Extraction of transformations to be tested from the structured external functional specification
Takeshi Kaneko, Takeshi Nakajo · Systems and Computers in Japan · 1991
Abstract The authors propose a software testing method for the detection of modification errors caused by functional specification changes. In the method, if inappropriate transformations are selected, the following problems may occur: (1) test cases cannot be obtained, (2) efficiency becomes worse, and (3) effectiveness declines. This paper identifies the transformations that the method can most effectively apply, employing Hatley's model as a software functional specification description model. It introduces the concept “change level” based on the analysis of actual software defects and shows that: (1) the transformations used in the change level are optimal for testing, and (2) when there exist two transformations in the change level whose restrictions are complementary, only one must be tested. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by applying the method to an actual software product. The proposed testing method detected 90 percent of the defects due to functional specification changes in a software product. It can readily produce test cases even without automated testing tools when the restrictions consist of simple inequalities or equalities of the input parameters.