Testing
Testing
Independent DO-178C Testing
Vital and often overlooked, it pays to perform testing outside the environment in which the original source code was created. Certainly, for DO-178C Safety-Critical Testing, having the test engineers in the same room as the developers leads to a loss of independence as development and test engineers have a mechanism to bypass official doumentation and write tests with insider knowledge.
Testing Tools
We are experts in LDRA and VectorCAST for code coverage, and in the Lauterbach debugging tools for controlling tests on the target. These can be driven by python and bash scripts to create powerful test and reporting frameworks.
We can provide test harnesses and logging systems that can exercise 100% code coverage, or that can be used for long term performance and soak testing.
In addition, we can supply you with the IBM Extended Lifecycle Management (ELM) tools for a complete system for requirements, development, tracability and test management, all within tools qualified for DO-178, ISO26262 etc.
Continuous Test and Continuous Delivery
We are inspired by SpaceX, and aim for ‘flight ready’ software which is always available.
We are investing in virtual host machines that we use to :
1. Run Docker scripts to recreate embedded development environments at will. These scripts can be passed to engineers in order to have an identical build system on multiple development machines that can be accessed remotely.
2. Host simulated STM32 targets using QEMU. This allows us to start development on day 1 without waiting for custom hardware to be built. The simulated environment will not exactly match the customers’ hardware (in terms of external DACs etc), but we can write stub code to get us a working environment.
3. Combine these two with Jenkins to provide continuous integration and continuous test to maximise the quality and reliability of our software. This is especially useful for the Mil-Aero and Space markets.
Case Studies
See examples of past client successes.
