Automated Software Testing

A 28 February 2000 Business Week article states that "security, for everyone, hinges on software quality" and "more real testing - not 'beta testing' in the marketplace - will yield programs that are less vulnerable to attack." To date, most research on automated software testing has focused on structural testing, i.e., testing based on execution paths within the code that implements a specified function. Many practitioners believe the combinatorics of structural testing approaches render them hopeless. In addition, structural testing is not possible with many systems because there is no access to source code. An alternative is to use specification based testing, in which tests are derived from the specification alone.

This project harnesses formal methods to improve the quality of software by automatically generating tests for software from formal specifications. Automated software test generation also greatly reduces the costs of software testing. Deriving tests from specifications is particularly useful for bodies developing software standards, e.g., W3C, OMG, IEEE, and ANSI. The goal of these groups is specification development, while the goal of associated companies is software implementation. This project furthers software quality by companies implementing software to standard specifications by providing a method to automatically generate software tests demonstrating conformance to them. As a result, software products with fewer failures and closer adherence to standards come to the market earlier and at less cost.

Automated Software Testing