Test engineering requires more than technical skills to build a successful team and complete projects on time and within budget.

Behind every reliable product is a rigorous testing process. Test engineering is, however, often undervalued and under-appreciated. Test engineering teams often operate in the shadows, with few established standards or formal degrees. Furthermore, many companies underestimate the complexities involved in hardware testing, leading to the undervaluation of the role and placement of test engineers on the lower rungs of the organizational ladder. In this article, we delve into the intricacies of hardware test engineering, examine the challenges faced by test engineers, and propose a comprehensive approach to building a world-class test team.

Engineering challenges

Hardware test engineers encounter unique challenges compared to their counterparts in other disciplines. The absence of formal training and standardized practices requires that they rapidly acquire knowledge, troubleshoot problems, and establish standards. Despite these challenges, test organizations expect hardware test engineers to deliver the same level of quality, efficiency, and excellence as other engineering disciplines.

At its core, hardware test engineering involves translating high-level requirements into functional test stations capable of rigorously testing products and generating essential data. As the roadmap shows, this seemingly straightforward process is usually fraught with complexities and roadblocks:

The road from test specifications to a working test system is paved with roadblocks and uncertainties.

In addition to navigating these obstacles, creating effective test systems demands proficiency in a diverse set of disciplines, including computer engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, IT, technical writing, mechanical engineering, and physics. To support test engineers in developing top-notch test systems, organizations must consider these six key disciplines for their teams.

The six disciplines of successful hardware test teams

To establish a truly exceptional test team, it is essential to focus on six key disciplines:

• Operations
• Organization
• Project Management
• Software
• Hardware
• Individual Growth

Operations

The operations discipline forms the bedrock of a successful test engineering team. It establishes the governance structure and develops processes, standards, templates, procedures, and rules of engagement. Operations managers have a goal of ensuring consistency and efficiency by creating and enforcing the right processes to provide a roadmap for the team’s work, guiding them from requirements to the completion of test stations.

Operations people also define standards and templates that include style guides, workmanship guidelines, and rule documents that set the measure for success and simplify engineering decisions. Without standards, many of the decisions take much longer than they should. Templates help engineers avoid reinventing the wheel for each project. The following table highlights how to identify when you might have an operations issue:

Organization

The organization’s discipline is typically a people-management responsibility. Team leaders are responsible for empowering members to excel in their respective roles and fostering a positive team culture.

Defining roles and responsibilities is one of the things that is often done poorly. A clearly defined role and a clear set of responsibilities help team members know their place and understand what they can do most effectively. Everyone involved needs to know those responsibilities to avoid confusion.

Many organizations treat fostering a positive culture as an afterthought. You can’t fake a positive culture. Think of it as when a family goes on vacation, and a parent says, “Isn’t this fun?” to try to lift spirits when things go wrong. It just doesn’t work and usually has the opposite effect. Fostering a positive culture means being open about what is happening, celebrating team successes, and letting people learn from their mistakes. This table highlights some things that help identify when you might have an issue with operations:

Project management

Ensuring tasks are completed on time and within budget, project management is crucial for preventing chaos. Tools, budget management, time management, resource allocation, and scope definition fall under this discipline.

In the past, there were limited tools for project management, but now there are many, such as JIRA, Monday.com, and spreadsheets. When used well, these tools can greatly help increase productivity, monitor budgets, track time, and make resource allocation more efficient.

A crucial role that project managers play is also in ensuring the scope doesn’t creep. Although changes are frequently necessary, too much scope creep can be disastrous and cause everything else to go wrong.

The table below highlights things to help you identify when you might have an issue with project management:

Software

Creating a world-class automated test team requires real expertise in software development. Software is the glue that holds it all together. Part of having a team that handles software well includes focusing on a framework, devOps, development models, deployment plans, and maintenance.

Focusing on a framework provides a consistent structure and helps less experienced developers learn faster and create systems that are consistent with the required quality. DevOps includes source-code control, virtual development machines, and the tooling that makes things much easier for the developers.

Often overlooked in the process, deployment and maintenance are key parts to consider for long-term cost. A system that can be deployed and maintained easier is much more scalable and will save a lot of time and money.

This table highlights things you can look for when identifying issues with your software team:

Hardware

Test hardware is often the costliest component in automated test systems. Understanding the Device Under Test (DUT), how it functions, and what measurements you need to properly test it is a vital piece for any test team. Standardizing the hardware that can capture the required measurements will help on both the development side and the maintenance side.

Something else to consider with hardware is test fixturing and mass interconnect. Understanding how best to build the test system and how to get all the signals where they need to go is vital because you risk losing a lot of time and money if it is done poorly. Even after a system is technically working, problems with the fixturing and the interconnect can lead to maintenance issues that can be very costly, especially as requirements change.

Here’s a table that highlights things you can look for to identify when you might have issues with your hardware team:

Individual growth

Focusing on team members’ individual growth can easily be overlooked when creating a world-class test team. Having a meaningful path for growth and professional development opportunities is essential for team motivation and success. A team that doesn’t feel valued may do good work in the short term, but in the long term, people will leave. Replacing valuable team members is much more costly than creating an environment that helps them thrive and do good work.

Healthy teams encourage community involvement, achieving certifications, and taking on new responsibilities that help them feel that they are moving in the right direction.

Here are some things to look for when focusing on the individual growth of your team members:

Building a world-class test team

Achieving a world-class test team requires a concerted effort across these six disciplines. Despite potential constraints, understanding the value each discipline adds and tailoring their implementation to organizational needs can significantly enhance the effectiveness of a test team and reduce product time-to-market significantly.

Recognizing the challenges in hardware test engineering and strategically addressing them through a comprehensive approach is the key to building a resilient and efficient test team. Investing time and effort in developing a great test team pays off in increased efficiency, reduced time to market, and long-term cost savings. Testeract offers a free assessment tool for organizations to evaluate their test teams, providing insights and ideas for improvement at testeract.com.