A tool suite for diagnosis and testing of software design specifications

Available statistical data shows that the cost of finding and repairing software rises dramatically in later development stages. Much research has been done using verification and validation techniques to prove correctness in terms of certain properties. Such approaches and the approach of software testing are complementary. Testing reveals some errors that cannot be easily identified through verification, and vice versa. The new technology of generating implementation code from design specifications if based on highly reliable designs is another approach to reliable software. This paper presents a dynamic slicing technology and an accompanying tool suite for understanding, diagnosis and testing of software design specifications. We apply state-of-the-art technology in coverage testing, diagnosis and understanding of software source code to those of software designs. We use a simulation of the specifications to collect the execution trace for computing the coverage and slicing data. Our technology first generates a flow diagram from a specification and then automatically analyses the coverage features of the diagram. It collects the corresponding flow data during simulation to be mapped to the flow diagram. The coverage information for the original specification is then obtained from the coverage information of the flow diagram. This technology has been used for C, C++, and Java, and has proven effective.