FAT Testing

This week in school we learned about Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT) procedures), and we were challenged with creating a FAT procedure for a normal, everyday task. I decided to write a procedure around the requirement of finding the weekly screen time on an iPhone with iOS 18 or newer as a daily average (as opposed to an aggregate count) in the Xh XXm format. The objective is to verify that a tester can accurately retrieve and report the average weekly screen time from an iPhone in the standardized format of Xh XXm.

When I performed the test on my iPhone 14, everything worked as expected. My daily average screen time for the week was 6h 24m, which means that ~26% of my total, 24 hour day (not just time awake) for the week was spent on my phone. I also believe my requirement was specific enough to have no confusion. The test took < 1 minute to run. While I was the one who wrote the test for my own iPhone 14, I do believe it was as detailed as possible, especially for being such a simple task. Therefore I conclude than someone else would be able to follow my steps and perform the test without confusion, only getting a different number because the average screen time would likely be a different (hopefully lower!) number.

This lesson, being my introduction to formal verification testing, taught me how specific and directive the instructions have to be written and followed. It is good to know and understand how to utilize this tool, and I imagine I will be using these testing skills in both the near and distant future, career-wise and potentially otherwise. I imagine as an engineer, no matter the specific career, I would be both writing and following these as part of my day-to-day routine; but even in my current career as a trainer I could write these highly detailed procedures to help future trainers assess the quality of their trainees. I can also envision myself writing FAT procedures to assist my aging parents with new technology they might not be readily equipped to understand.

I do believe I will be more adept at approaching the design process now that I understand verification testing, as I now have an additional testing angle to appreciate during brainstorming. If I keep the FAT procedures in mind whilst brainstorming, I will approach new designs under the assumptions they have to be tested as meticulously and intensively as possible. While learning this skill has made me more excited about what can be done with engineering and how large the scope truly is, I don’t currently see myself pursuing a career as a testing engineer.