The OpenTAP platform, and Keysight PathWave Test Automation products built with it, consume and interpret Test Plans. Test Plans don't spontaneously spring into existence, and they almost always evolve over time, requiring tools to compose and maintain them.
This blog reviews options for building and modifying OpenTAP test plans, including open source, and community-licensed and commercially-licensed tools from Keysight.
The practices of open source communities can vary greatly, as can the deliverables. How can users and integrators of open source determine the status, stability and stature of projects under consideration?
This blog lays out example metrics for open source communities and the code they deliver. The KPIs - Key Performance Indicators - include both object/quantifiable metrics, but also more intangible ones.
Concern for product quality, system security and standards compliance serve to highlight the importance of rigorous testing. Test automation with OpenTAP is key to meeting QA/QC goals, especially in today’s environment of short lifecycles for increasingly complex products and services.
The OpenTAP team caught up with APT tool set R&D manager Haran S. earlier this year for a chat about the advantages of using OpenTAP in off-the-shelf products. This interview focuses on the role of OpenTAP (and its commercial version, PathWave Test Automation) in creating and delivering the 5G Advanced Performance Test Toolset.
The CRA explicitly addresses open source software (OSS) but with important nuances and exceptions: open source software is generally exempt from CRA requirements if it is developed or supplied outside the context of a commercial activity; shared freely for public use, without direct financial gain. This exemption aims to protect non-commercial contributors, such as community-driven and academic OSS projects, from regulatory burden. However, given the actual mix of commercial and non-commercial OSS development, this language is highly contentious.
Increasingly systems architects are including richer test capabilities in their company's shipping products. OEMs are deploying OpenTAP in development and manufacturing. Device manufacturers are also embedding the test platform, either downloaded directly from the OpenTAP project or from the supported commercial version, the Keysight PathWave Test Automation Deployment System. This blog highlights the many products that are today deploying OpenTAP to provide embedded test automation.
Happy 2025!
In 2024, the open-source landscape saw significant developments across various sectors. This blog covers some of the most impactful projects and trends across open source in general - AI, cloud-native computing, cybersecurity, OSPOs, and key communities; for open source test automation across the board; and for OpenTAP in particular.
The mission of the OpenTAP Blog is to make connections between test automation and open source software, first and foremost around the OpenTAP platform. But the universe of open source test automation extends beyond our favorite project and includes other test automation platforms and technologies that can complement and extend OpenTAP. There are myriad self-styled "test automation" platforms and frameworks that are developed and distributed as open source, with use cases a broad swatch of functionality.
The EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) was formally approved by the European Parliament on March 29, 2024, following a political agreement reached in December 2023. The regulation establishes cybersecurity requirements for digital products to ensure their resilience against cyber threats and to provide for secure usage across the European Union (EU). The aim of the Act is to enhance the security of digital products and connected devices across the EU. Its primary goal is ensuring that hardware, software, and IT services sold in the EU meet robust security standards throughout their lifecycles.
Like any software project or product, the OpenTAP test automation platform benefits from rigorous test and quality assurance (QA) as part of its build and release process. Recently, the OpenTAP.io team spent time with Keysight QA and Release Manager Sebastian Pop-Vlaic, chatting about how the OpenTAP project team and the Keysight organization go about testing OpenTAP.
A “change angel” is an individual who acts as a catalyst for change within an organization. Change angels help facilitate and manage the process of change by influencing and inspiring others, through advocacy, facilitation, problem solving, leadership and influencing. Learn how you can become a change angels with OpenTAP and see the benefits it brings to your company and your career.
Testing open source software (OSS) presents unique challenges, from its decentralized development model to the diverse user base to the varying levels of contributor expertise. Testing community-developed software must also meet challenges arising from the vast number of projects, and in particular, from developer focus on innovation and functionality.
