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Automated Generation and Execution of test suites for DIstributed component based Software

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Software quality relates to automated testing

Aiming at improving the quality of software, the AGEDIS project developed a methodology and software tools for automating software testing. With the focus on distributed component based software, the derived results are expected to lead to a more efficient and highly competitive European software industry.

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In the Information era, software development is rapid, resulting in the generation of systems that are increasingly complicated. Therefore, software quality plays an important role for the commercialisation and use of the end product. However, software testing is often a manual procedure, which is also time and cost consuming and most importantly, prone to errors. Alternatively, automated software testing is rigorous and less labour intensive. Within this perspective, the AGEDIS project developed suitable technology that results in the automated generation and execution of test suites for distributed component based software. Modelling and analysing the behaviour of a variety of systems, especially those based on dynamic process creation and data types, is achieved with the aid of the Intermediate Format (IF). The extended IF language allows test goals/purposes and coverage criteria to be expressed for supporting model-based test generation. The dynamic version of IF is suitable for multi-component system processes that run in parallel and interact through point-to-point message passing. During testing the number of processes is not constant but it may dynamically change over time. The innovative IF is flexible and versatile and can be used to interface with other model languages in the AGEDIS test generator. Another key project result is a special XML profile; the Abstract Test Suite (ATS) that comprises a set of test instructions for execution against the application. It includes several test cases and a series of stimulations and observations of the system under test and runs independently of the specific test execution engine used. The ATS not only applies consistently the common Unified Modeling Language (UML) method but also it has been designed with additional functionalities. These include testing of asynchronous events, dealing with environment interactions, using exceptions and test parameterisation with combinatorial input sources to name a few. For more info click: http://www.agedis.de

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