Conformance Testing from Message Sequence Charts

There are several industries in which Message Sequence Charts (MSCs) and the corresponding UML notation (Sequence Diagrams) are used to describe requirements. However, most work on model based testing has looked at testing from other languages such as input output transition systems and finite state machines. This paper explores the problem of testing on the basis of an MSC specification. We develop a formal test framework and explore the notion of a test hypothesis in this context. It transpires that there are several possible test architectures and each defines the observational power of the tester(s) and so we describe a flexible test architecture. In this paper we explore these alternatives and define corresponding implementation relations, explaining how verdicts can be produced for these relations. We then show how test suites can be generated and executed and define test coverage criteria.