The flow of operations is as follows:

  1) Test requirements are authored, read into the system via a parser and validated. Note that there is a clear division in configuration management; the system CM remains untouched.

  2) The scheduler orders the operation of the requirements and loads them in a table suitable for execution.

  3) The requirements are read out of the database table and executed by individual hardware controllers named in the requirements. The hardware controllers operate per the required instructions and return the status of the stimulus or measurement (pass/fail).