Selecting Test Cases for Mechatronic Products with a Variant and Version Management Approach based on a Consistent Toolchain

Abstract The number of variants and versions for mechatronic products increases. The high variability poses a challenge for test engineers in selecting suitable test cases upon a change. If a requirement or a feature of a mechatronic product changes, it is not necessary to retest the whole product but only the changed parts. To identify the product features that are directly or indirectly affected by the change, a connection of test, requirement, and variant management is necessary. Therefore, an approach to select test cases based on an occurred change using variant and version knowledge is needed. In this paper, such an approach and its possible application in a toolchain are introduced. The toolchain is built by combining established tools developed by the Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC) that are already used to manage parts of the product life cycle. The resulting PTC Integrity Toolchain and the applicability of the concept on it were evaluated together with industrial experts with positive results.