Authors:
Bruno Lima
and
João Faria
Affiliation:
FEUP and INESC TEC, Portugal
Keyword(s):
Model-based Integration Testing, Conformance Checking, Distributed Systems, Time Constraints, UML.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Distributed and Mobile Software Systems
;
Distributed Architectures
;
Software Engineering
;
Software Engineering Methods and Techniques
;
Software Testing and Maintenance
Abstract:
The provisioning of a growing number of services depends on the proper interoperation of multiple products,
forming a new distributed system, often subject to timing requirements. To ensure the interoperability and
timely behavior of this new distributed system, it is important to conduct integration tests that verify the interactions
with the environment and between the system components. Integration test scenarios for that purpose
may be conveniently specified by means of UML sequence diagrams (SDs) enriched with time constraints.
The automation of such integration tests requires that test components are also distributed, with a local tester
deployed close to each system component, coordinated by a central tester. The distributed observation of execution
events, combined with the impossibility to ensure clock synchronization in a distributed system, poses
special challenges for checking the conformance of the observed execution traces against the specification,
possibly yi
elding inconclusive verdicts. Hence, in this paper we investigate decision procedures and criteria
to check the conformance of observed execution traces against a specification set by a UML SD enriched with
time constraints. The procedures and criteria are specified in a formal language that allows executing and
validating the specification. Examples are presented to illustrate the approach.
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