Why I love testing

Unless you are working with developers using the' test first' style of development you've probably run into someone who doesn't 'get' why you and your testing is important. Here Nagu shares his views on why testing matters...

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Why I love testing

by nagarajan narayanaswamy

Any system whether it is software or engineering; testing is complimentary. I would like to stress the word "complimentary".

We manufacture goods for ourselves and for others. Even if it is for our own use, we test it, we need to guarantee it. Does it do what it is supposed to do?

Everybody talks of Toyota for reliability. Why? Reliability testing will not come in a day or two. The reputation is earned over decades. It is continuous testing or evaluation.

While I am flying, I often wonder how these people had planned the testing for such a complex machine.

Friends, today we have a beautiful aircraft , because there had been so many accidents in the past. They had valuable data from each accident to improve upon. A designer will never be able to think from everybody's perspective or with respect to all variables. There has to be a difference of perspective, with some else testing those variables otherwise we end up with a homogenity of ideas and a product that only works if those ideal conditions are met.

The space industry is in the same testing phase that early aircraft designers worked through. Many space projects have been lost because of computer program glitches. Because it is difficult to test or difficult to anticipate against many unknown variables.

I was watching one program on public telvision about Boeing and Lockeed Martin competing for a contract with US govenment. Both teams worked very hard through several "iterations" and "compromises" both had come up with their own designs. They manufactured a prototype and tested it several times. But only one was choosen. Why? Because it was tested by the real defense team from their own perspective, not the designers.

Some of the maneuvers required will be never carried out by factory testing, they can be only done by actual pilots. Although simulated conditions come close, it's only in the atmosphere that all the software and dynamics are really tested for the first time.

So, I, as an aero person, I love testing. However, I know that however much automation you may do, it will only help to push the standard of testing to a higher notch, it won't eliminate it.

Finally a quote. "100 percent efficiency is not possible. Not even theoretically". That is a law of nature. The proof for it - no one has disproved it so far.

So as I stated at the beginning, for any system, testing is complimentary. At least I believe so...if someone doesn't believe in testing now, they will come to learn one day or another

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This page was last modified 07:07, 18 November 2005.