Reliability engineering employs a wide variety of reliability tests to achieve continuous reliability improvement throughout the entire life cycle of the system or device - from design, to manufacturing, to its usage, and until after its failure. The successful implementation of Accelerated Reliability Stress Testing requires a thorough understanding of a product's failure modes as well as the proper selection of the screening test system and its capabilities. Without prior knowledge of product responses and the actual dynamic inputs produced by the test system, effective stress test results may be unachievable or cannot be replicated.

Therefore the product's failure modes and the test system's operating characteristics must be understood before selecting the proper stress function, stress magnitude and type of test equipment. A practical reliability planning and problem resolution is covered using the above described concepts.