Natural-language scenario descriptions for testing core language models of domain-specific languages

The core language model is a central artifact of domain-specific modeling languages (DSMLs) as it captures all relevant domain abstractions and their relations. Natural-language scenarios are a means to capture requirements in a way that can be understood by technical as well as non-technical stakeholders. In this paper, we use scenarios for the testing of structural properties of DSML core language models. In our approach, domain experts and DSML engineers specify requirements via structured natural-language scenarios. These scenario descriptions are then automatically transformed into executable test scenarios providing forward and backward traceability of domain requirements. To demonstrate the feasibility of our approach, we used Eclipse Xtext to implement a requirements language for the definition of semi-structured scenarios. Transformation specifications generate executable test scenarios that run in our test platform which is built on the Eclipse Modeling Framework and the Epsilon language family.