Communications of the ACM 53 (4): 113-118 (2010)

CHOC'LATE: a Framework for Specification-Based Testing 1

Pak-Lok Poon 2 , Sau-Fun Tang 3 , T.H. Tse 4 , and T.Y. Chen 3

[author-izer free download from ACM digital library]

 ABSTRACT

Software testing based on informal specifications has remained popular. We present a CHOiCe reLATion framEwork (CHOC'LATE). It allows testers to systematically re-enact an unstructured informal specification in a more formal representation -- choice relation table -- from which a test suite can be generated automatically. Unlike formal specifications, the choice relation table is easy to understand by software developers with little training. Furthermore, CHOC'LATE incorporates mechanisms for consistency checking, automatic deductions, and prioritization of choices for test suite generation. Because of these merits, we believe that CHOC'LATE will have a significant contribution to software quality assurance in the industry.

1. This research is supported in part by a grant of the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (project no. 517704).
2. School of Accounting and Finance, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
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3. Centre for Software Analysis and Testing, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia.
4. Department of Computer Science, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong.

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