TestProNews Q1 - 2005
Integrating Legacy Test Systems into an Enterprise Test Data Management System
Many legacy automated test systems in operation today were built in an era when
the possibility of obtaining company-wide access and reporting of test data and
reports was cost prohibitive. The desire to provide company-wide access to design,
manufacturing and customer service test data through the Internet is often the driving
force behind legacy automated test system modernization projects. Real-time access
to test data via the web can save organizations time and money by delivering global
visibility to design characterization and manufacturing test data and reports.
Even though enterprise test data management (TDM) systems are now very cost-effective,
replacing all your company's outdated automated test systems may not be economically
justifiable. Your organization may have large quantities of legacy data generated
by these test systems that should also be included in future test data analysis.
Companies can continue to use legacy test systems for many years if data from these
systems is integrated into a modern enterprise TDM solution.
Legacy Data Formats
The most common formats of legacy data are ASCII and Excel files. These and other
flat files structures such as HTML and XML are commonly used with old test systems
because they are an easy data format for test system developers to create. These
file types are also the most frequently imported into an enterprise TDM system because
managers find it very difficult and time consuming to manage, report on, and maintain
large quantities of these file types. Importing these files into an enterprise TDM
system is easy, but can require multiple import configurations if the data is not
stored in these files consistently. Data stored in industry standard flat file formats,
such as ASTML, further simplify the importing of data because of the consistent
data format.
Another form that legacy data is commonly stored is in a Microsoft Access, Microsoft
SQL Server, or Oracle database. Although storage in Access is an improvement over
flat files, companies quickly reach the multi- user, security, and performance limitations
of Access. While SQL Server and Oracle data bases are the right databases to store
test data, they are most often not architected, normalized, and optimized by a TDM
expert. This causes design and manufacturing managers to have difficulty obtaining
actionable information to improve their products and processes until the data is
imported into a database structure that is properly architected for TDM. You can
easily import legacy data from a database into an enterprise TDM system by establishing
the relations between the legacy database and the TDM system.
Figure 1: There are several options for integrating legacy test systems and migrating legacy test data into an enterprise TDM system.
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Importing Historic Data
Many companies want to import their previously captured, historic data into the
enterprise TDM system so that they can compare previous and future test data results.
Although an operator can import this data manually, most companies have such large
amounts of data, it is best to have a software program parse the historic data and
import it automatically.
The automated test revolution shifted the concentration of testing effort and skill
away from expertise in manually performing the test to expertise in developing the
test. Test became more efficient and cost effective. Companies could now scale the
number of tests and the number of test stations without also simultaneously increasing
the number of operators needed to execute the tests. Off-line engineering analysis,
visualization and report generation tools such as NI's DIAdem emerged to gather
and examine the results generated from the automated test station.
To import the data automatically, first establish a mapping between the structures
of each of the legacy data formats and the database format of the enterprise TDM
system. A utility provided with a leading TDM system, such as Arendar, then applies
the correct mapping to the legacy data and imports the data into the new TDM system.
Migrating Legacy Test Systems' Real Time Data into an Enterprise TDM System
In order to continue to use the legacy test systems, the enterprise TDM system must
acquire the newly generated test results into the enterprise TDM system in real
time.
In the ideal situation, the legacy test system uses current technology and you have
access to the test system's code. In this case, insert code into the test program
to call an application programmers interface (API) that will directly send the test
results to the enterprise TDM system. (Figure 1)
Many reasons may prevent you from inserting API code into your legacy test system:
- Your legacy test system may use outdated technology
- You may not have access to the original test source code
- You may not want to modify the proven code on your test systems
In these situations, allow the test system to continue to generate the legacy test
data formats. A leading TDM system, such as Arendar, will have a real-time agent
that reads the legacy data formats, applies a pre-configured map to the data format,
and automatically imports the data to the TDM system in real time as the test system
generates new test results. With this method, you do not make any modifications
to the proven test system code.
If the automated test systems are very old, they may not be connected to the network,
but instead communicate test results through another interface such as a serial
or parallel port. In these situations, connect the interface of the legacy test
system to a PC which has a real time agent installed that reads the data from the
legacy test systems interface and sends the data to the enterprise TDM system over
the network.
Example: Integrating Legacy Test Systems with Arendar Enterprise TDM Software
Arendar Enterprise TDM software
provides the framework and tools for collecting and managing data from both legacy
and modern test systems. Using Arendar's powerful test data migration tools, engineers
and managers gain insight into their design and manufacturing operations and unlock
access to information generated by their legacy automated test systems to achieve
lower design, manufacturing and support costs.
For historic data, an Arendar Data Import Wizard reads legacy data files in flat
file and database formats, and manually leads the user through a series of steps
to import the files into an Arendar Enterprise TDM system. (Figure 2)
Figure 2: The Arendar Data Import Wizard reads legacy data files and imports the test data into the enterprise TDM system. |
Arendar provides the capability to automatically import data files generated by
legacy test systems at run time without requiring any changes to the automated systems'
software using an Arendar Data Import Agent. The Arendar Data Import Agent works
continuously in the background on a test system to import data files into the TDM
system as the test system generates the new data.
Arendar automatically generates API functions
that you easily insert into existing test source code such as National Instruments
LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, TestStand and Microsoft Visual Studio. The API communicates
with an Arendar client on each test station to provide data buffering and fail-safe
communication with the enterprise TDM system.
Avoid Future Test Data Migration Costs
If you modernize your legacy test systems to operate with an enterprise TDM systems,
you will increased productivity through better tools that collect, manage, evaluate
and share test information throughout your company. Develop your new test systems
with the latest TDM software so that you can avoid the future expense of migrating
legacy data into your enterprise TDM system.
Ask the Expert
Email questions concerning this article to:
expert.testpronews@vi-tech.com
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