Reducing test program costs through ATML-based requirements conversion and code generation

Most military and aerospace organizations maintain their test requirements as paper-like forms stored electronically. When test programs need to be created or modified, these documents are often manually referenced, which can be an inefficient and error-prone process. Additionally, because modifications to test program code are sometimes made without updating the corresponding requirements, implementation and documentation tend to diverge as projects evolve, which has an adverse effect on the long-term maintainability of Test Program Sets (TPSs). In the past, the lack of an industry-standard data format for test requirements has imposed limitations on the traceability between test results and test specifications. Previous attempts at automating the conversion of analog and mixed-signal test requirements into test programs produced proprietary solutions with limited adoption. In this paper, we describe an innovative process in which multiple software applications interact through a standard XML format that conforms to IEEE Std 1671.1 Automatic Test Markup Language (ATML) Test Description. The process uses automated test data conversion and code generation to facilitate the initial creation and long-term maintenance of test programs.