Evaluation

New or modified products need to be evaluated to check their limits of operation. The results may be used to check that the design specification has been met, or to establish a level of performance that can be reliably achieved.

Products may be evaluated in both operating and non-operating states, over the range of environmental conditions expected during normal use. More extreme conditions may also be applied to determine the safety margin (or robustness) of the product. These are usually referred to as accelerated tests (see HALT and HASS).