Interoperable Access to Heterogeneous Test Knowledge

Abstract

Test processes of complex mechatronic systems became so heterogeneous that a direct knowledge transfer from test cases is necessary in the product lifecycle. In contrast to the necessity, the seamless access, exchange and direct usage of test case related knowledge is not feasible any longer considering the growth heterogeneity and corresponding horizontal and vertical interoperability efforts. Especially, the exchange of test knowledge from test cases related to best practices of stimuli and functional behaviour checks are codified in different test case languages. These test patterns are spread over thousands of test cases and are hidden in proprietary test management tools. The vision of the paper is to achieve interoperability of test case related content for the product lifecycle management. To achieve this vision, this paper presents an approach, how test cases of distributed silos can be aggregated to a test case related Test Knowledge Base. In addition, the paper presents a querying approach to use the test knowledge in an efficient manner. For that purpose, the paper demonstrates the definition of complex search queries without the need of knowing any query language to meet the envisaged user group of tester. The import of test cases and the corresponding usage for the developed pattern search is evaluated based on an aircraft related use case.

Keywords: Interoperability; Test Patterns; Test Knowledge Base; Product Lifecycle Management