A methodology for the performance analysis of product validation and test plans Online publication date: Wed, 03-Mar-2010
by Armen Zakarian
International Journal of Product Development (IJPD), Vol. 10, No. 4, 2010
Abstract: Companies in a variety of industries that develop complex products have well-defined processes for developing product validation plans (to determine the number and types of prototypes needed for new product development) and test plans (to determine how tests are scheduled on each prototype). Uncertainty is prevalent in product validation and testing, with test execution times and prototype availability being among the most variable. The methodology developed in this research explicitly considers uncertainty and develops models and algorithms for the performance analysis of product validation and test plans. It also evaluates the tradeoffs between the various performance criteria of the validation plan, e.g., on-time performance, cost (number of test prototypes used) and quality (number and types of requirements validated). The application of the approach is presented with an industrial example of the performance analysis of vehicle validation and test schedules.
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