Recommended practice for insuring reuse and integrity of ATS data by the application of IEEE SCC20/ATML standards

The IEEE SCC20/Automatic Test Markup Language (ATML) standards are currently being used to describe a host of Automatic Test Equipment (ATE) related documents. These standards cover test descriptions, requirements and specifications of ATE instruments and UUTs in an all-encompassing test environment. These standards provide the necessary elements needed to achieve the goals of reducing the logistic footprint associated with complex system testing through data portability and reuse. The IEEE SCC20/ATML standards provide ability to capture electronic products design/specification test data required for life cycle support. However, in order to achieve the full benefits of these standards one must recognize the tasks of implementing the standards to provide the information necessary to achieve the goal of reduced support equipment proliferation and cost reduction. While these standards go a long way in achieving these objectives, a number of issues must be addressed. In order to support this environment, the IEEE SCC20/ATML standards provide for a number of ways to develop IEEE compliant documents. However, without a set of comprehensive procedures and supporting tools the optimum reuse and data integrity of these products may not be achieved. This situation is caused by the scope of the testing environment which utilizes the integration of many elements and events that occur over a products life cycle [1]. This situation leads to a data provenance issue resulting in data that may be inconsistent with IEEE SCC20/ATML documents. This paper will discuss how to handle the data issues by describing an approach and methodology addressing the data reuse and portability issues. The recommended methods focus on insuring that the IEEE SCC20/ATML developed products results in the highest degree of reuse, interchangeability and data integrity throughout the different use cases of both government and industry. The way to apply these methods starts with the source of the data. In this case the source would be a semantical taxonomy that describes how the IEEE SCC20/ATML documents should be structured for supporting the data required by the use cases. Due to the large scope of this effort, this paper will concentrate on a specific example use case utilizing select standards and tools to aid in producing compliant IEEE SCC20/ATML standard products that will result in the reuse and interoperability of these products. It will focus on the data needed to test a UUT and how that data is defined and utilized in the resulting documentation. The activities requiring this data, the events and resources acting on this data will be covered. The intent is to maintain the integrity and validity of the data throughout the products (UUT) testing life cycle. It is intended that paper will lead to improved use and enhancements of these standards. This information is intended to be used in developing a recommended practice approach that will support the use of these standards in the acquisition of test products required during a products life cycle.