Systems are growing more complex and are developed at high stakes. With unprecedented complexity, effective test engineering plays an essential role in development.

This three-day course is designed for military and commercial program managers, systems engineers, test project managers, test engineers, and test analysts. Although the course is technical in nature, the analytical and design methodology is taught from a layman's viewpoint. The focus of the course is giving individuals practical insights into how to acquire and use data to make sound management and technical decisions in support of a development program. Numerous examples and test design or analysis "traps or pitfalls" are highlighted in class. Many design methods and analytic tools are introduced.

Student groups participate in a detailed practical exercise designed to demonstrate the application of testing tools and methods for system evaluation.

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Attend this course if you are:

• Involved in the design of tests
• Using test results in your decision processes
• Needing better, clearer results to support your decisions.
• Uncertain whether your tests are significant for the purposes you use them.
  

The course is aimed at

• Test engineers
• Systems engineers
• Design engineers
• Logistic support leaders
• Others who participate in defining and developing complex systems.
  

Testing & Evaluation – Basic concepts for testing and evaluation. Verification and validation concepts. Common T&E objectives. Types of Test. Context and relationships between T&E and systems engineering. T&E support to acquisition programs. The Test and Evaluation Master Plan (TEMP).

Testability – What is testability? How is it achieved? What is Built in Test? What are the types of BIT and how are they applied?

A Well Structured Testing and Evaluation Program - What are the elements of a well structured testing and evaluation program? How do the pieces fit together? How does testing and evaluation fit into the lifecycle? What are the levels of testing?

Needs and Requirements – Identifying the need for a test. The requirements envelope and how the edge of the envelope defines testing. Understanding the design structure. Stakeholders, system, boundaries, motivation for a test. Design structure and how it affects the test.

Issues, Criteria and Measures – Identifying the issues for a test. Evaluation planning techniques. Other sources of data. The Requirements Verification Matrix. Developing evaluation criteria: Measures of Effectiveness (MOE), Measures of Performance (MOP). Test planning analysis: Operational analysis, engineering analysis, Matrix analysis, Dendritic analysis. Modeling and simulation for test planning.

Designing Evaluations & Tests – Specific methods to design a test. Relationships of different units. Input/output analysis - where test variable come from, choosing what to measure, types of variables. Review of statistics and probability distributions. Statistical design of tests - basic types of statistical techniques, choosing the techniques, variability, assumptions and pitfalls. Sequencing test events - the low level tactics of planning the test procedure.

Conducting Tests – Preparation for a test. Writing the report first to get the analysis methods in place. How to work with failure. Test preparation. Forms of the test report. Evaluating the test design. Determining when failure occurs.

Evaluation – Analyzing test results. Comparing results to the criteria. Test results and their indications of performance. Types of test problems and how to solve them. Test failure analysis - analytic techniques to find fault. Test program documents. Pressed Funnels Case Study - How evaluation shows the path ahead.

Testing and Evaluation Environments - 12 common testing and evaluation environments in a system lifecycle, what evaluation questions are answered in each environment and how the test equipment and processes differ from environment to environment.

Special Types and Best Practices of T&E – Survey of special techniques and best practices. Special types: Software testing, Design for testability, Combined testing, Evolutionary development, Human factors, Reliability testing, Environmental issues, Safety, Live fire testing, Interoperability. The Nine Best Practices of T&E.

Emerging Opportunities and Issues with Testing and Evaluation - The use of prognosis and sense and respond logistics. Integration between testing and simulation. Large scale systems. Complexity in tested systems. Systems of Systems.

Continuing Education: This course qualifies for 2.1 CEUs or 21 PDUs