”When the adaptability and usability of software are on a higher level, we can better meet the needs of the customers, shorten the time spent on product development, and save costs,” says Mikko Ristilä, product development director of HK Instruments.
HK Instruments designs devices for air conditioning systems and HVAC applications of building automation to ensure high quality indoor air, energy savings and the good functionality of properties. The HK Instruments product family includes products for measuring e.g., air pressure differences, carbon dioxide levels and air humidity levels. Detailed measuring needs require reliable, precise, and user-friendly devices and software. To ensure the reliability of the device, the functionalities of the products are tested with a program containing customized test cases created specifically for the product type in question.
HK Instruments is continuously developing products so the testing software must also keep up with the development and meet the new changing challenges. Changing products, the customized properties of products and the ever-changing needs of customers create a challenging environment for the testing software.
”Comprehensive testing of all manufactured products is important for HK Instruments so that we can be sure of the quality of our products. Our own production is one of the cornerstones of HK Instruments and therefore an essential part of our business,” says Mikko Ristilä, product development director of HK Instruments.
The central development needs of the previous testing software were to improve its functionality, add adaptability and ensure user friendliness, not only for present products but also for future products. The expandability and adaptability of the testing software were seen as the central requirements for the new version
A completely new version of the testing software was created in co-operation with Huld. During implementation, the focus was on adaptability, upgradeability, integration possibilities and usability. The result of this project, implemented with an agile development model, was a testing software that enables the utilization of flexible and adaptable test scenarios and the scalability of environment for new upcoming products and test needs.
”When the adaptability and usability of software are on a higher level, we can better meet the needs of the customers, shorten the time spent on product development, and save costs,” Ristilä says.
The new testing software allows the testing of different products using a single modern user interface. Test script modifications and extensions can be defined outside the testing environment enabling the active development work to progress seamlessly, also during environment production use. The end results of testing are archived automatically making it possible to also examine and evaluate them later.