Development of Optimized Test Planning Procedures for Stabilizing Ramp-up Processes by Means of Design Science Research

Unplanned engineering changes represent a major field of disturbance during production ramp-up. They require time-consuming qualification and approval procedures for product- or process-related redesign. Numerous engineering changes during production ramp-up can be traced back to lack of product maturity, not sufficiently increased during the precedent stage of product development. By applying effective and efficient product testing processes, product maturity can be measured and enhanced at an early stage. As a consequence, unplanned engineering changes can be avoided. Nevertheless, contemporary test management procedures lack of methodological support, especially in the field of test planning. To date, the successful evaluation of testing demand and selection of necessary test specifications mainly depends on the expert knowledge of the test management team. The present paper focuses on the development of optimized test planning procedures in order to accelerate early product maturity enhancement for stabilizing production ramp-up processes. Following design science research methodology, the relevance of the problem statement in the application environment of production ramp-up will be assessed. Furthermore, approaches of the knowledge base related to test management will be analyzed in order to constitute rigor of the applied research approach. Based on the evaluation of business needs from the relevant environment as well as the investigation of application knowledge, a research framework for deriving optimized test planning procedures is presented.