Testing a deterministic implementation against a non-controllable non-deterministic stream X-machine

A stream X-machine is a type of extended finite state machine with an associated development approach that consists of building a system from a set of trusted components. One of the great benefits of using stream X-machines for the purpose of specification is the existence of test generation techniques that produce test suites that are guaranteed to determine correctness as long as certain well-defined conditions hold. One of the conditions that is traditionally assumed to hold is controllability: this insists that all paths through the stream X-machine are feasible. This restrictive condition has recently been weakened for testing from a deterministic stream X-machine. This paper shows how controllability can be replaced by a weaker condition when testing a deterministic system against a non-deterministic stream X-machine. This paper therefore develops a new, more general, test generation algorithm for testing from a non-deterministic stream X-machine.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2008
• Where: FAC
• Authors: Robert M. Hierons, Florentin Ipate
• Keywords: FAC 2008, Non-deterministic Stream X-machine, Stream X-machine, Test Generation