A theory of fault-based testing
Morell, L.J.
Dept. of Comput. Sci., Hampton Univ., Hampton, VA ;
This paper appears in: Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions on
Publication Date: Aug 1990
Volume: 16,
Issue: 8
On page(s): 844-857
ISSN: 0098-5589
References Cited: 32
CODEN: IESEDJ
INSPEC Accession Number: 3746824
Digital Object Identifier: 10.1109/32.57623
Current Version Published: 2002-08-06
Abstract
A theory of fault-based program testing is defined and explained.
Testing is fault-based when it seeks to demonstrate that prescribed
faults are not in a program. It is assumed that a program can only be
incorrect in a limited fashion specified by associating alternate
expressions with program expressions. Classes of alternate expressions
can be infinite. Substituting an alternate expression for a program
expression yields an alternate program that is potentially correct. The
goal of fault-based testing is to produce a test set that differentiates
the program from each of its alternates. A particular form of
fault-based testing based on symbolic execution is presented. In
symbolic testing, the output from the system is an expression in terms
of the input and the symbolic alternative. Equating this with the output
from the original program yields a propagation equation whose solutions
determine those alternatives which are not differentiated by this test.
Since an alternative set can be infinite, it is possible that no finite
test differentiates the program from all its alternates. Circumstances
are described as to when this can be decided
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