Notes taken from a book by Lee Atchison:
Test Designs may include coverage of software interaction with or control of peripheral devices that perform tests or measurements. Object Oriented Programming is particularly well suited for control software.
Information Hiding: procedural software languages for control programs require explicit statements for the location, interfaces and so on for each device. OOP instead creates objects specifically for each device that contain all these details.
Polymorphism: allows new instruments to be controlled by the software, without substantial rewrites, by substitution.
Data types as objects: OOP allows objects to act as data types that can contain extensive information for information exchange.
Test and Measurement System Assemblies
Test and measurement system constituents include:
Device Under Test: the device or component being evaluated;
Fixture: mechanical and electrical connections between the test instrumentation and the device under test;
Switching: electrical switches connecting test instrumentation to test points on the device under test, or connecting a test point on the device under test to variety of test instruments;
Instrumentation: the actual test and measurement devices;
Measurement Library: software to convert digital data from the instrumentation into a form usable by the test library;
Test Library: software that takes the measurement data from the instrumentation and performs the appropriate analysis on the data;
Sequencer: software that controls which tests are executed and in which order;
Data Logger: software to store the data and test results for later analysis;
Analysis: software to perform post-processing analysis of the logged data.
Data Acquisition Systems: includes device monitoring, real-time data logging, post-process data analysis and possibly device stimulation.
Production Test Systems: includes device monitoring, device stimulation, real-time data analysis, real-time analysis decisions and possibly real-time data logging and post-process data analysis.
Research and Development Lab Bench Systems: includes device monitoring and device stimulation.
Monitor and Control Systems: includes device monitoring, device control, real-time data analysis, real-time analysis decisions and possibly real-time data logging and post-process data analysis.
There are many software test and measurement applications available.