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A Specification Language and Test Planner for
Software Testing Aolat A. Adedeji1 Mary Lou
Soffa1 1DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE,
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
INTRODUCTION
PROBLEM STATEMENT
In our specification language, the user can
control the granularity of the code area that
needs to be tested. They can define the region to
be an entire file or class, or it can be as
specific as a particular range of lines in the
source code. Figure 3. Example
test specification for file Counter.java The
test planner then generates a test plan for the
example specification above. Figure
4. Test Plan for the example specification The
test planner determines when to insert probes,
where to instrument a test region, and what to do
at a probe. It automatically generates the probe
location table (PLT) to encode probes and their
locations, determines global and local storage,
and links payloads to probes. Also integration
of different tests into a single plan can be
achieved by the test planner.
One of the most important software development
concerns in recent years has been producing
reliable and robust software. Testing, a process
by which software quality can be assured through
the collection of information, can improve
software reliability. A number of techniques can
be applied to test software. One class of
techniques that is commonly used is Structural
testing, which checks that a given coverage
criterion (i.e. branch, def-use, or node testing)
is satisfied. For example, def-use testing checks
which pairs of variable definitions and uses are
covered throughout the execution of a software
program. Software testing tools typically are
inflexible and have high overhead. However, a new
scalable and flexible framework for testing
programs has been developed to improve reliable
software production. This prototype tool, called
Jazz, has major components as shown
below Figure 1. Jazz Tool
Framework Jazz instruments a program along an
execution path. This tool 1) Uses dynamic
instrumentation on the binary code that can be
inserted and removed on-the-fly, 2) Performs
branch, node and def-use coverage testing over
multiple code regions in a Java program and 3)
Includes a mechanism for specifying a software
test process.
Testing tools typically target only one type of
structural test, and are often not flexible in
mapping out a testing plan. They do not offer
the user the fine granularity for selecting parts
of code to be tested. Also, often the user can
only specify one test process at a time. For
each type of structural testing, there is a
testing plan. To create the testing plan a
specification language that describes what tests
to apply and under what condition must be in
place. Also, a test planner that generates a test
plan from a test specification has to exist.
Problem Jazz currently lacks a specification
language that defines what part of code is to be
tested in addition to defining the type of
testing one may choose to perform on a selected
code segment. For generating the test plan from
the specification language, Jazz also requires a
test planner to determine the actions necessary
to carry out tests.
public class Counter private int mycount
private int inc public Counter ()
mycount 0 inc 1 count()
public void count () if (mycount 100)
reverse() else mycount
inc public void reverse ()
System.out.println("done\n") DEFINITIONS
NAME c_method, REGION_D, LOCATION FILE
Counter.java CLASS Counter, METHOD count
BODY DO NODE_TEST ON REGION c_method
UNTIL 85
APPROACH
The front-end of this framework tool consists of
a test GUI, implemented as a plug-in for the
Eclipse IDE. The back-end coverage analysis
system consists of the test dynamic instrumenter,
test analyzer, and IBMs Jikes Java
RVM. Figure 2. System Architecture Focusin
g on the front-end of this tool we are
implementing a specification language from which
a test plan can be automatically generated by a
test planner and developing the test planner that
generates a test plan for testing a program from
a test specification.
REFERENCES
1 B. Childers, M. L. Soffa, J. Beaver et al.,
SoftTest A framework for software testing of
Java programs, Eclipse Technology eXchange
Workshop, 2003 2 J. Misurda, J. Clause, J.
Reed, B. R. Childers, and M. L. Soffa, Jazz A
Tool for Demand-Driven Structural Testing,
International Conference on Compiler
Construction, April 2005. 3 J. Misurda, J.
Clause, J. Reed, B. R. Childers and M. L. Soffa,
Demand-Driven Structural Testing with Dynamic
Instrumentation, ACM SIGSOFT International
Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), May
2005. 4 J. Reed, J. Misurda, B. R. Childers
and M. L. Soffa, An Integrated Code Coverage
System for Software Test and Analysis,
University of Pittsburgh, 2005.
Test Planner
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Juliya L. Reed, Bruce R. Childers