Check Whether a PCB Test Report Hides Executed Steps

A production report may contain fewer entries than the sequence executed. That can be intentional, for example when a summary shows only selected measurements, but it changes what a reviewer can infer from the document. Establish whether a missing row means not executed, not recorded, or excluded from the report.

NI’s report-generation documentation distinguishes collected results from the report generated from those results. Reviewing the generated document alone therefore cannot establish the full behavior of the underlying sequence.

Follow one result through the reporting path

Choose a step whose execution can be independently observed. Confirm that it runs, produces its intended result, enters the retained result collection, and appears or is deliberately omitted in the final report. Repeat with a failing step and a skipped step. These cases expose filters that an all-pass demonstration cannot reveal.

Record the selection policy for detailed measurements, setup operations, subsequences, and diagnostic attachments. A policy that suppresses repetitive setup information may be reasonable. A policy that hides unexpected errors changes the interpretation of the entire report and needs correction.

Separate three different coverage questions

A concise customer-facing report can coexist with a detailed retained record. Give both a shared attempt identity and a clear relationship so a reviewer can retrieve supporting detail. Avoid naming both files “complete results” if they serve different purposes.

Challenge the filter before release

Create controlled validation cases covering pass, fail, error, termination, and intentional non-applicability. Inspect both the overall disposition and the individual rows. Confirm that nested calls and repeated measurements do not disappear simply because their container has a different status.

Check pagination and export conversion as well. A correctly collected row can be lost from a printed or converted report because of a layout or export issue. Compare representative long reports rather than testing only a short document that fits on one page. Inspect rows at page boundaries and attachments linked from the final document.

Keep the report configuration under the same release discipline as the sequence. A reporting-only change can materially affect available evidence even when electrical test logic is unchanged. The final document should state its scope accurately and provide a reliable path to the retained detail whenever the summary does not carry every result.