Abstract:
Non-Standard Graphical Simulation Techniques For Test Specification
Development
In this article we present a graphical simulation-based method and tool for
the development of formal Timed CSP (TCSP) test specifications. Typically,
this method is used in the context of automated testing of embedded real-time
systems with complex user interfaces (our first industrial application is the
hardware-in-the-loop test of the Airbus Cabin Intercommunication Data System
CIDS). While the problem of generating, executing and evaluating test
executions from TCSP specifications is already solved and supported by
appropriate tools, the creation of the formal specifications still represents
a serious stepping stone, since it does not only require expertise about the
application to be tested but also considerable skill in the field of Formal
Methods. Our graphical test specification method aims at facilitating this
task. The method is based on two types of graphical models: (1) A virtual
reality (VR) representation of the system interface and its operational
environment allowing to define timed traces of events and (2) a graphical
meta language allowing to construct complete TCSP specifications from the
specifications fragments developed in the VR representation. We use the term
`non-standard simulation', because in our context simulation is not performed
to animate an existing model of system behaviour. Instead we start with an
incomplete simulation model containing only basic interface descriptions and -
using the interaction features of the VR representation and the graphical meta
language - create a TCSP model which may be used for testing purposes.
Authors
Jan Peleska, Stefan Bisanz, Ingo Fiß and Manfred Endreß