Test Engineering Insights for Aerospace and Defense

You are evaluated on your ability to manage cost and risk, whether you’re working on your next program bid or serving as a portfolio manager for software engineers to support legacy testers. Explore best practices to manage business risk and ultimately create a sustainable market advantage by improving test engineering and operational support.

A Note to Aerospace and Defense Test Leaders

Whether you’re putting pencil to paper for your next program bid, assessing the mass-migration costs to move your teams and testers to Windows 10, or portfolio-managing software engineers to support a growing inventory of legacy testers, you are consistently evaluated on your ability to manage cost and risk. You are not alone. Aerospace and defense organizations across the world are being asked to learn and integrate new RF and wireless technologies, manage new and often unbudgeted corporate or government mandates, and maintain legacy test equipment for years longer than originally planned. NI has served the aerospace and defense industry for decades with disruptive, PXI-based instrumentation and application software that reduce the overall cost and risk associated with the design, validation, test, and support of your products. In these articles, we’ll share some of the insights and best practices we’ve identified working with thousands of engineers and leadership teams to manage risk and ultimately generate a sustainable market advantage for you through advancements in test engineering and operational support. Luke Schreier Vice President and General Manager of Aerospace, Defense, and Government Business

By giving your test team the ability to optimize for client needs, you can transform test from a roadblock into a competitive edge for your business.

Understand the cost drivers of your test organization to stay ahead of constantly shrinking budgets and schedules.

Test is much more than a technical exercise. It is a critical business function. Use total cost of ownership to fully characterize the importance of test when asking for budget and winning new business.

Reduce the operational costs of aging automated test systems through distributed system and data management strategies.

Basing test systems on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technology offloads burdensome part maintenance and obsolescence management, so you can use your expertise to produce state-of-the-art aerospace and defense assets instead of building custom test-rack components.

Operations and maintenance make up most of the lifetime cost of a test set, so your engineering teams should plan to minimize them from the start.