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Testing is the primary software validation technique used by industry today, but remains ad hoc, error prone, and very expensive. A promising improvement is to automatically generate test cases from formal models of the system under test. We demonstrate how to automatically generate real-time conformance test cases from timed automata specifications. Specifically we demonstrate how to efficiently generate real-time test cases with optimal execution time i.e test cases that are the fastest possible to execute. Our technique allows time optimal test cases to be generated using manually formulated test purposes or generated automatically from various coverage criteria of the model.

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Abstract.Testing is the most dominating validation activity used by industry today, and there is an urgent need for improving its effectiveness, both with respect to the time and resources for test generation and execution, and obtained test coverage. We present a new technique for automatic generation of real-time black-box conformance tests for non-deterministic systems from a determinizable class of timed automata specifications with a dense time interpretation. In contrast to other attempts, our tests are generated using a coarse equivalence class partitioning of the specification. To analyze the specification, to synthesize the timed tests, and to guarantee coverage with respect to a coverage criterion, we use the efficient symbolic techniques recently developed for model checking of real-time systems. Application of our prototype tool to a realistic specification shows promising results in terms of both the test suite size, and the time and space used for test generation. BackgroundTesting consists of executing a program or a physical system with the intention of finding undiscovered errors. In typical industrial projects, as much as a third of the total development time is spent on testing, and it therefore constitutes a significant portion of the cost of the product. Since testing is the most dominating validation activity used by industry today, there is an urgent need for improving its effectiveness, both with respect to the time and resources used for test generation and execution, and obtained coverage.A potential improvement that is being examined by researchers is to make testing a formal method, and to provide tools that automate test case generation and execution. This approach has experienced some level of success: Formal specification and automatic test generation are being applied in practice [7,20,23,26], and commercial test generations tools are emerging [17,24]. Typically, a test generation tool inputs some kind of finite state machine description of the behavior required of the implementation. A formalized implementation relation describes exactly what it means for an implementation to be correct with respect to a specification. The tool interprets the specification or transforms it to a data structure appropriate for test generation, and then computes a set of test sequences. Since exhaustive testing is generally infeasible, it must select only a subset of tests for execution. Test selection can be based on manually stated test purposes, or on a coverage criterion of the specification or implementation.