Validating UML simulation models with model-level unit tests

We describe model-level unit tests for model-driven simulation based on UML models. We refer to the well-known unit testing method and apply this concept on a higher abstraction level, that is on UML simulation models. The concept of model-based simulation has become more and more popular throughout the last years. This trend is fostered by the availability of tools that automatically transform UML models into executable simulation code. Typically, both functionality and behavior are modeled in UML, whereas debugging and validation are mainly an issue of investigating the executable code. We contribute to the field of model-driven simulation by defining a novel testing method. Our method allows to use UML to specify model-level unit tests in order to validate simulation models defined with UML. In addition, we describe the translation, execution and evaluation of these tests within the framework Syntony. In this paper, we show the principles of this method and discuss its use in the scope of our simulation framework Syntony as well as its general applicability. Our implementation allows to compile and to execute the test code in combination with the simulation code. In spite of the high abstraction level, the full functionality of unit testing is provided and the modeler can rely on automated test case generation and execution. After execution of the tests, the achieved test coverage is computed as a measure for the test quality.