What is Variant Management?
Variant management is a central component of product development, especially in industries where numerous individual product variants are based on a common platform. It deals with the efficient management of products that are largely identical but vary in specific features. These differences can take the form of equipment options, functions or other individual adaptations based on a common product platform. The aim of variant management is to control and test these differences, known as variant specifics, in a targeted manner. This ensures that each variant has the required quality and functionality. This is necessary in order to guarantee high product quality. Precise coordination is essential in order to control complexity and avoid efficiency losses.
Challenges in testing variant-rich systems
- Redundancy and efficiency losses
Tests for common functionalities often lead to superfluous work. - Insufficient test availability
Some variants are not tested in time or not tested at all. - Complex test data management
Each product variant requires specific data, which makes administration more difficult. - Change detection and tracking
Cross-variant changes are difficult to track. - Test case control
Determining the right number of test cases for each product variant is challenging. - Lack of standardization
Without standardized processes, inconsistencies arise.
How does variant management work with TestBench?
TestBench offers effective variant management that minimizes testing effort. The system enables low-redundancy testing by creating a basic test object version. This version contains test specifications that apply to all variants of a product line. Individual variant versions are derived from this base version, each of which takes into account the common and specific requirements and tests of a product variant.
Detailed functions in variant management
In TestBench’s variant management, test specifications are precisely tailored to the respective product variant. The following functions are available:
- Definition of validity: Determine which tests apply to which product variant.
- Adaptation of test sequences: Design test sequences to be variant-dependent.
- Test data management: Define parameters and test data for each product variant.
A variant is derived in two steps. First, the number of tests is adapted to the variants. Variant markers help to assign the respective test elements. Then the test data is specifically adapted using placeholders. These placeholders allow individual values to be defined for each variant.
Creation and management of elements
In the basic test object version, elements can be created and edited and labeled to specify which product variants they are valid for. The “Variant definitions” area displays all variants and their respective test specifications.
Creation of placeholders
The “Placeholders” area allows you to manage placeholders for which specific values are used when deriving a variant. These values are organized in equivalence classes and linked to the variants using a replacement table.
Filling the placeholders with variant-specific values
The Replacement table area establishes the link between variants and placeholders. It allows you to specify a specific value for each placeholder in each variant.
Once placeholders and variant definitions have been defined in variant management, the defined objects can be used in the specification of the basic test object version.
Use of variant markers
A variant marker is available as a special keyword for each variant in the basic test object version. These can be attached to test case sets and test cases to specify that the marked element is only relevant for specific variants.
Use of placeholders
Placeholders can be created in data types instead of normal representatives. They are labelled with a symbol as so-called placeholder representatives, but otherwise behave like normal representatives within the basic test object version.
Example of variant management
An example: The derivation of the “vehicles” and “spaceships” variants shows how effectively TestBench’s variant management works. Test steps that are irrelevant for “spaceships” are removed, which reduces the test effort and increases efficiency.
All advantages at a glance
