Controlling test case explosion in test generation from B formal models

Abstract

BZ‐TESTING‐TOOLS (BZ‐TT) is a tool set for automated test case generation from B and Z specifications. BZ‐TT uses boundary and cause–effect testing on the basis of the formal model. It has been used and validated on several industrial applications in the domain of critical software, particularly smart card and transport systems. This paper presents the test coverage criteria supported by BZ‐TT. On the one hand, these correspond to various classical structural coverage criteria, but specialized to the case of B abstract machines. The paper gives algorithms for these in Prolog. On the other hand, BZ‐TT introduces new coverage criteria for complex data structures, based on boundary analysis: this paper defines weak and strong state‐boundary coverage, input‐boundary coverage and output‐boundary coverage. Finally, the paper describes how BZ‐TT presents a unified view of these criteria to the validation engineer, and allows him or her to control the test case explosion on a coarse basis (choosing from a range of coverage criteria) as well as a fine basis (selecting options for each state or input variable). Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Issues in Testing Dependable Event-Based Systems at a Systems Integration Company

“…So solving a linear program will not help us to find the boundary values. Applying mutation testing shows the effectiveness of these techniques and allows an exact quality statement to be made [20]. Another research topic is the use of model checkers for automatic test-case generation.…”

“…Special attention is given to multidimensional equivalence classes in which the partitioning does not depend on only a single input but on a combination of different inputs. The problem here is the possible presence of constraints defining the dependencies of one input on another [20].…”

LEIRIOS Test Generator: Automated Test Generation from B Models

“…This summary gives the main lessons of experience from these large experiments of automated test generation using B abstract machines [1,2] for smart card applications [3]. We analyze the effectiveness of B modeling for testing, the way for controlling test case explosion from the formal model [4], the translation of generated test cases in executable test scripts [5]and the integration of this new approach in the validation process. In the sequel of this abstract, we first introduce the test generation process and then we discuss these various issues.…”

Test case generation from formal models through abstraction refinement and model checking

“…Refer to Figure 1 Existing model based testing techniques [8,22,26] dealing with model oriented languages partition the input space of the operations into equivalence classes to create operation instances. A Finite State Automaton (FSA) or a coverage graph is constructed in which the initial node corresponds to the initial state of the model, edges correspond to application of operation instances.…”