Cutting the cost of test; the value-added way

Given some level of test capability requirement, there are ways to reduce the cost of providing that test capability in the overall life-cycle. One guiding principle to improving efficiency and reducing cost is to fulfil the test requirement as close to the expertise as possible. A more difficult thing to implement is the treatment of the test elements of a product as a value-added process. Here, the information elements that are needed are created in standard forms from library elements. Only the additional data required is added at each stage. While this has been done in design, and manufacturing, it has not been done in test. The primary difference is in the development of an hierarchical approach to test. Design and manufacturing have been applying (admittedly to varying degrees of success) this approach for some time now, but test has yet to evolve. This may be changing with a number of standard´s bodies that are developing object approaches and hierarchical test structures. These initiatives are pointing at the same type of value-added building process that provides reuse of design fragments or manufacturing capabilities