Deriving tests from software architectures

Software architectures are intended to describe essential high level structural and behavioral characteristics of a system. Architecture Description Languages (ADLs) describe these characteristics in ways that can be analyzed and manipulated algorithmically. This provides a unique opportunity for deriving tests at the system level. The paper defines formal testing criteria based on architecture relations, which are paths that architectural components use to communicate. The criteria have been applied to a specific ADL. Results from a comparative empirical study on industrial software are presented.