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SUMMARY This paper describes tool support that has been implemented for the Test Template Framework (TTF). The TTF is a model‐based testing (MBT) method that is especially well suited for unit testing from Z specifications. Although the TTF is a sound MBT method and it has been widely referenced since its first publication, attention in recent years has decayed. In fact, some have argued that generating abstract test cases following the TTF is a manual task requiring its users to perform complex predicate manipulations. This paper shows that these observations are dubious by describing Fastest, a tool that implements solutions for all these issues and, according to many experiments, produces abstract test cases for more than 80% of the satisfiable test specifications. Furthermore, it is claimed that Fastest fulfils the needs of the Z user community regarding MBT tools, which is supported with a range of case studies. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Abstract-Fastest is an automatic implementation of Phil Stocks and David Carrington's Test Template Framework (TTF) [1], a model-based testing (MBT) framework for the Z formal notation. In this paper we present a new feature of Fastest that helps TTF users to eliminate inconsistent test classes automatically. The method is very simple and practical, and makes use of the peculiarities of the TTF. Perhaps its most interesting features are extensibility and ease of use, since it does not assume previous knowledge on theorem proving. Also we compare the solution with a first attempt using the Z/EVES proof assistant and with the HOL-Z environment. At the end, we show the results of an empirical assessment based on applying Fastest to four real-world, industrial-strength case studies and to six toy examples.