Seamless testing for models and code

Abstract

This paper describes an approach to model-based testing where a test suite is generated from a model and automatically concretized to drive an implementation. Motivated by an industrial project involving DO-178B compliant avionics software, where the models are UML activity diagrams and the implementation is ANSI C, we developed a seamless testing environment based on our test specification language FQL. We demonstrate how to apply FQL to activity diagrams in such a way that FQL test specifications easily translate from UML to C code. Our approach does not require any additional glue or auxiliary code but is fully automatic except for straightforward source code annotations that link source and model. In this way, we can check for modeled but unimplemented behavior and vice versa, and we can also evaluate the degree of abstraction between model and implementation. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.