Analyzing the Impact of Protocol Changes on Tests

Subramaniam, Mahadevan; Pap, Zoltán

doi:10.1007/11754008_13

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…In [28] a framework has been developed to analyze the effects of changes on the test sequences by identifying the consistency between the test cases and the specification machine. Following this work, an incremental algorithm was proposed in [23] for keeping a complete test set up-to-date after an FSM specification has been modified by a change, if the original test cases are given in the form of the HISmethod [24,34].…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Incremental Maintenance of Transition Tour

Németh

Pap

2014

Fundamenta Informaticae

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While evolutionary development methodologies have become increasingly prevalent, incremental testing methods are lagging behind. Most traditional test generation algorithms -including the Transition Tour method -rebuild test sequences from scratch even if minimal changes to the system have been made. In the current paper we propose two incremental algorithms to update a Transition Tour test sequence after changes in a deterministic finite state machine model. Our solution uses existing information -the Eulerian graph of a previous version of the system and an Euler tour in it -to update the test cases of the system in response to modification. The first algorithm keeps an Eulerian graph up to date, while the second algorithm maintains an Euler tour in the augmented graph. Analytical and practical analyses show that our algorithms are very efficient in the case of changing specifications. We also demonstrate our methods through an example.Finite State Machines (FSMs) have been widely used for decades to model systems in various areas, such as sequential circuits [11], communication protocols [14], some types of programs [1] (in lexical analysis, pattern matching, etc.) and object-oriented software testing [2]. Several specification languages, such as SDL [15] and ESTELLE [31], are extensions of the FSM formalism.An FSM M is a quadruple M = (I, O, S, T ) where I, O, and S are the finite and nonempty sets of input symbols, output symbols and states, respectively. T ⊆ S × I × O × S is the finite set of transitions between states. Each transition t ∈ T is a quadruple t = (s j , i, o, s k ), where s j ∈ S is the start state, i ∈ I is an input symbol, o ∈ O is an output symbol and s k ∈ S is the next state. FSM M is deterministic if for all (s j , i) state-input pairs there exists at most one transition in T .An FSM can be represented by a state transition graph, a directed edge-labeled graph whose nodes correspond to the states of the machine and whose edges to the state transitions. Each edge is labeled with a pair of input and output symbols, which is associated with the corresponding transition.In the description of our algorithms, we use the graph terminology because it describes a more general approach. However, it is important to emphasize that the purpose of our algorithms is to maintain a test sequence of a system, whose description is given in the form of an FSM.In the rest of the paper we consider strongly connected, deterministic FSMs.

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Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Incremental Maintenance of Transition Tour

Németh

Pap

2014

Fundamenta Informaticae

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“…Although the FSM modeling technique has been used extensively in various fields, impact of changes on FSM models and their effects on test sets have only been studied recently following the observation that system specifications are in most cases modified incrementally in practice as requirements evolve. (See some of our earlier papers [11] [12] [5]).…”

Section: Representing Changes To Fsmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Accordingly all unordered state pairs of A M involving s m are referred to as z-modified state pairs. As a result of the unit change assumption the cardinality of the set of z-modified state pairs M ODIF IED Z abbreviated as M OD Z is n: 5 The algorithm derives the set of state pairs affected by the change. Such state pairs are said to be z-affected.…”

Section: Incremental Algorithm For Maintaining a Separating Family Of...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This research builds on our earlier work in [5] where we have developed a framework to analyze the effects of changes on tests based on the notion of consistency between tests and protocol descriptions. In the current paper, we have extended our focus to the test generation problem, which is a major step both in terms of complexity and practical importance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Bounded Incremental Test Generation Algorithm for Finite State Machines

Pap

Subramaniam

Kovács

et al. 2007

Testing of Software and Communicating Systems

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We propose a bounded incremental algorithm to generate test cases for deterministic finite state machine models. Our approach, in contrast to the traditional view, is based on the observation that system specifications are in most cases modified incrementally in practice as requirements evolve. We utilize an existing test set available for a previous version of the system to efficiently generate tests for the current -modified -system.We use a widely accepted framework to evaluate the complexity of the proposed incremental algorithm, and show that it is a function of the size of the change in the specification rather than the size of the specification itself. Thus, the method is very efficient in the case of small changes, and never performs worse than the relevant traditional algorithm -the HIS-method. We also demonstrate our algorithm through an example.

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An Approach for Test Selection for EFSMs Using a Theorem Prover

Subramaniam

Xiao

Guo

et al. 2009

Testing of Software and Communication Systems

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This paper describes an automatic approach for selecting tests from a test suite to validate the changes made to an extended finite state machine (EFSM). EFSMs supporting variables over commonly used data types including booleans, numbers, arrays, queues, and records, and communicating with the environment using parameterized messages are considered. Changes to the EFSM add/delete/replace one or more transitions. Tests are described using a sequence of input and output messages with parameter values. We introduce a class of fully-observable tests. The description of a fully-observable test contains all the information to accurately determine the transitions executed by the test. Interaction among the EFSM transitions captured in terms of a compatibility relation is used along with a given test description to automatically identify fully-observable tests. A procedure is described for selecting a test for a given change based on accurately predicting if the test executes the change transition. We then describe how several tests can be simultaneously selected by grouping them based on overlap of their descriptions. The proposed approach has been implemented using a theorem prover and applied to several examples including protocols and web services with encouraging results.

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Analyzing the Impact of Protocol Changes on Tests

Cited by 3 publications

References 15 publications

The Incremental Maintenance of Transition Tour

The Incremental Maintenance of Transition Tour

A Bounded Incremental Test Generation Algorithm for Finite State Machines

An Approach for Test Selection for EFSMs Using a Theorem Prover

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