Название: Advanced Testing of Systems-of-Systems, Volume 1: Theoretical Aspects
Автор: Bernard Homes
Издательство: Wiley-ISTE
Год: 2022
Страниц: 308
Язык: английский
Формат: pdf (true)
Размер: 10.2 MB

The breadth of the subject justifies splitting this work in two books. Part I, this book, covers the general aspects applicable to systems-of-systems testing, among them the impact of development life cycle, test strategy and methodology, the added value of quality referential, test documentation and reporting. We identified the impact of various test levels and test techniques, whether static or dynamic. In the second book, we will focus on project management, identifying human interactions as primary elements to consider, and we will continue with practical aspects such as testing processes and their iterative and continuous improvement. We will also see additional but necessary processes, such as requirement management, defects management and configuration management.

These two books make a single coherent and complete work building on more than 40 years of experience by the author. The main aspect put forward is the difference between the traditional vision of software testing – focused on one system and one version – and the necessary vision when multiple systems and multiple versions of software must be interconnected to provide a service that needs to be tested thoroughly.

There are many definitions of what a system-of-systems (or SoS) is. We will use the following one: “A system-of-systems is a set of systems, software and/or hardware, developed to provide a service by collaborating together, by organizations that are not under the same management”. This simple definition entails challenges and adaptations that we will identify and study.

A system-of-systems can be considered from two points of view: on the one hand, from the global systemic level (we could take the image of a company information system) and, on the other hand, from the unitary application system (which we may call a subsystem, application system or application, software-predominant equipment or component). We will thus have at the upper level a system-of-systems that could be a “information system” that is made of multiple systems that we will call subsystems. For example, a company may have in their information system one accounting system, a CRM, a human resource management system, a stock management system, etc. These different systems are most likely developed by different editors and their interaction provides a service to the company. Other examples of systems-of-systems are air traffic systems, aircrafts and satellite systems, vehicles and crafts. In these systems-of-systems, the service is provided to the users when all subsystems work, correctly and quickly exchanging data between them.

Systems-of-systems, even if they are often complex, are intrinsically different from complex systems: a complex system, such as an operating system, may be developed by a single organization and thus does not respond exactly to the definition as the subsystems are developed under the same hierarchy.

Why a book on the testing of systems-of-systems? Systems-of-systems are part of our everyday life, but they are not addressed in software testing books that focus only on one software at a time, without taking into account the physical systems that are required to execute them, nor the interactions between them that increase the difficulty and combinatorial complexity of testing. To ensure quality for a system-of-systems means to ensure for each subsystem (and sub-subsystem) the quality of the design process for each of these systems, subsystems, components, software, etc., that make them up.

Who is this book for?
Design of software, systems and systems-of-systems requires interaction between many individuals, each with different objectives and different points of view. The notion of “quality” of a deliverable will vary and depend on the relative position of each party. This book tries to cover each point of view and shows the major differences between what is described in many other books – design and test of a single software application – with regard to the complexity and reality of systems-of-systems. The persons who could benefit from reading this book are as follows:

– design organization project managers who must ensure that the needs of users, their customers and their clients are met and therefore that the applications, systems and systems-of-systems are correctly developed and tested (i.e. verified and validated);

– by extension, the design organization we will have assistant Project Managers, who will have to ensure that the overall objectives of the designing organization are correctly checked and validated, especially taking into account the needs of the users

– forever changing given the length of systems-of-systems projects – and that the evidence provided to justify a level of quality is real;

– customer project managers, whether for physical (hardware) production or for digital (software) production, and specifically those responsible for programs, development projects or test projects, in order to ensure that the objectives of Design organizations are correctly understood, deduced and implemented in the solutions they put in place;

– test managers in charge of quality and system-of-systems testing (at design organization level), as well as test managers in charge of quality and system testing (at design and at client level), applications and predominant software components entering into the composition of systems-of-systems, with the particularity that the so-called “end-to-end” (E2E) tests are not limited to a single application or system, but cover all the systems making up the system-of-systems;

– testers, test analysts and technical test analysts wishing to obtain a more global and general vision of their activities, to understand how to implement their skills and knowledge to further develop their careers;

– anyone wishing to develop their knowledge of testing and their impact on the quality of complex systems and systems-of-systems.

Contents:
Preface
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Software Development Life Cycle
Chapter 3. Test Policy and Test Strategy
Chapter 4. Testing Methodologies
Chapter 5. Quality Characteristics
Chapter 6. Test Levels
Chapter 7. Test Documentation
Chapter 8. Reporting
Chapter 9. Testing Techniques
Chapter 10. Static Tests, Reviews and Inspections
Index