Abstract: To enhance the versatility of automatic test system's testing resources management, and to meet the increasingly complex test requirements, a signal-oriented method to resource management was proposed. The management strategy of this method is to abstract the actual instrument ability to the virtual signal description, and match it with the signal of the demand of the device under test. The instrument resources in the ATS can be allocated according to different methods by the matching result between signals. The test system over-reliance on the instrument, provide technical support for cross-platform portability of test procedures. By the example verification shows, the test resources can be universally managed according to the test requirements.