Evolutionary testing techniques

Abstract

The development and testing of software-based systems is an essential activity for the automotive industry. 50-70 software-based systems with different complexities and developed by various suppliers are installed in today's premium vehicles, communicating with each other via different bus systems. The integration and testing of systems of this complexity is a very challenging task. The aim of testing is to detect faults in the systems under test and to convey confidence in the correct functioning of the systems if no faults are found during comprehensive testing. Faults not found in the different testing phases could have significant consequences that range from customer dissatisfaction to damage of physical property or, in safety relevant areas, even to the endangering of human lives. Therefore, the thorough testing of developed systems is essential. Evolutionary Testing tries to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the testing process by transforming testing objectives into search problems, and applying evolutionary computation in order to solve them. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.