How to Test Product Lifecycle Management Platforms
Testing PLM platforms to meet quality and reliability standards
Product lifecycle management (PLM) platform testing requires a comprehensive test plan to ensure the software functions as intended. Creating PLM test plans begins with understanding the system's requirements and outlining the scope, objectives, test strategy, and resource allocation. PLM test plans include functional and non-functional test cases, as well as user acceptance and regression testing. PLM platforms run on custom business logic, so quality assurance (QA) testers must ensure the system continues to work after each upgrade of the PLM or modification to the business logic.
Because PLM platforms integrate with other systems across the IT ecosystem, such as ERP and CAD tools, QA teams must analyze how the entire system operates together. Before deployment, validate the PLM system in a staging or preproduction environment and later verify it in production. Testers should implement test automation where possible to reduce manual efforts and increase test coverage. Using a test automation software is a best practice to securely roll out software updates, new features, and security upgrades.
PLM platform testing solution
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Universal fusion engine
Identify, execute, and adapt tests automatically with Eggplant’s AI-powered engine to provide the fastest path to quality for your system under test.
Model-based testing
Achieve full test coverage, streamline development, and predict how your application will behave under different conditions with model-based testing.
Intelligent computer vision
Facilitate testing of complex user experience elements using Eggplant’s optical character recognition to identify text from images.
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Frequently asked questions about product lifecycle management platform
PLM software testing ensures that all components within a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system function correctly, facilitating seamless product development and lifecycle management. This testing involves validating custom workflows and integrations with systems like ERP and MES, ensuring data accuracy. By incorporating PLM test automation, organizations can reduce manual errors, streamline processes, and accelerate deployment across platforms such as CAD.
PLM test automation enhances the testing process for Product Lifecycle Management systems like CAD, ERP, and MES by improving efficiency and reducing manual errors. This is critical for maintaining hardware product quality, as automated testing ensures design updates made in tools like CAD are accurately reflected across production systems, reducing costly errors and enhancing overall quality.
Keysight Eggplant Test excels in automating regression testing, which is crucial for PLM systems that undergo frequent updates. By automating these tests, Eggplant Test ensures that new changes don’t introduce defects while maintaining existing functionality. Its end-to-end testing capabilities utilize advanced image recognition and optical character recognition (OCR) to handle complex graphical user interfaces, such as those used in CAD software. Additionally, Eggplant integrates with CI/CD pipelines, enabling continuous testing to support frequent updates, minimize risks, and ensure smooth interactions between hardware and software systems.
Testing CAD, ERP, and MES systems presents unique challenges due to their complex workflows, graphical user interfaces (GUIs), and high dependency on integrations with other systems. One major challenge is ensuring system updates, whether in CAD design or ERP functionality, don’t break existing features. Regression testing becomes essential but can be time-consuming and error-prone when done manually.
End-to-end testing is another hurdle, particularly in systems integrations, where data must flow smoothly between CAD, ERP, and MES environments. Any disruptions in these custom workflows can lead to production delays or costly errors in hardware output. Ensuring performance and availability is equally critical, especially when dealing with large data sets, graphical models, or real-time production environments.
Keysight Eggplant Test addresses these challenges with robust automation capabilities. Eggplant Test automates regression testing, ensuring frequent updates across these systems don’t introduce defects. Its end-to-end testing capabilities support seamless integration across CAD, ERP, and MES, ensuring smooth system interactions. Eggplant Test’s advanced image recognition and optical character recognition (OCR) enable testing of complex GUIs, making it ideal for CAD tools that rely heavily on graphical data. Additionally, it provides insights into performance and availability, ensuring that systems remain operational under varying conditions, essential for production environments that cannot afford downtime.
Keysight’s Eggplant Test is one of the most powerful tools for automating PLM software testing, particularly for systems that rely on complex graphical user interfaces (GUIs), such as CAD applications. A key feature that sets Eggplant Test apart is its ability to perform UI testing without access to source code, making it ideal for closed-source applications like CAD tools.
Eggplant Test uses image and optical character recognition (OCR) technology to interact with the UI elements by visually identifying buttons, icons, and other graphical elements, allowing it to simulate real user interactions. This ensures that all the graphical components in CAD tools function as expected.
Additionally, Eggplant Test provides seamless cross-platform testing, ensuring that PLM, CAD, ERP, and MES systems function consistently across different operating systems, such as Windows, macOS, and Linux. Its automated regression testing capabilities allow you to catch bugs early and validate UI changes quickly, streamlining the testing of GUIs across the PLM ecosystem.
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