Supporting a product's life cycle utilizing reusable ATML compliant test documentation

The IEEE SCC20 Automatic Test Markup Language (ATML) standards form a basis for achieving reuse of Automatic Test System (ATS) products causing a reduction in logistic support costs. The process described in this paper builds upon these standards to address a broader scope of the data requirements from a product's life cycle. To date, much of the effort for utilizing these standards has concentrated on documentation associated with operational testing. This paper will show the various activities and data needed to support the testing of a product through its life cycle and how this data can be effectively generated through the use of tools. An open system approach using ATML standards will be stressed showing that the generation of ATML compliant documentation is the key element for the exchange of reusable information. Further, these standards provide the impetus for tool development. Tools can easily be developed to perform the function of generating the documents as well as transforming the documents into the required reports. This paper will cover the life cycle phases of a product and the documentation associated with the various testing processes. The paper will then describe the use of a tool that is compliant with an ATML standard schema. Data associated with the process will be input via a user friendly Graphical User Interface (GUI) and used to populate the resultant ATML compliant document. A stylized Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT) template will be used to create the desired output document in the particular format required by the user. This paper will stress the importance of Extensible Markup Language (XML), XML Schema Definition (XSD), formats utilized by the ATML standards, the ease of building applications utilizing existing COTS tools, and the levels of compatibility allowing for independent acquisition of standard compliant reusable life cycle products. Benefits include: Wider acceptance of the standards; Improved reuse through standards; Enhanced tool development; Developed data/documents required for all phases of a products life cycle testing.