run-time.
- Leverage a traceability map to automatically determine which test cases are required to run when code has changed.
- Verify traceability requirements all the way to the code.
Identify Performance Regressions
- Profile software under test with low-impact probes.
- Identify bottlenecks or performance regressions between builds with graphical tools.
- Validate subsystem performance against requirements.
Validate Fault Handling and Exception Conditions
- Utilize automated white-box access to code and data to inject faults or force error states for testing.
- Quickly drive devices to desired state with direct access to software internals at run-time.
- Simulate I/O, automate manual input, or stub out interfaces.
- Save time and money while improving test coverage and quality.
Isolate, Repair, and Validate Run-Time Defects
- Deploy dynamic instrumentation to log data during test execution to isolate faults faster.
- Avoid time-consuming software rebuilds with incremental technology that lets users probe devices for forensic data without stopping them.
- Hot-patch proposed fixes into lab devices to validate repair before committing to code base.
- Dramatically reduce the time and effort required to find and repair defects.
Leverage Unique Dynamic Instrumentation
Wind River Test Management employs a unique dynamic instrumentation—sensorpoints—to probe, tag, access, or patch software running in the device. Unlike disruptive source-code-based instrumentation techniques, sensorpoints allow test and diagnostics instrumentation to be deployed in production software, not special test builds, giving you the best information about device operation. Dynamic instrumentation is deployed and removed on demand and on the fly without requiring the device to be stopped, reloaded, or rebooted.
