Advanced Testing of Systems-of-Systems, Volume 2

5Test Workload Estimation

Correctly estimating the load and duration of the tests allows us to allocate the budget and the time necessary for their execution throughout the project. While it is true that improving quality throughout a project makes it possible to limit costs and lead times (e.g. by reducing the number of defects introduced and therefore the necessary corrections), this reduction is not always anticipated by the production teams or the management teams. The benefits often seem too distant and diffuse. The correct evaluation of the loads and durations of the tests will impact both the cost of the tests and the probable date of production and deployment of the solution.

5.1. Difficulty to estimate workload

It is always difficult to correctly estimate the test workload necessary to identify (all) the defects present in a system; this is all the truer in a system-of-systems and in systems already developed whose size and complexity were not measured. The workload will depend on different aspects:

– the type of system-of-systems to be assessed (web system, commercial, military, security-critical or not, etc.);

– the size of the system-of-systems (e.g. size in function points or lines of code, number of variables and combinations, number of paths, number of components, etc.);

– the complexity and criticality of the systems and the system-of-systems;

– the initial quality level of the inputs, that is, the existing systems, their documentation, etc.;

– the number ...