TAS::80 0123::TAS SOFTWARE TESTING IS A COMPLEX AND EXPENSIVE PHASE OF THE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT CYCLE. EFFE…

Public award description

TAS::80 0123::TAS SOFTWARE TESTING IS A COMPLEX AND EXPENSIVE PHASE OF THE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT CYCLE. EFFECTIVE SOFTWARE TESTING IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT IN MISSION-CRITICAL SOFTWARE, WHERE ERRONEOUS BEHAVIOR POSES A RISK TO SAFETY OR MISSION SUCCESS. AUTOMATED TEST CASE GENERATION CAN MAKE TESTING MORE EFFICIENT AND EFFECTIVE, SAVING RESOURCES AND REDUCING RISK. UNDER PHASE 1, SAFEWARE ENGINEERING CORPORATION SUCCESSFULLY DEVELOPED THE ALGORITHMS NECESSARY TO STREAMLINE SOFTWARE TESTING BY AUTOMATICALLY GENERATING TEST CASES DIRECTLY FROM SPECTRM-RL MODELS. SPECTRM-RL (SPECIFICATION TOOLS AND REQUIREMENTS METHODOLOGY REQUIREMENTS LANGUAGE) IS A REQUIREMENTS LANGUAGE THAT WAS DESIGNED TO BE HIGHLY READABLE, ALLOWING EVEN NON-SPECIALISTS TO UNDERSTAND THEM, BUT IS ALSO COMPLETELY FORMAL. TEST CASES GENERATED FROM THE BLACK-BOX MODELS WRITTEN IN SPECTRM-RL WILL FOCUS ON THE INTENDED BEHAVIOR OF THE SYSTEM. THE TEST CASE GENERATION TOOL WILL BE DESIGNED TO ALLOW THE USER TO CHOOSE BETWEEN A SMALLER SET OF TEST CASES, ALLOWING FOR MORE RAPID ERROR IDENTIFICATION, AND A LARGER SET PROVIDING MORE COMPREHENSIVE COVERAGE. THE PHASE II EFFORT WILL IMPLEMENT THESE ALGORITHMS, ADDING TEST-CASE GENERATION TO SPECTRM, THE TOOL SUITE WHICH ALLOWS FOR EDITING, ANALYSIS AND EXECUTION OF SPECTRM-RL MODELS. THE NEW TEST CASE GENERATION TOOLS WILL BE TESTED ON THE MAX LAUNCH ABORT SYSTEM.