Simulate the missing link
Test companies are stimulating innovative design by simulating real world operating conditions. By Mike Richardson.
By definition, a system test allows the entire system to be tested, exercising and verifying all the features of the assembly in a way that represents actual operational conditions. This provides the necessary level of confidence that the system will perform reliably under all required conditions.
There are many different approaches to system test: you can either look for a simulator that can mimic the equipment infrastructure behind the device under test (DUT), or create a real world scenario to trace what is going on between the infrastructure and the DUT. The problem is that simulation of this magnitude can be very complex and many vendors cannot satisfy all the permutations.
