Last week we published advice for sending the right information in your design file to a Chinese manufacturer you’re working with on product development and manufacturing. But, to be really helpful, we should have prepared a template like the one we did before for spec sheets.

So here you go — here is a Word format template: Design Files Template.

We also thought we should add information about the testing plan. In the past we drew a nice infographic about setting up a checklist, but it is very general and doesn’t go much into details.

We made a list of tests that make sense primarily for electronic, electrical, and/or mechanical products:

• Compatibility testing – Is a non-functional test conducted on the application to evaluate the application’s compatibility within different environments.
• Conformance testing (also known as compliance testing) – Is a methodology used in engineering to ensure that a product, process, computer program or system meets a defined set of standards.
• Functional testing – Tests the functions of a component or system and refers to activities that verify a specific action or function of the product, process, computer program or a system element.
• Pre-build testing – Involves testing critical components or sub-assemblies prior to any build or assembly process to ensure correct functionality.
• In-process testing – Is a practical approach to finding and containing defects where and when they occur within the build process.
• End-of-line testing – Involves ensuring that the integrated components of an application function as expected. The entire application is tested in a real-world scenario such as communicating with the database, network, hardware and other applications.
• Load testing – Is the process of putting demand on a system or device and measuring its response. Load testing is performed to determine a system’s behavior under both normal and anticipated peak load conditions.
• Performance testing – Covers a wide range of engineering or functional evaluations where a material, product, or system is not specified by detailed material or component specifications: rather, the emphasis is on the final measurable performance characteristics. Testing can be a qualitative or quantitative procedure.
• Regression testing – One of the main reasons for regression testing is to determine whether a change in one part of the software affects other parts of the software
• Stress testing – Involves testing beyond normal operational capacity, often to a breaking point, in order to observe the results.
• System testing – Is testing conducted on a complete, integrated system to evaluate the system’s compliance with its specified requirements.
• Unit testing – A unit test is an automated piece of software code that invokes a unit of work in the system and then checks a single assumption about the behavior of that unit of work
• User acceptance testing – In engineering and its various sub-disciplines, acceptance testing is a test conducted to determine if the requirements of a specification or contract are met. It may involve chemical tests, physical tests, or performance tests.

You can download our Test_Plan_Template.

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Any feedback is appreciated!