Automation component aspects for efficient unit testing

Automation systems software must provide sufficient diagnosis information for testing to enable early defect detection and quality measurement. However, in many automation systems the aspects of automation, testing, and diagnosis are intertwined in the code. This makes the code harder to read, modify, and test. In this paper we introduce the design of a test-driven automation (TDA) component with separate aspects for automation, diagnosis, and testing to improve testability and test efficiency. We illustrate with a prototype, how automation component aspects allow flexible configuration of a “system under test” for test automation. Major result of the pilot application is that the TDA concept was found usable and useful to improve testing efficiency.

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