Testing Your Project

Testing Your Project

Software testing?the validation phase?is a key quality management step in any process. ISO 9000-concisely describes the process as it applies to software under Testing and Validation. The IEEE software engineering standards and various texts also discuss this topic in great detail. Testing is best performed continuously: during initial coding and debugging, during the construction of the VI hierarchy, during the in-house alpha test phase, and of course during the formal test phase. If done properly, the formal test phase is just that: a formality. It proves (in writing, of course) that your program functions as expected under controlled conditions. The act of writing the test procedure typically requires you to exercise your program in a realistic fashion, thus testing as you write.

Remember that you don?t test the quality in, you build the quality in. That?s why we go through a design phase and use VI standards and good coding practices. A well-designed program with consistent, neat, and accurate diagrams will surely be a higher-quality product than one where you cross your fingers and hope to catch all the bugs at testing time. Yes, testing is a big job (the writing part is really depressing to most programmers), but I?ve found that the discipline that formal testing instills helps me produce better products. And that is what quality is all about.

What Should You Test?

Initial software testing is carried out at the unit level. A convenient unit for LabVIEW is a...

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