Eliminating redundant tests in a checking sequence

Abstract

Under certain well-defined conditions, determining the correctness of a system under test (SUT) is based on a checking sequence generated from a finite state machine (FSM) specification of the SUT. When there is a distinguishing sequence for the FSM, an efficient checking sequence may be produced from the elements of a set Eα′ of α′-sequences that verify subsets of states and the elements of a set EC of subsequences that test the individual transitions. An optimization algorithm may be used in order to produce a shortest checking sequence by connecting the elements of Eα′ and EC using transitions drawn from an acyclic set. Previous work did not consider whether some transition tests may be omitted from EC. This paper investigates the problem of eliminating subsequences from EC for those transitions that correspond to the last transitions traversed when a distinguishing sequence is applied in an α′- sequence to obtain a further reduction in the length of a checking sequence. © IFIP 2005.