How to start serial tests

[Arthur Schwarz]

Win7-64 bits
cygcheck (cygwin) 1.7.35
automake) 1.14.1

I'm struggling with learning how automake tests run and linking into the
automake generated test harness(es). I just tried to generate the serial
test harness and came across this little oddity:

Manual: GNU Automake v1.14.1, 6 Nov 2013

Chp. 15.2.2 Older (and discouraged) serial test harness (pg 112)

        "The serial test harness is enabled by the Automake option
serial-tests."

Neither: automake --serial-tests
    nor  automake serial-tests
    work.

The diagnostic message using the--serial-tests option is:
        automake-1.14: error: unrecognized option '--serial-tests'.
        automake-1.14: Try '/usr/bin/automake-1.14 --help' for more
information.

I am trying to integrate my test(s) with something. I don't understand (much
of anything really) how to integrate or start any automake test harness and
am baffled. There are few examples in the manual and (as above) some of the
statements given seem to not work. 

I developed my software before I address the auto* tool set. As a result, I
have a single executable program which check the functionality of the
developed library. A dozen individual tests are executed within the program
and I would like to report the results of each test to the user. I don't
know how to setup my output files so that they can be integrated into (any)
test harness, the preferred testing method. Any help on integration?