Axel Belinfante

JTorX: a tool for on-line model-driven test derivation and execution

We introduce JTorX, a tool for model-driven test derivation and execution, based on the ioco theory. This theory, originally presented in [12], has been refined in [13] with test-cases that are input-enabled. For models with underspecified traces [3] introduced uioco. JTorX improves over its predecessor TorX [14] by using uioco and this newer ioco theory. By being much easier to deploy, due to improved installation, configuration and usage. And by integrating additional functionality, next to testing: checking for (u)ioco between models [6]; checking for underspecified traces in a model; interactive or guided simulation of a model. This makes JTorX an excellent vehicle for educational purposes in courses on model-based testing, as experience has shown – and its usefulness is not limited to education, as experience has shown too.

Tools for test case generation

The preceding parts of this book have mainly dealt with test theory, aimed at improving the practical techniques which are applied by testers to enhance the quality of soft- and hardware systems. Only if these academic results can be efficiently and successfully transferred back to practice, they were worth the effort.

Formal Test Automation: The Conference Protocol with TGV/TORX

We present an experiment of automated formal conformance testing of the Conference Protocol Entity as reported in [2]. Our approach differs from other experiments, since it investigates the combination of the tools TGV for abstract test generation and TorX for test execution.

DFTCalc: A Tool for Efficient Fault Tree Analysis

Effective risk management is a key to ensure that our nuclear power plants, medical equipment, and power grids are dependable; and is often required by law. Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) is a widely used methodology here, computing important dependability measures like system reliability. This paper presents DFTCalc, a powerful tool for FTA, providing (1) efficient fault tree modelling via compact representations; (2) effective analysis, allowing a wide range of dependability properties to be analysed (3) efficient analysis, via state-of-the-art stochastic techniques; and (4) a flexible and extensible framework, where gates can easily be changed or added. Technically, DFTCalc is realised via stochastic model checking, an innovative technique offering a wide plethora of pow- erful analysis techniques, including aggressive compression techniques to keep the underlying state space small.

Timed testing with torx

We describe an approach to on-the-fly real-time testing based on non-deterministic timed automata. The approach is based on standard computations on zone automata. We present algorithms for practical testing, as they were implemented in the testing tool TorX.

Automated Testing in Practice: The Highway Tolling System

In this paper we study the application of automated test derivation and execution based on formal specifications. The object of testing is the Payment Box (PB) of the Highway Tolling System, a device which handles electronic payments. Challenges of testing the PB are the transaction speed, parallelism and encryption. We describe a methodology for automated testing and apply this methodology to test the PB. We conclude that automation of the test process is feasible and beneficial, and evaluate our techniques, theory and tools for automated testing.

Experiences with formal engineering: model-based specification, implementation and testing of a software bus at neopost

We report on the actual industrial use of formal methods during the development of a software bus. At Neopost Inc., we developed the server component of a software bus, called the XBus, using formal methods during the design, validation and testing phase: We modeled our design of the XBus in the process algebra mCRL2, validated the design using the mCRL2-simulator, and fully automatically tested our implementation with the model-based test tool JTorX. This resulted in a well-tested software bus with a maintainable architecture. Writing the model, simulating it, and testing the implementation with JTorX only took 17% of the total development time. Moreover, the errors found with model-based testing would have been hard to find with conventional test methods. Thus, we show that formal engineering can be feasible, beneficial and cost-effective.