Requirement-based automated black-box test generation

• Published in: 25th Annual International Computer Software and Applications Conference. COMPSAC 2001 pp. 489 - 495
• Main Authors: Tahat, L.H., Vaysburg, B., Korel, B., Bader, A.J.
• Format: Conference Proceeding Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 2001
• Subjects: Automatic testing; Automation; Computer science; Costs; Software maintenance; Software systems; Software testing; Software tools; System testing; Time to market
• ISBN: 0769513727; 9780769513720
• ISSN: 0730-3157
• DOI: 10.1109/CMPSAC.2001.960658

Testing large software systems is very laborious and expensive. Model-based test generation techniques are used to automatically generate tests for large software systems. However, these techniques require manually created system models that are used for test generation. In addition, generated test cases are not associated with individual requirements. In this paper, we present a novel approach of requirement-based test generation. The approach accepts a software specification as a set of individual requirements expressed in textual and SDL formats (a common practice in the industry). From these requirements, system model is automatically created with requirement information mapped to the model. The system model is used to automatically generate test cases related to individual requirements. Several test generation strategies are presented. The approach is extended to requirement-based regression test generation related to changes on the requirement level. Our initial experience shows that this approach may provide significant benefits in terms of reduction in number of test cases and increase in quality of a test suite.