Test adequacy criteria for UML design models

Systematic design testing, in which executable models of behaviours are tested using inputs that exercise scenarios, can help reveal flaws in designs before they are implemented in code. In this paper a technique for testing executable forms of UML (Unified Modelling Language) models is described and test adequacy criteria based on UML model elements are proposed. The criteria can be used to define test objectives for UML designs. The UML design test criteria are based on the same premise underlying code test criteria: coverage of relevant building blocks of models is highly likely to uncover faults. The test adequacy criteria proposed in this paper are based on building blocks for UML class and interaction diagrams. Class diagram criteria are used to determine the object configurations on which tests are run, while interaction diagram criteria are used to determine the sequences of messages that should be tested. Copyright c © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.