Method for domain specific test design automation
First Claim
1. A method for testing operation of a system against a natural language design specification defining a closed set of behaviors thereof, the system being operationally specific to at least one problem domain, the method comprising the steps of:
- translating the natural language specification to a specification in at least one description language specific to a corresponding one of the at least one problem domain, each of said at least one domain specific description language including a set of axioms, each of said set of axioms corresponding to a respective syntactical relationship between morphemes of said corresponding domain specific description language;
generating a model of the system from said domain specific description language specification, said model behaving in accordance with a first set of behaviors and a second set of behaviors, each of said first set of behaviors corresponding to a respective one of the closed set of behaviors and each of said second set of behaviors corresponding to a respective one of said set of axioms;
generating from said model a test case for each behavior of a set union of said first set of behaviors and said second set of behaviors; and
providing to the system every test case generated from said model as the set of test cases for testing the system operation.
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Abstract
A method for automatically generating test cases from a domain specific description language specification makes use of the properties of the language to derive domain specific axioms and language specific predicates. These properties are embedded into an extended finite state machine which is in turn supplied to the input of a test case generator. The enhanced extended finite state machine, referred herein as an extended finite state machine accounting for axioms and predicates (EFSMAP) contains states and transitions associated with information on implied behavior of the specified system within a particular problem domain. The implicit behavior, defined by the axiomatic properties of the operators of the domain specific language, provide test capability of the associated system that was not explicitly set forth in the formal specification, but nevertheless should be tested to increase confidence in the reliability of the finished product.
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Citations
22 Claims
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1. A method for testing operation of a system against a natural language design specification defining a closed set of behaviors thereof, the system being operationally specific to at least one problem domain, the method comprising the steps of:
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translating the natural language specification to a specification in at least one description language specific to a corresponding one of the at least one problem domain, each of said at least one domain specific description language including a set of axioms, each of said set of axioms corresponding to a respective syntactical relationship between morphemes of said corresponding domain specific description language;
generating a model of the system from said domain specific description language specification, said model behaving in accordance with a first set of behaviors and a second set of behaviors, each of said first set of behaviors corresponding to a respective one of the closed set of behaviors and each of said second set of behaviors corresponding to a respective one of said set of axioms;
generating from said model a test case for each behavior of a set union of said first set of behaviors and said second set of behaviors; and
providing to the system every test case generated from said model as the set of test cases for testing the system operation. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method for testing a computing application specific to a computing domain comprising the steps of:
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providing to a testing authority a natural language specification of the computing application defining a closed set of behaviors thereof;
translating said natural language specification into a specification in at least one computing language specific to the computing domain;
generating a model of the application from said at least one domain specific language specification, said model behaving in accordance a set union of behaviors corresponding to at least one set of axioms derived from said at least one domain specific language and said closed set of behaviors;
generating a set of test cases executable by the computing application from said model, each of said set of test cases corresponding to one of said set union of behaviors;
executing each of said set of test cases by means of the computing application; and
communicating to said testing authority each of said set of test cases which results in a behavior of the application contrary to said corresponding one of said closed set of behaviors specified in said natural language specification. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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Specification