Automatic Test Case Generation for OCL: a Mutation Approach

Fault-based testing is a technique where testers anticipate errors in a system under test in order to assess or generate test cases. The idea is to have enough test cases capable of detecting these anticipated errors. This work presents a method of fault-based test case generation for preand postcondition specifications. Here, errors are anticipated on the specification level by mutating the preand postconditions. We present the underlying theory by giving test cases a formal semantics and translate this general testing theory to a constraint satisfaction problem. A prototype test case generator serves to demonstrate the automatization of the method. It works on OCL specifications. Percy A. Pari Salas is a Fellow at UNU/IIST on leave from San Pablo Catholic University, Arequipa Peru, where he is a lecturer in Informatics Engineering. His current research interests include software testing, specially mutation analysis, formal development methods and formal specification languages. His email address is [email protected]. Bernhard K. Aichernig is a Research Fellow at UNU/IIST. He is also an assistant professor at the Institute for Software Technology at the Graz University of Technology in Austria. His research interests include the synergies of testing and formal development methods, techniques of refinement, and requirements engineering supported by formal specification languages. His email address is [email protected]. Copyright c © 2005 by UNU-IIST, Percy Antonio Pari Salas and Bernhard K. Aichernig