Using UML sequence diagrams as basis for a formal test description language

International audienceA formal yet user-friendly test description language could increase the possibilities for automation in the testing phase while at the same time gaining widespread acceptance Scenario languages are currently one of the most popular formats for describing interactions between possibly distributed components The question of giving a solid formal basis to scenario languages such as MSC has also received a lot of attention In this article we discuss using one of the most widely-known scenario languages UML sequence diagrams as the basis for a formal test description language for use in the distributed system context

Formal test purposes and the validity of test cases

We give a formalization of the notion of test purpose based on (suitably restricted) Message Sequence Charts. We define the validity of test cases with respect to such a formal test purpose and provide a simple decision procedure for validity