kevin3stone's library 22 articles

Abstract

Test templates and a test template framework are introduced as useful concepts in specification-based testing. The framework can be defined using any model-based specification notation and used to derive tests from model-based specifications. It is demonstrated using the Z notation. The framework formally defines test data sets and their relation to the operations in a specification and other test data sets, providing structure to the testing process. Flexibility is also preserved, so that many testing strategies can be used. Important application ...

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Testing is one of the costliest aspects of commercial software development. Model-based testing is a promising approach addressing these deficits. At Microsoft, model-based testing technology developed by the Foundations of Software Engineering group in Microsoft Research has been used since 2003. The second generation of this tool set, Spec Explorer, deployed in 2004, is now used on a daily basis by Microsoft product groups for testing operating system components, .NET framework components and other areas. This chapter provides a comprehensive survey ...

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This book gives a practical introduction to model-based testing, showing how to write models for testing purposes and how to use model-based testing tools to generate test suites. It is aimed at testers and software developers who wish to use model-based testing, rather than at tool-developers or academics. The book focuses on the mainstream practice of functional black-box testing and covers different styles of models, especially transition-based models (UML state machines) and pre/post models (UML/OCL specifications and B notation). The steps of applying model-based testing are demonstrated on ...

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This thesis develops a unified solution to the GUI testing problem with the particular goals of automation and integration of tools and techniques used in various phases of GUI testing. These goals are accomplished by developing a GUI testing framework with a GUI model as its central component. For efficiency and scalability, a GUI is represented as a hierarchy of components, each used as a basic unit of testing. The framework also includes a test coverage evaluator, test case generator, test... ...

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Memon presents a unified GUI testing framework with a GUI model as its central component. A formal GUI model is defined containing states and actions with their pre/post-conditions, in which a state is represented as a set of objects and properties. In the framework, test cases are generated by plan generation techniques from artificial intelligence. Then a test coverage evaluator is employed to calculate whether the test cases generated can test the GUI adequately. As test cases are being executed, a

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In order to achieve an automated GUI testing oracle, firstly a formal GUI model is defined containing states and actions with their pre/post-conditions, in which a state is represented as a set of objects and properties. Then an execution monitor is used to produce actual states that are compared with the expected states generated by the automated oracle.

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This paper has defined three metrics for evaluating the quality of a project test plan. The metrics not only evaluate the linkage and coverage between requirements and tests, but also take potential cost and schedule issues into consideration.

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This study suggests a test suite reduction technique integrating program coverage-based and usage-based test requirements. When applying to web applications, user session data are used as test cases. The paper also proposes a modification to the existing reduction technique (HGS) by incorporating the use of usage-based test requirements into HGS's nondeterministic component.

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Requirement-based testing is actually a type of model-based testing, but with a strong linkage to user requirements. The common thing is to use model checking tools to generate test cases by exploring all the possible state transition paths. In this paper, the authors use Linear Temporal Logic to model user requirements.

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This is another paper talking about how to generate test cases based on requirement model, which is in UML. The key is how to reduce the number of test cases. This paper uses category-partition method to achieve that by using different configurations.

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Combinatorial design method often covers every pair-wise combination of system input parameter values, so that it can dramatically reduce the number of test cases required. In order to use this method, testers have to develop models of the user requirements and an algorithm that can generate sets of test values automatically. Combinatorial testing can provide a great assist to GUI testing when there are many GUI elements with many properties to test.

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This paper aims at generating test cases from user requirements. In this approach, user requirements are presented in UML scenario descriptions, which is further described in story diagrams based on actor activities and system reactions. Then these diagrams can be translated to normal Java code run by JUnit testing tool. This is only good for unit (component) testing, because the relationship between units hasn't been taken into consideration.

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Test designers widely believe that the overall effectiveness and cost of software testing depends largely on the type and number of test cases executed on the software. This article shows that the test oracle , a mechanism that determines whether a software is executed correctly for a test case, also significantly impacts the fault detection effectiveness and cost of a test case. Graphical user interfaces (GUIs), which have become ubiquitous for interacting with today's software, have created new challenges for ...

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This paper explores how test oracles affect fault detection ability of test cases. By experiments, it is found that: (1) Test cases significantly lose their fault detection ability when using “weak” test oracles; (2) in many cases, invoking a “thorough” oracle at the end of test case execution yields the best cost-benefit ratio; (3) certain test cases detect faults only if the oracle is invoked during a small “window of opportunity” during test execution; and (4) using thorough and frequently-executing test

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This paper tries to improve the previous approaches to generating test cases from user session data by focusing on state dependences from multi-user interactions. The strategies proposed by the paper define different ways to partition web server log.

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Web applications have become critical components of the global information infrastructure, and it is important that they be validated to ensure their reliability. Therefore, many techniques and tools for validating web applications have been created. Only a few of these techniques, however, have addressed problems of testing the functionality of web applications, and those that do have not fully considered the unique attributes of web applications. In this paper we explore the notion that user... ...

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This paper introduces a method to create test cases by looking at user session data of web applications. This method is a type of record/replay approach, thus shows some advantages, such as reducing the amount of required tester intervention. However, complete automation cannot be achieved.

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Use cases are believed to be a good basis for system testing. Yet, to automate the test generation process, there is a large gap to bridge between high-level use cases and concrete test cases. We propose a new approach for automating the generation of system test scenarios in the context of object-oriented embedded software, taking into account traceability problems between high-level views and concrete test case execution. Starting from a formalization of the requirements based on use cases extended with contracts, ...

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This paper introduces a new approach to automatically generating test cases from requirements which are described by use cases and contracts. With the aid of sequence diagrams, test scenarios can be generated from test objectives. The authors also provide a simulator to correct requirements by doing simulation and model checking. When applying the approach to real life cases, requirement formalization still poses great challenges to business analysts.

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GUI regression testing is challenging as GUIs are changed frequently during the whole SDLC. Currently, there are no effective techniques for doing GUI regression testing. In this paper, a novel actionable knowledge model (AKM) is proposed for representing GUI test cases. The proposed model is adaptive to the change of GUIs. A multi-agent based framework that infusing AKM for GUI application regression testing is developed to facilitate test case creation, execution and repair. ...

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This paper proposes a knowledge-based approach in order to handle the frequent change of GUI design when testing such applications. This approach is based on an Actionable Knowledge Model that stores action information and relations. Thus if one test case is fixed according to the GUI change, the other test cases can be repaired as well automatically. The author also presents the architecture of an multi-agent system that can potential employ the proposed approach.

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This paper presents a specification-driven approach to test automation for GUI-based JAVA programs as an alternative to the use of capture/replay. The NetBeans Jemmy library provides the basic technology. We introduce a GUI-event test specification language from which an automated test engine is generated. The test engine uses the library and incorporates the generation of GUI events, the capture of event responses, and an oracle to verify successful completion of events. The engine, once generated, can be used to test multiple versions of the application. The approach defined in this ...

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The approach is driven by specifications (requirements) and generates test harnesses that use Jemmy Library to do the GUI-based application testing. The benefits include avoiding writing test harness, focusing on test case design and N-version testing capability. Actually, it is a type of Action-based(or Keyword-based) Testing. However, the specification cannot be verified per se to prove the correctness of the application design.

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Test automation of Web applications can be done more effectively by accessing the plumbing within the user interface. Here is a detailed walk-through of Watir, a tool many are using to check the pipes. ...

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Watir is a tool to automate web application testing. It can simulate human's inputs such as clicking, selecting, filling, etc. to test if web pages can contain expected results. Watir could be a good choice of backend test scripting tool if tests are driven by specifications (behaviours).