An Approach to Efficient Test Scheduling for Automated Production Systems

In order to guarantee a high availability and reliability, automated production systems are tested thoroughly after changes were introduced. As test resources like testing time are limited, the tester has to select the test cases for the test execution thoughtfully. This becomes quite challenging as the complexity of automated production systems and the number of related test cases increases. It results in a high risk to miss important test cases and to waste valuable test resources by executing redundant or less important test cases. Automatic test case prioritisation can assist the tester in distinguishing between important and less important test cases. However to achieve an efficient test execution schedule, the test case selection as well as the running order have to be well conceived. Especially for automated production systems, there are many constraints and challenges to consider such as manual testing, setup time between test cases and effects upon test case failure. Therefore, an approach for an efficient test scheduling method is proposed in the paper that utilises the available resources as best as possible while maximizing the amount of the resulting information. The proposed test scheduling method hereby considers effects caused by the mechatronic characteristics of automated production systems, especially handling test case failure during the test run.     «

In order to guarantee a high availability and reliability, automated production systems are tested thoroughly after changes were introduced. As test resources like testing time are limited, the tester has to select the test cases for the test execution thoughtfully. This becomes quite challenging as the complexity of automated production systems and the number of related test cases increases. It results in a high risk to miss important test cases and to waste valuable test resources by executing...     »