Model-based Testing: Transforming SDL-UML models to the Intermediated Format 2.0

Rogenhofer, Thomas (2009). Model-based Testing: Transforming SDL-UML models to the Intermediated Format 2.0. Student dissertation for The Open University module M801 MSc in Software Development Research Dissertation.

Please note that this student dissertation is made available in the format that it was submitted for examination, thus the author has not been able to correct errors and/or departures from academic standards in areas such as referencing.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.ro.00016097

Abstract

In 2007, the International Telecommunication Union published a SDL-UML profile. This SDL-UML profile enables the modelling of software systems with the Unified Modelling Language (UML) 2.0 according to semantics of the Specification and Description Language (SDL). Although it is possible to automatically generate abstract test cases from SDL models, this is not the case for SDL-UML models. This dissertation describes the work done to transform a SDL-UML model to an intermediate text based language, the so-called Intermediated Format (IF) 2.0. This transformation allows an existing automatic testing suite to generate test cases from an IF 2.0 system specification. At the beginning of this research project a comparative analysis was performed in order to investigate to what extent the SDL-UML profile could be transformed to the Intermediate Format 2.0. The results of this analysis were used for the specification of a SDL-UML model that was transformed to an IF 2.0 system specification. This transformation was supported by an Eclipse-based transformation tool. An existing automatic test suite was then used for the verification of the SDL-UML to IF 2.0 transformation. The verification of the transformation showed that all elements of the SDL-UML model except the one for the modelling of communication channels could be transformed to IF 2.0. For an automatically generated test case, these communication channels are required for the sending and receiving of signals from a system under test. As a result of this, the SDL-UML model could not be transformed to Intermediated Format 2.0 for the purpose of automatic test case generation.