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D. Winkler, K. Meixner, P. Novak:
"Efficient and Flexible Test Automation in Production Systems Engineering";
in: "Security and Quality in Cyber-Physical Systems Engineering", Springer International Publishing, Switzerland, 2019, ISBN: 978-3-030-25311-0.

Context and Background. In Production Systems Engineering (PSE),
software and systems testing are success-critical along the production automation
life cycle to identify defects early and efficiently. Although test automation concepts enable continuous integration and tests during engineering and maintenance,
tool chains are often hard-wired, less flexible, and inefficient. Thus, there is a need
for more flexible tool chains to support verification and validation of control code
variants. Objective. In this book chapter, we (a) describe a flexible Test Automation
Framework (TAF) to enable continuous integration and tests and (b) provide an
adapted maintenance process to enable efficient verification and validation of control code variants. Method. We build on best practices from Software Engineering
and Software Testing to establish a flexible TAF based on Behavior-Driven Testing.
We use the Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) as foundation for human-based verification
and validation. We developed an initial prototype derived from industry partners
and used an Industrie 4.0 Testbed for evaluation. Results and Conclusion. First results of the prototype implementation with selected testing tools showed the capability of the TAF concept for supporting flexible configurations of testing tool
chains. The AST concept can support the human-based verification and validation
of control code variants.

Production Systems Engineering, Test Automation, Behavior Driven Test, Model Quality Assurance, Verification and Validation.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35312-7