Deliver better products faster with automated PLM testing and continuous integration
The digital revolution has brought a multitude of IT-related changes. In the past, IT was primarily responsible for support tasks, such as providing the server and network infrastructure. Today, it’s a central component of the actual services that companies provide. One such service that deserves a special mention is product lifecycle management (PLM).
In PLM, information about a product is stored in a software application. The product's data is tracked and managed throughout its life, from concept design to the product’s retirement. Siemens Teamcenter is one of the best-known PLM software applications, and for good reason. It includes an enormous number of modules that manage tasks and processes for data, workflows, user and access rights, documents, projects and many more.
Today’s PLM systems undergo frequent changes as a result of new functionalities or system upgrades.
Of course, every change to the underlying software engine has the potential to affect usability.
So continuous user interface (UI) testing is an absolute necessity to ensure that product teams can keep up with the changes.
However, we have seen enterprises struggle with high costs, high complexities and long run times of testing.
Many encounter high error rates and unreliability when customizing their PLM products.
Many enterprises struggle with high costs, complexity and long run times when testing PLM products. To mitigate these issues, your testing plan must account for every aspect of the application – from the core software engine to the user interface.
How (and why) PLM testing needs to evolve
In classical software development, process tests are usually performed manually at irregular intervals, but this model doesn’t fit with today’s agile development techniques and always-on business environment.
Together, continuous integration (CI) and automated testing form a widely accepted standard today. By leveraging a well-thought-out combination of these techniques, you will be able to detect PLM system errors in a matter of minutes and correct them before the software is deployed to users. Automated software testing makes it possible to quickly implement and deliver a large number of requirements received on short notice. The key to minimizing UI testing is to focus on automated functionality testing at the software engine level, with only the necessary access to the user interface.
Why a specialized tool is required
Business criticality
Softwares changes & upgrades
Manual test problems
Standard software not suitable
Teamcenter needs to be available and fully functional.
Administrators require continuous and fast feedback about the system state.
After configuration, changes or release upgrades, it's difficult to see if everything works as expected.
Manuals tests lead to a high failure rate.
In agile development they become very expensive.
It‘s difficult to configure and maintain Teamcenter Tests in Standard Testing Software.
At Atos, we have developed a comprehensive test automation solution for the Teamcenter API (SOA) and Active Workspace, which can be integrated in a CI environment. It can run tests at both the software engine and the interface levels simultaneously. With this type of solution, test developers can quickly create test cases and add unlimited iterations. Furthermore, it enables test execution to occur even during non-working hours, with no manual intervention required.
If you are interested in learning how our automated Teamcenter testing tools can reduce testing costs while increasing the quality and stability of your PLM system, we would be happy to speak to you about it. Our teams have over 20 years of experience with Teamcenter and other PLM software, and we would appreciate the opportunity to work with you to reduce dependencies, and improve testing coverage and PLM process stability.
Share this blog article
