Automatic Model Based Methods to Improve Test Effectiveness

Software testing covers a large percent of the software development expenses. However, formal methods are applied, usually, to improve or ensure the correctness of the requirements, design, code, or testing. In order to utilize formal methods particularized to different cases, the subject matter needs to be written in a formal language or syntax. In this research, several model based methods are investigated and experimented in order to reduce testing expenses, improve test coverage, and the effectiveness of the testing process.Formal models are generated from the application during runtime. For this purpose a tool is developed to automatically derive the formal syntax from the application at runtime. Later on, the formal model is used in improving test effectiveness. In addition, the model is used to find some possible dynamic problems in the application that might be hard to be discovered by traditional testing methods. Finally, a test monkey tool is proposed in order to test the application for deadlock or progress problems and test the application ability to reject invalid test cases as well.