ISSRE 2006 - "How to reduce your test process with 30%" The application of operational Profiles at Philips Medical Systems

"How to reduce your test process with 30%" The application of operational Profiles at Philips Medical Systems

Herman Hartmann, Jarmila Bokkerink, and Vincent Ronteltap

The 17th IEEE International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering (ISSRE 2006) -- Industry Practices (ISSRE 2006)
Raleigh, North Carolina, USA, 6-10 November 2006

Abstract

Due to the increasing complexity of software products, the number of faults (defects) is rapidly increasing. Due to the pressure on time-to-market it is not possible to remove all faults or even the majority of it before market introduction. It is therefore imperative to focus testing activities on finding those faults that lead to the biggest dissatisfaction of the customers.

An operational Profile is a quantitative characterization of how a system is used in the field. The Operation Profile is a set of software operations, along with the probability with which they occur. It identifies the part of the software that attracts the majority of the usage for a specific user profile. It helps testing teams to plan test activities, generate test cases and select test runs. During testing, it tends to find the faults that have the most effect on the reliability.

Application at Philips Medical Information Technology:

Despite ample testing activities of Medical IT software products, still too many field problems are encountered and consequently too much effort is spent on maintenance activities. By paying more attention to the usage of Medical IT’s products by the end-user, testing can be more effectively. This will reduce the amount of time put into testing and maintenance activities.

The following benefits were obtained:

1.Using a statistical model, it was shown, that the test time could be reduced by at least 30% while maintaining the same reliability.
2.The Operational Profile was used to provide realistic figures in risk-based testing.
3.The Operational Profile provided means for realistic reliability tests.
4.The requirements engineering process was significantly improved.
The presentation will focus on the development and application of the Operational Profiles and the benefits that were estimated and observed.

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