TABLE OF CONTENTS This chapter reviews approaches for testing and offers guidance on how to avoid or resolve problems related to the interoperability between components. This testing breakdown covers the following topics:
Relationship between Testing and the Quality Process
System Level Testing
Out of Band Signaling Testing
Signal Quality Testing
Loop Back Testing
This section is devoted to good testing practices, and is not specific to Serial ATA. Prerequisites to delivering high quality products to market include great testing, which includes supporting test plans, standard test processes, defect management, change control, and a top-notch quality assurance process. Whew, that s a bunch of work to bite off! But with a bit of organization and planning, you can save yourself a load of extra work and stress; bringing a very high quality Serial ATA product to market in a controlled and repeatable way.
Let s devote a bit of time to basic quality criteria, as they relate to testing. My definition of quality is Does it do what the customer expects? The level of quality and support testing that goes into a pacemaker or space shuttle is apparent and necessary. On the other end of the spectrum, if that same level of quality and support testing were applied to Reader Rabbit software, no customer would be able to afford it. So, clearly, appropriate levels of quality and support testing for Serial ATA products lie somewhere between these extremes.
How not to manage it! When project features and...
