The Tests

Here's a summary of the levels of testing commonly used in the development and production of a product. Some of these tests can be combined, but keep in mind that each test has a very different business intent. In fact, when considering any testing, ALWAYS keep the business intent in mind.

Engineering Verification Tests (EVT):

These functional, system-level, sub-system and primitive tests verify that the technologies selected to implement the product perform as defined in the Product Specification. They also confirm that the costs of the selected technologies are within the cost targets. Some level of environmental and regulatory testing is included to ensure that the selected technologies are appropriate.

Design Verification Tests (DVT):

These tests allow verification that the product has been designed correctly; i.e. the product performs and functions as defined in the Product Specification. Also regulatory and environmental compliance is tested again. These tests are at a higher level than the EVT and are oriented towards the full system operation. Some companies include Stress and Life (STRIFE) testing to validate that the predicted lifetime and reliability match defined requirements. These tests should be designed and performed in any case so that the Warranty/Replacement program costs are in line with the business expectations.

Production Verification Tests (PVT):

These tests allow verification that the manufacturing process designed for the product is correct and meets the quality requirements defined in the Quality Plan. These tests are actually full functional tests performed on a statistical selection of manufactured product (during Pilot Production).

For some products final regulatory testing must be performed on products that are produced by the validated manufacturing and QA/QC processes.

Quality Control Tests (QCT):

These tests are also 'selected' tests, which are performed on statistical samples of product in-line and/or at the end-of-line to monitor the production process parameters. This ensures that the process remains within its defined quality parameters. Some companies choose to perform these tests on FGI as 'out-of-the-box' tests. This would indicate if there are any packing and storage problems (e.g. wrong manuals being packed, missing collateral, broken packing material…).