Software requirements validation via task analysis

As a baseline for software development, a correct and complete requirements definition is one foundation of software quality.Previously, a novel approach to static testing of software requirements was proposed in which requirements definitions are tested on a set of task scenarios by examining software behaviour in each scenario described by an activity list. Such descriptions of software behaviour can be generated automatically from requirements models. This paper investigates various testing methods for selectingtest scenarios. Data flow, state transition and entity testing methods are studied. A variety of test adequacy criteria and their combinations are formally defined and the subsume relations between the criteria are proved. Empirical studies of the testing methods and the construction of a prototype testing tool are reported

A systematic approach for detecting faults in agent designs

This thesis proposes a mechanism, including automated tool support, for early-phase defect detection by comparing the plan structures of a belief-desire-intention (BDI) agent design against the following: (1) requirement models, specified in terms of scenarios and goals; and (2) agent communication models. The intuition of our approach is to extract sets of possible behaviour runs from the agent-behaviour models and to verify whether these runs conform to the specifications of the system-to-be. The proposed approach in this thesis is applicable at design time and does not require source code. Our approach is based on the Prometheus agent-design methodology but is applicable to other methodologies that support the same notions. We evaluate the proposed verification framework on designs, ranging from student projects to case studies of industry-level projects. Our evaluation demonstrates that even a simple specification developed by relatively experienced developers is prone to defects, and our approach is successful in uncovering most of these defects. In addition, we conduct a scalability analysis of our methods, and the outcomes reveal that our approach can scale when designs grow in size

Automating the software inspection process

Inspection is widely believed to be the most cost-effective method for detecting defects in documents produced during the software development lifecycle. However, it is by its very nature a labour intensive process. This has led to work on computer support for the process which should increase the efficiency and effectiveness beyond what is currently possible with a solely manual process. In this paper, we first of all describe current approaches to automation of the inspection process. There are four main areas of inspection which have been the target for computer support: document handling, individual preparation, meeting support and metrics collection. We then describe five tools which have been developed to support the inspection process and compare the capabilities of these tools. This is followed by a fuller discussion of the features which could be provided by computer support for inspection and the gains that may be achieved by using such support