TESSY 5.x: Test Cockpit, Code Access, Hyper Coverage, and Variant Management

TESSY 5.x: Test Cockpit, Code Access, Hyper Coverage, and Variant Management

Razorcat Development GmbH has evolved TESSY significantly with the 5.x release series. The core unit testing engine remains, automatic interface analysis, test driver generation, stub creation, and MC/DC coverage measurement, but TESSY 5.x introduces capabilities that address the scaling challenges Indian safety-critical teams face when testing large embedded codebases across multiple product variants and compiler configurations.

This article covers the major 5.x features and how they apply to Indian automotive, aerospace, and industrial projects.

Test Cockpit: Project-Wide Testing Oversight

In a typical automotive ECU project, the codebase contains hundreds of C modules. Each module has multiple functions, each function has multiple test cases, and each test case has a pass/fail status and a coverage contribution. Managing this at scale, knowing which modules are tested, which have coverage gaps, and which need attention, requires a project-level view.

The Test Cockpit provides this view. It presents a dashboard showing:

• Module-level test status: which modules have been tested, which have failing test cases, which have insufficient coverage
• Coverage summary: aggregate statement, branch, and MC/DC coverage per module, per subsystem, and project-wide
• Test execution history: trends over time, showing whether coverage is improving or regressing
• Requirements mapping: which requirements have linked test cases and which are untested

For project managers and safety managers in Pune and Bengaluru overseeing ASIL D ECU development, the Test Cockpit provides the oversight needed to track verification progress against the safety plan without requiring each engineer to report status manually.

Code Access: Runtime Variable Inspection

Code Access extends TESSY’s interface analysis to include internal variables, local variables, static variables, and intermediate computation results that are not part of the function’s external interface.

In previous TESSY versions, engineers could set inputs (parameters, globals) and verify outputs (return values, modified globals). Code Access adds the ability to:

• Read internal state during test execution, inspect the value of a local variable at a specific point in the function
• Set intermediate values: override the value of a variable mid-execution to test specific code paths
• Assert on internal computations: verify that intermediate calculations produce correct results, not just the final output

This is particularly useful for testing complex algorithms where the final output is correct but an intermediate computation is wrong, a latent defect that would only manifest under different input conditions. For safety-critical code (torque calculation in powertrain ECUs, sensor fusion in ADAS), verifying intermediate results provides additional confidence beyond input/output testing alone.

Hyper Coverage: MC/DC Gap Analysis

Achieving 100% MC/DC coverage on complex boolean expressions is one of the most time-consuming parts of safety-critical unit testing. TESSY 5.x’s Hyper Coverage feature assists by analysing the coverage gaps and identifying which specific condition combinations need to be tested.

When MC/DC coverage is below 100%, engineers often struggle to determine which additional test cases would close the gap. Hyper Coverage analyses the uncovered conditions and presents:

• The specific atomic conditions that have not been independently shown to affect the decision outcome
• The input value combinations needed to exercise those conditions
• Visual highlighting in the source code showing exactly which conditions are uncovered

For functions with nested conditionals (common in state machine implementations and diagnostic handlers), Hyper Coverage reduces the manual analysis effort from hours to minutes. Engineers in Hyderabad and Chennai working on AURIX-based industrial safety controllers have found this feature particularly valuable for complex fault detection logic where MC/DC gaps are difficult to identify by inspection.

Variant Management: Multi-Configuration Testing

Modern embedded products ship in multiple variants, different hardware configurations, different feature sets, different calibration datasets. The same C source code compiles with different preprocessor defines, producing different object code for each variant.

TESSY 5.x’s variant management supports this by allowing:

• Multiple test configurations per project, each configuration specifies its own compiler defines, include paths, and target settings
• Shared test cases: test cases defined once are executed across all applicable variants
• Variant-specific test cases: some tests apply only to specific configurations (e.g., feature-gated functions)
• Per-variant coverage tracking: coverage is measured and reported separately for each variant, because the compiled code differs

For Indian automotive teams building ECUs that ship in multiple trim levels or for multiple vehicle platforms, variant management eliminates the need to maintain separate TESSY projects for each configuration. A single test project covers all variants, with clear reporting of which variants meet coverage targets and which need additional testing.

Additional 5.x Improvements

Beyond the headline features, TESSY 5.x includes:

• Improved C++ support: better handling of templates, namespaces, and overloaded functions in interface analysis
• Enhanced reporting: customizable report templates, summary pages for management review, and detailed technical pages for engineer review
• Performance improvements: faster interface analysis and test execution for large projects with thousands of test cases
• Updated CI/CD integration: improved command-line interface with structured output formats (JSON, XML) for CI dashboard integration

Upgrade Path for Existing Users

Teams currently using TESSY 4.x can upgrade to 5.x with their existing test projects. Test cases, coverage data, and requirements linkages migrate forward. GSAS provides migration support to ensure the transition is smooth and all existing test assets are preserved.

Why Buy from GSAS

GSAS Micro Systems is India’s authorized Razorcat partner, providing TESSY 5.x licensing with INR invoicing, upgrade support for existing installations, onboarding training on new 5.x features, and CI/CD integration consulting. Our engineers in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai, and Delhi NCR train teams on the Test Cockpit, Hyper Coverage, and variant management workflows, ensuring your team gets full value from the 5.x feature set.

Request a TESSY 5.x evaluation →