Use of Automated Testing to Facilitate Affordable Design of Military Systems

Abstract

Efforts to develop and implement automated test capability within the Department of Defense have resulted in the development of a number of tools. Literature from 2007 references use of automated testing to reduce the design cycle time of software, and it has been noted as one of several key components included as part of the more comprehensive plan for transforming the business and technical approaches to become more responsive to Fleet readiness requirements with the goal of providing more agile, integrated capabilities for the Navy by increasing supportability, standardization, system interoperability, network security, and Joint alignment. This paper describes efforts to implement software systems automated test capability and an analysis of the results of the effort. The paper examines how well the automated test capability performed and evaluates the impact on system development time compared to systems developed using more traditional methods. In addition, a review of lessons learned and recommendations for further enhancements are discussed.