This paper introduces regular extrapolation, a technique that provides descriptions of systems or system aspects a posteriori in a largely automatic way. The descriptions come in the form of models which offer the possibility of mechanically producing system tests, grading test suites and monitoring running systems. Regular extrapolation builds models from observations via techniques from machine learning and finite automata theory. Also expert knowledge about the system enters the model construction in a systematic way. The power of this approach is illustrated in the context of a test environment for telecommunication systems.

Automatically generated models may provide the key towards controlling the evolution of complex systems, form the basis for test generation and may be applied as monitors for running applications. However, the practicality of automata learning is currently largely preempted by its extremely high complexity and unrealistic frame conditions. By optimizing a standard learning method according to domainspecific structural properties, we are able to generate abstract models for complex reactive systems. The experiments conducted using an industrylevel test environment on a recent version of a telephone switch illustrate the drastic effect of our optimizations on the learning efficiency. From a conceptual point of view, the developments can be seen as an instance of optimizing general learning procedures by capitalizing on specific application profiles.

No abstract

In this paper we present a new coarse grain approach to automated integrated (functional) testing, which combines three paradigms: library-based test design, meaning construction of test graphs by combination of test case components on a coarse granular level, incremental formalization, through successive enrichment of a special-purpose environment for application-specific test development and execution, and library-based consistency checking, allowing continuous verification of application-and aspect-specific properties by means of model checking. These features and their impact for the test process and the test engineers are illustrated along an industrial application: an automated integrated testing environment for CTI-Systems.

No abstract