Automation Hooks architecture trade study for flexible test orchestration

We describe the conclusions of a technology and communities survey supported by concurrent and follow-on proof-of-concept prototyping to evaluate feasibility of defining a durable, versatile, reliable, visible software interface to support strategic modularization of test software development. The objective is that test sets and support software with diverse origins, ages, and abilities can be reliably integrated into test configurations that assemble and tear down and reassemble with scalable complexity in order to conduct both parametric tests and monitored trial runs. The resulting approach is based on integration of three recognized technologies that are currently gaining acceptance within the test industry and when combined provide a simple, open and scalable test orchestration architecture that addresses the objectives of the Automation Hooks task. The technologies are automated discovery using multicast DNS Zero Configuration Networking (zeroconf), commanding and data retrieval using resource-oriented Restful Web Services, and XML data transfer formats based on Automatic Test Markup Language (ATML). This open-source standards-based approach provides direct integration with existing commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) analysis software tools.