Specification-Based Testing of Concurrent Programs

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

9804112 This research focuses on the development of specification-based testing techniques for concurrent programs. The techniques being investigated are a combination of model-based and constraint- based testing techniques. For a given finite-state machine M, model-checking tools are used to find a list of temporal logic constraints that are satisfied by M. The constraints explicitly characterize M's logical branching structure, which otherwise appears only implicitly in the states and transitions of the finite-state machine. Test sequences are selected to cover the logical branches identified by the constraints. The objective of this research is to develop a structural testing methodology for finite state machine specifications that is not based on covering every state or transition. Two methods for addressing the state explosion problem during model-based test generation are being investigated. The first method, called specification slicing, is used to partition a finite-state model into several smaller sub- models that are used for test generation. The second method is called compositional testing. During compositional testing, test coverage properties are established for sub-models and these properties automatically hold for the whole system. Whether these two methods can be used to avoid the costly construction of complete system models for test generation is being investigated.***