Using UML Collaboration Diagrams for Static Checking and Test Generation

Software testing can only be formalized and quantified when a solid basis for test generation can be defined. Tests are commonly generated from program source code, graphical models of software (such as control flow graphs), and specifications/requirements. UML collaboration diagrams represent a significant opportunity for testing because they precisely describe how the functions the software provides are connected in a form that can be easily manipulated by automated means. This paper presents novel test criteria that are based on UML collaboration diagrams. The most novel aspect of this is that tests can be generated automatically from the software design, rather than the code or the specifications. Criteria are defined for both static and dynamic testing of specification-level and instance-level collaboration diagrams. These criteria allow a formal integration tests to be based on high level design notations, which can help lead to software that is significantly more reliable.

Modular Reasoning for Actor Specification Diagrams

: Specification diagrams are a novel form of graphical notation for specifying open distributed object systems. The design goal is to define notation for specifying message-passing behavior that is expressive, intuitively understandable, and that has formal semantic underpinnings. The notation generalizes informal notations such as UML's Sequence Diagrams and broadens their applicability to later in the design cycle. In this paper we show how it is possible to reason rigorously and modularly about specification diagrams. An Actor Theory Toolkit is used to great advantage for this purpose. INTRODUCTION Specification diagrams are a novel form of graphical notation for specifying open distributed object systems. Our goal is to define notation for specifying message-passing behavior that is expressive, intuitively understandable, and that has a rigorous underlying semantics. Many specification languages that have achieved widespread usage have a graphical presentation format, primarily be..