Specification Integration
Helping Engineers Rapidly Extract Requirements from documentation and map measurements to those specs, and then automate testing.
Validation engineers often spend significant time manually extracting product requirements from varied documents, making it difficult to ensure accuracy and traceability. This case study illustrates how the specification integration tool streamlines that process by automatically extracting and organizing specs, enabling faster, more reliable test planning.
Situation
Validation engineers often begin their process by reviewing product specification documents, which come in many formats such as PDFs, Word files, and spreadsheets. Extracting requirements manually from these documents was slow, inconsistent, and error prone. It made it difficult for engineers to confidently translate design intent into reliable test plans.
Task
The user needed an efficient way to extract key requirements from any document, organize them clearly, and map them to the measurements and parameters used in testing. Additionally, the user wanted a streamlined method to build test sequences based on these requirements to accelerate test plan creation and reduce manual effort.
Action
Within TestStand, users open the Specifications tool panel, powered by Nimble web components, to upload product specification documents. Powered by Nigel AI Assistant in the background, the tool automatically extracts requirements into an interactive table where users can review, edit, and drill into individual rows to map measurements and input parameters to specific test conditions. Users can build test sequences either before or after mapping by selecting one or multiple rows and generating sequences quickly with a single button press, streamlining the creation and organization of test plans.
Wireframe from prototype showing panel empty state.
Table loaded with specification, but no measurements mapped yet.
Drilled into a row/spec - where user selects a measurement and maps parameters to conditions
Wireframe showing Specification panel in Teststand UI.
Result
With this tool, validation engineers save substantial time on test planning and gain increased confidence that their tests accurately reflect product specifications. The integration reduces errors, enhances traceability, and accelerates the delivery of high-quality validation results. By automating sequence generation, the tool further streamlines workflows, enabling more efficient and scalable validation processes.
Teststand - Specifications Demo
My Role and Contributions
Designed the end-to-end user experience for the Specification Integration Tool in TestStand
Created intuitive flows for uploading spec documents, mapping measurements, and building sequences
Collaborated with cross-functional teams to align the design with real engineering workflows
Ensured the UI was modular and reusable for future integration into other software products
Built the interface using the Nimble design system, supporting both manual use and future automation