A Scenario-Centric Approach for the Definition of the Formal Test Specifications of Reactive Systems

Journal of Decision Systems

Camilleri

Torres

et al. 2023

Software test case design is one of the most challenging activities since many actors with different backgrounds must cover most of the user's needs and expectations. In the agricultural domain tasks can be done in very different ways since practices vary worldwide. Thus, in this context, it is very hard to design test cases to validate requested functionality that automatizes some farm tasks. This paper proposes an approach to make the testing step easier, designing User Acceptance Tests (UATs) from requirements captured through scenarios. The scenarios capture the knowledge of different stakeholders (farmers) and using natural language processing tools, the approach proposed to consolidate the set of scenarios in a consistent and coherent base of knowledge organised in a tree, from where the design of test cases is extracted using the Task/Method model, a tool from the Artificial Intelligence.

“…Entin et al (Entin et al, 2009) propose to focus on obtaining tests independent from the platform. They obtain very general User Acceptance Tests as the one obtained by our approach.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

User acceptance test for software development in the agricultural domain using natural language processing

Journal of Decision Systems

Camilleri

Torres

et al. 2023

“…Considering scenarios Entin et al (2009) propose an approach focused in obtaining test independent from the platform. That is, they obtain very general UATs as the one obtained by our approach.…”

Section: User Acceptance Tests Automationmentioning

confidence: 99%

AGUTER a platform for automated generation of user acceptance tests from requirements specifications

Camilleri

Torres

et al. 2021

PurposeThis article proposes a strategy to make the testing step easier, generating user acceptance tests (UATs) in an automatic way from requirements artifacts.Design/methodology/approachThis strategy is based on two modeling frameworks: scenarios and task/method paradigm. Scenarios are a requirement artifact used to describe business processes and requirements, and task/method paradigm is a modeling paradigm coming from the artificial intelligence field. The proposed strategy is composed of four steps. In the first step, scenarios are described through a semantic wiki website. Then scenarios are automatically translated into a task/method model (step two). In the third step, the task/method model obtained in step two is executed in order to produce and store all possible achievements of tasks and thus scenarios. The stored achievements are saved in a data structure called execution tree (ET). Finally, from this ET (step four), the UATs are generated.FindingsThe feasibility of this strategy is shown through a case study coming from the agriculture production systems field.Originality/valueGenerally, test design approaches deal with a small number of variables describing one specific situation where a decision table or workflow is used to design tests. The proposed approach can deal with many variables because the authors rely on scenarios that can be composed in order to obtain a tree with all the testing paths that can arise from their description.

“…Nevertheless, our approach is based on a description agreed between while Chen and Li based the test in the relationship inferred by their approach. Entin et al, 2009 propose an approach to derive tests from scenarios. They focus their work in obtaining a test independent from the platform.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wiki support for automated definition of software test cases

Hozikian

Camilleri³

et al. 2019

Purpose The design of tests is a very important step in the software development process because it allows us to match the users’ expectations with the finished product. Considered as a cumbersome activity, efforts have been made to automatize and alleviate the burden of test generation, but it is still a largely neglected step. The study aims to propose taking advantage of existing requirement artifacts, like scenarios that describe the dynamic of the domain in a very early stage of software development, to obtain tests from them. Design/methodology/approach In particular, the approach proposed complement the scenarios that are textually described with a glossary, the language extended lexicon. Thus, a set of rules to derive tests from scenarios is also proposed. The tests are then described using the task/method model. Findings The main findings of this study consist of an extension of a previously presented set of rules. And, a tool based on a media wiki platform that makes possible to record scenarios and the language extended lexicon and implement the rules to obtain the tests. Originality/value The main originality of this study is the glossary which complements scenarios, the semantic support to obtain tests and the tool to automatize the approach.