System and method for model based system testing of interactive applications

• US 20050256665A1
• Filed: 01/21/2005
• Published: 11/17/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 01/26/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens Healthineers AG (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens Corp. (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Foster, Herbert R. Jr., Vieira, Marlon E. R., Ruder, Axel, Hartmann, Jean
• Granted Patent: US 7,685,576 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/121
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3684 for test design, e.g. generating new test cases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3688 for test execution, e.g. scheduling of test suites

Abstract

A method and device with instructions for testing a software application include creating a system model for the software application, wherein the system model includes an activity diagram, and applying one or more test annotations to the activity diagram to control test generation for testing the software application. Further, test annotations and the system model are processed to create one or more test cases, and the software application is tested using a test execution tool that uses the test cases.

Claims

1. A method for testing a software application, the method comprises the steps of:

creating a system model for the software application, wherein the system model comprises an activity diagram;

applying one or more test annotations to the activity diagram to control test generation for testing the software application;

processing the test annotations and the system model to create one or more test cases; and

testing the software application using a test execution tool that uses the test cases.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the test annotations comprise:

at least one of a test branching annotation, a test variable annotation, a user action annotation, a system response annotation, a conditional flow point annotation, a sub-diagram annotation, a partition annotation, a pre-condition annotation, a post condition annotation, and a coverage annotation.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the system model comprises:

an UML (Unified Modeling Language) model for the software application including an UML activity diagram.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of processing further comprises the steps of:

creating an intermediate object model from the UML activity diagram and the test annotations;

generating a TSL (Test Specification Language) test model from the intermediate object model;

generating one or more XML (extensible Markup Language) test scripts from the TSL test model; and

transforming the XML test scripts into the test cases in a predetermined output format.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of processing further comprises the step of:

replacing a first test annotation representing a sub-diagram annotation with an activity sub-diagram.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the step of processing further comprises step of:

replacing iteratively the test annotations representing sub-diagrams with activity sub-diagrams for a predetermined depth level of iteration.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of processing further comprises the steps of:

building a recursive directed graph having a root category-partition coupled with one or more paths of choices connecting to data-choices that can be inputted to the software application.

8. A method for testing a software application, the method comprises the steps of:

creating a system model for the software application, wherein the system model comprises one or more UML diagrams;

creating one or more TSL (Test Specification Language) categories by partitioning input choices for each one of the categories, wherein the input choices are sourced from all possible inputs to the software application;

applying one or more test annotations to the UML diagrams that comprise of one or more activities and variables;

generating a TSL test design from the UML diagrams and test annotations applied to the UML diagrams by mapping the activities and variables to the categories; and

generating one or more test cases from the TSL test design to test the software application.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of generating the test cases comprises the steps of:

building a recursive directed graph from the TSL test design, wherein the graph comprises a root category coupled with one or more paths of choices connecting to the input; and

generating the test cases from the graph.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the UML diagrams comprise of at least one UML activity diagram and a UML use case diagram.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprises the step of:

replacing a use case in the UML use case diagram with the UML activity diagram.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of generating the TSL test design further comprises the steps of:

replacing iteratively one or more sub-diagram annotations in the activity sub-diagram with sub-activity diagrams for a predetermined depth level of iteration.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising the steps of:

modifying the TSL test design to correspond with a change in the software model; and

updating the categories associated with the activities and the variables of the UML diagrams.

14. A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for testing a software application, the method steps comprises:

creating a system model for the software application, wherein the system model comprises an activity diagram;

applying one or more test annotations to the activity diagram to control test generation for testing the software application;

processing the test annotations and the system model to create one or more test cases; and

testing the software application using a test execution tool that uses the test cases.

15. The program storage device of claim 14, wherein the test annotations comprise:

at least one of a test branching, a test variable annotation, a user action, a system response, a conditional flow point, a sub-diagram refinement, a partition, a pre-condition, a post condition, and a coverage annotation.

16. The program storage device of claim 14, wherein the system model comprises:

an UML (Unified Modeling Language) model for the software application including an UML activity diagram.

17. The program storage device of claim 16, further comprising instructions for:

creating an intermediate object model from the UML activity diagram and the test annotations;

generating a TSL (Test Specification Language) test model from the intermediate object model;

generating one or more XML (extensible Markup Language) test scripts from the TSL test model; and

transforming the XML test scripts into the test cases in a predetermined output format.

18. The program storage device of claim 14, further comprising instruction for:

replacing a first test annotation representing a sub-diagram refinement with an activity sub-diagram.

19. The program storage device of claim 18, further comprising instruction for:

replacing iteratively the test annotations representing sub-diagrams with activity sub-diagrams for a predetermined depth level of iteration.

20. The program storage device of claim 14, further comprising instruction for:

building a recursive directed graph having a root category-partition coupled with one or more paths of choices connecting to data-choices that are inputted to the software application.