Downloaded from https://www.everyspec.com AMCP 701-198 CHAPTER 4 TEST MANAGEMENT AND PLANNING LIST OF SYMBOLS is excessively high relative to the cost of the = producer risk Item tested. It may then be necessary to redesign the product. 0 a consumer risk Coordination between responsible groups is im~portant in the planning of reliability 9 = mean failure time testing.
A frequent error made by project managers is to let the product and test equip- 0o" acceptable value of 0 ment designers work out the details of the acceptance or quality testing of development *1v unacceptable value of 0 hardware without consulting reliability and quality assurance personnel, When this occurs, reliability and quality assurance may be 4.1 INTRODUCTION treated inadequately. In a well managed project, reliability and quality assurance The effectiveness of a reliability test pro- engineers plan all reliability and quality test- gram depends on the thoroughness with ing with inputs provided by product design which the program is planned (Refs. 1, 2, groups.
This approach works well only If and 3). Reliability tests often represent the reliability group begins developing the millions of dollars invested In test manpower test plans concurrently with the beginning• and hardware, and require careful coordina- of product design, tion and schwduling of' hardware, test facilh- ties, and the work of many engineering and Tests must be planned in great detail and technical personnel. Without proper planning, must cover all elements of a test program in all of these elements may not be available order to ensur.
that useful data are produced, when needed, tests may niot be performed at Test planning must be complete enough to the right time, or test schedules may be permit duplications, and omissions to be rushed and haphazard. uncovered and cost trade-offs to be made. High-reliability military projects often 4.2 PROGRAM PLANNING operate on very short time schedules. There- fore, test planning must begin very early so 4.2.1 MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATION that special test fixtures can be designed (or FOR TESTING a calculated risk basis) and ready when the first hardware is tested.
The overall responsibility for planning all test programs and testi should be assigned Proposed test plans must be available to to the project reliability group, This ensures product designers so that test points can be that the requirements of design, quality denigned into the system, Good test planning assurance, and field service groups wan be nmay reveal that the cost of required test met in a coordinated fashion relating to reli- procedures, test points, and test manpower ability.