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Property-based Testing

Project description

Service and Software Architectures, Infrastructures and Engineering
This project will develop software engineering approaches to improve reliability in future service-oriented networks.

In order to improve reliability and functionality in Pervasive and Trusted Network and Service Infrastructures, PROTEST will develop software engineering approaches based on specified properties of the system which will support fault-finding and diagnosis. This will be achieved by building automated tools that will generate and run tests, observe and control execution during runtime and register occurrences for analysis.

 

  • Testing in Service-oriented Networks

Volumes of automated tests and logging code are written which use properties as objects for testing software. Such property-based testing will both reduce costs which will deliver economic benefits to the European software industry and improve effectiveness. It is a powerful new mechanism that will assure that a given programme is free of specific generic flaws. In case properties fail, the tools will search for simplest failing cases and analyse trace and coverage information to assist speedy diagnosis. In order to face a major challenge of concurrency, model-checking will be integrated into the tools.

Today, specialists and researchers are not used to formulating general properties, which is why PROTEST will investigate possibilities of deriving them from two different sources:

 

* Unified Modeling Language (UML) models, or UML-like models.

 

* By refactoring existing test suites.

 

  • Making an impact by combining different skills of different actors

The combination of skills coming from universities, SMEs and larger industrial enterprises will optimise the chances of delivering results.

 

* Academics will bring expertise in refactoring, model-checking and testing. They thereby act as real tool vendors.

 

* Industrial expertise will be needed in telecoms in order to bring insights into what practical tools are required, what properties will need to be checked and strategies to maximise industrial impact.

 

The initial implementation vehicle will be Erlang/OTP (Open Telecom Platform) developed by Ericsson in the early nineties. It is an open-source concurrent functional language aimed at telecoms and internet services and represents a common instrument for our research that simplifies the transfer of theory into industrial practice. Because of its good interoperability, robustness and reliability, Erlang enables PROTEST's tools to detect faults in various systems.

 

The results of PROTEST will improve the tool vendor's products. Thus, they will be adopted by partners such as Ericsson and Lambda-stream and disseminated by ETC to their customers throughout the European telecoms sector. This three-pronged strategy will guarantee real impact.

This project will develop software engineering approaches to improve reliability in Pervasive and Trusted Network and Service Infrastructures (ICT-2007.1.2). This is achieved today by extensive testing, combined with monitoring and logging in the field. Volumes of automated tests and logging code are written, failures must be analysed and diagnosed--and this accounts typically for half the cost of software. Even so, residual errors impose high costs on users.
We aim to automate much fault-finding and diagnosis, reducing its cost and improving effectiveness, based on properties of the system (specified by developers) which should always hold. Automated tools will generate and run tests, monitor execution at run-time, and log events for post-mortem analysis. When properties fail, the tools will search for simplest failing cases, and analyse trace and coverage information, to assist speedy diagnosis. Concurrency is a major challenge, which will be addressed in part by integrating model-checking into our tools.
Today's developers are not used to formulating general properties, so we will investigate ways of deriving them from two sources: UML (or UML-like) models, and by refactoring existing test suites.
We combine academic expertise in refactoring, model-checking and testing; a tool vendor; and industrial expertise in telecoms. Three partners are SMEs, Ericsson is a leading telecoms supplier. All use Erlang, an open-source concurrent functional language aimed at telecoms and internet servers, which will be a common vehicle for our research--easing the transfer of theory into industrial practice. Erlang's good interoperability will enable our tools to find faults in all kinds of systems.
Our results will improve our tool vendor's products, be adopted by our partners within Ericsson and Lambda-stream, and be disseminated by ETC to their customers throughout Europe's telecoms sector. This three-pronged strategy will guarantee real impact.

Fields of science

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Call for proposal

FP7-ICT-2007-1
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

CP - Collaborative project (generic)

Coordinator

THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD
Address
Firth court western bank
S10 2TN Sheffield
United Kingdom

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Region
Yorkshire and the Humber South Yorkshire Sheffield
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
EU contribution
€ 408 513,00

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Last update: 16 July 2019

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Permalink: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/215868

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