Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

International Conference of Z Users

ZUM 1995: ZUM '95: The Z Formal Specification Notation pp 152–166Cite as

Improving software tests using Z Specifications

  • Testing
  • Conference paper
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 967))

Abstract

Formal Specifications become more and more important in the development of software, especially, but not only in the area of high integrity systems. Testing as a method to validate the functionality of a system against the specification will keep its justification also in a development process using formal specifications.

We demonstrate, where the problems lie when carrying out software integration tests using traditional testing techniques. It will then be demonstrated, how formal specifications can be used to achieve greater reliability and productivity during the software testing process by using extensive automatic tool support. This applies for the selection of test cases as well as the evaluation of test results, leading to a highly automated test process. First experiences from a case study will be given, in which we repeat the software integration test process for an application that has been developed by DST as part of the Cabin Intercommunication Data System (CIDS) for the new Airbus A330/340 family.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. D. Carrington and P. Stocks. A Tale of two Paradigms: Formal Methods and Software Testing. In J. P. Bowen and J. A. Hall, editors, Z User Workshop, Cambridge, June 1994, Workshops in Computing, pages 51–68. BCS FACS, Springer Verlag, June 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Richard Demillo and A. Jefferson Offutt. Experimental Results from an Automatic Test Case Generator. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering, 2(2):109–127, April 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Jeremy Dick and Alain Faivre. Automating the Generation and Sequencing of Test Casees from Model-Based Specifications. In J.C.P. Woodcock and P.G. Larsen, editors, FME'93: Industrial-Strength Formal Methods, number 670 in Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pages 268–284. FME Europe, Springer Verlag, April 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  4. G.T.Sculard. Test Case Selection using VDM. In R.Bloomfield, L.Marshall, and R.Jones, editors, VDM88: VDM — The Way Ahead, number 328 in Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pages 178–186. VDM Europe, Springer Verlag, September 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Walter Gutjahr. Automatische Testdatengenerierung zur Unterstützung des Softwaretests. Informatik Forschung und Entwicklung, 8(3):128–136, August 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Ute Hamer and Jan Peleska. The Airbus A330/340 Cabin Communication System — A Z Application. In Michael G. Hinchey and Jonathan Bowen, editors, Applications of Formal Methods, Series in Computer Science. Prentice Hall International, to appear 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Ian J. Hayes and Cliff B. Jones. Specifications are not (necessarily) executable. Software Engineering Journal, 4(6):330–338, November 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Hans-Martin Hörcher. Das DST-Unittestbed zur automatisierten Durchführung von Unittests. GI-Software Trends, Mitteilungen der Fachgruppe “Software-Engineering”, 13(2):41–49, February 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Hans-Martin Hörcher. Animation of implicit Specifications. Internal paper, DST Deutsche System-Technik GmbH, Kiel, Germany, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Hans-Martin Hörcher and Jan Peleska. The Role of Formal Specifications in Software Testing. In Tutorial Notes for the FME'94 Symposium. Formal Methods Europe, October 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Erich Mikk. Automatic Compilation of Z Specifications into C for automatic Test Result Evaluation. Master's thesis, Christian Albrecht Universität Kiel, December 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Erich Mikk. Compilation of Z Specifications into C for automatic Test Result Evaluation. In Z User User Meeting — ZUM'95, Workshops in Computing. BCS FACS, Springer Verlag, September 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  13. RCTA. DO-178-B, Software Consideratons in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification. Technical Report RCTA Paper No. 548-92/SC167-177, RCTA, 1140 Connecticuit Avenue, Wasgington D.C., July 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Mike Spivey. The Z Notation — A Reference Manual. International Series in Computer Science. Prentice Hall International, 2nd edition, 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  15. John B. Wordsworth. Software Development with Z. International Computer Science Series. Addison Wesley, 1992.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. DST Deutsche System-Technik GmbH, Edisonstr. 3, D-24145, Kiel, Germany

    Hans-Martin Hörcher

Authors
  1. Hans-Martin Hörcher
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Jonathan P. Bowen Michael G. Hinchey

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1995 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Hörcher, HM. (1995). Improving software tests using Z Specifications. In: Bowen, J.P., Hinchey, M.G. (eds) ZUM '95: The Z Formal Specification Notation. ZUM 1995. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 967. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-60271-2_118

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-60271-2_118

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-60271-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-44782-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation