Decomposition-Based Approach for Model-Based Test Generation

Model-based test generation by model checking is a well-known testing technique that, however, suffers from the state explosion problem of model checking and it is, therefore, not always applicable. In this paper, we address this issue by decomposing a system model into suitable subsystem models separately analyzable. Our technique consists in decomposing that portion of a system model that is of interest for a given testing requirement, into a tree of subsystems by exploiting information on model variable dependency. The technique generates tests for the whole system model by merging tests built from those subsystems. We measure and report effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed decomposition-based test generation approach, both in terms of coverage and time

Testing Strategies for Model-Based Development

This report presents an approach for testing artifacts generated in a model-based development process. This approach divides the traditional testing process into two parts: requirements-based testing (validation testing) which determines whether the model implements the high-level requirements and model-based testing (conformance testing) which determines whether the code generated from a model is behaviorally equivalent to the model. The goals of the two processes differ significantly and this report explores suitable testing metrics and automation strategies for each. To support requirements-based testing, we define novel objective requirements coverage metrics similar to existing specification and code coverage metrics. For model-based testing, we briefly describe automation strategies and examine the fault-finding capability of different structural coverage metrics using tests automatically generated from the model

Model Checking RSML-e Requirements

Associated research group: Critical Systems Research GroupModel checking is a promising technique for automated verification or refutation of software systems. Nevertheless, it has not been used widely in practice mainly due to the lack of the supporting tools that incorporate the model checking activity into the development process. As a part of our overall method supporting specification centered system development, we have implemented a translator between a formal specification language RSML-e and a symbolic model checker NuSMV. Our translation and abstraction approach aims at usability in practice so that model checking can be used as a routine process during requirement analysis without requiring much knowledge about formal methods. Preliminary result from applying the system in a commercial setting is quite promising. In this paper, we discuss our translation and abstraction approach in some depth and illustrate its feasibility with some preliminary results