Test-case calculation through abstraction

Abstract

This paper discusses the calculation of test-cases for inter-active systems. A novel approach is presented that treats the problem of test-case synthesis as an abstraction problem. The refinement calculus is used to formulate abstraction rules for calculating correct test-case scenarios from a formal contract. This abstraction calculus results in a synthesis method that, does not need to compute a finite state machine. This is in contrast to previous work on testing from state-based Specification. A well known example from the testing literature serves to demonstrate this unusual application of the refinement calculus in order to synthesize tests rather than implementations. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2001.