Comparative Evaluation of the State-of-art Requirements-based Test Case Generation Approaches

The overall aim of software testing is to deliver the error-free and high-quality software products to the end users. The testing process ensures that a software is aligned with the user specification and requirements.  In software testing process, there are many challenging tasks however test case generation process is considered as the most challenging one. The quality of the generated test cases has a significant impact on efficiency and effectiveness of the testing process.  In order to improve the quality of a developed software, the test cases should be able to achieve maximum adequacy in the testing and requirements' coverage. This paper presents a comparative evaluation of the prominent requirement-based test case generation approaches. Five evaluation criteria namely, inputs for test case generation, transformation techniques, coverage criteria, time and tool's support are defined to systematically compare the approaches. The results of the evaluation are used to identify the gap in the current approaches and research opportunities in requirement-based test case's generation.

A comparative analisys of i*-based agent-oriented modeling languages

Agent-oriented models are frequently used in disciplines such as requirements engineering and organizational process modelling. i* is currently one of the most widespread notations used for this purpose. Due to its strategic nature, instead of a single definition, there exist several versions and variants, often not totally defined and even contradictory. In this paper we present a comparative study of the three most widespread i* variants: Eric Yu’s seminal proposal, the Goal-oriented Requirement Language (GRL) and the language used in the TROPOS method. Next, we propose a generic conceptual model to be used as reference framework of these three variants and we show its use for generating specific models for the three mentioned variants, as well as for other existing proposals.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft

Model Instantiation and Type Checking in UMLX

OMG's MDA initiative encourages the use of meta-model based transformations and re-usable specifications. We discuss how Graphical Transformation Notations such as UMLX reduce opportunities for errors in this programming domain

An approach for the automatic verification of blockchain protocols: the Tweetchain case study

This paper proposes a model-driven approach for the security modelling and analysis of blockchain based protocols. The modelling is built upon the definition of a UML profile, which is able to capture transaction-oriented information. The analysis is based on existing formal analysis tools. In particular, the paper considers the Tweetchain protocol, a recent proposal that leverages online social networks, i.e., Twitter, for extending blockchain to domains with small-value transactions, such as IoT. A specialized textual notation is added to the UML profile to capture features of this protocol. Furthermore, a model transformation is defined to generate a Tamarin model, from the UML models, via an intermediate well-known notation, i.e., the Alice &Bob notation. Finally, Tamarin Prover is used to verify the model of the protocol against some security properties. This work extends a previous one, where the Tamarin formal models were generated by hand. A comparison on the analysis results, both under the functional and non-functional aspects, is reported here too

A logic-based approach for the verification of UML timed models

This article presents a novel technique to formally verify models of real-time systems captured through a set of heterogeneous UML diagrams. The technique is based on the following key elements: (i) a subset of Unified Modeling Language (UML) diagrams, called Coretto UML (C-UML), which allows designers to describe the components of the system and their behavior through several kinds of diagrams (e.g., state machine diagrams, sequence diagrams, activity diagrams, interaction overview diagrams), and stereotypes taken from the UML Profile for Modeling and Analysis of Real-Time and Embedded Systems; (ii) a formal semantics of C-UML diagrams, defined through formulae of the metric temporal logic Tempo Reale ImplicitO (TRIO); and (iii) a tool, called Corretto, which implements the aforementioned semantics and allows users to carry out formal verification tasks on modeled systems. We validate the feasibility of our approach through a set of different case studies, taken from both the academic and the industrial domain