The Acquisition Support Program at the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute assists organizations that develop Department of Defense hardware/software hybrid systems by participating in technical reviews and other validation activities. During recent customer engagements, it has been noted that some development teams do not demonstrate a consistent understanding of integrated diagnostic system needs. In particular, software engineers seem to lack the experience needed in this area. Since software engineers frequently derive the low-level requirements for developing diagnostic systems, a lack of knowledge about deployed testing environments can have significant impact. Failure to adequately address the integrated testing needs of a system profoundly impacts its supportability and, consequently, the cost of that system throughout its life cycle.

This report attempts to fill in these gaps in knowledge and experience by presenting an overview of the operational diagnostic life cycle of a system. In addition, it outlines how a system's operational profile impacts diagnostic tradeoffs.

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