Improved underspecification for model-based testing in agile development

Abstract

Since model-based testing (MBT) and agile development are two major approaches to increase the quality of software, this paper considers their combination. After motivating that strongly integrating both is the most fruitful, the demands on MBT for this integration are investigated: The model must be underspecifyable and iteratively refineable and test generation must efficiently handle this. The theoretical basis and an example for such models is given. Thereafter, a new method for MBT is introduced, which can handle this more efficiently, i.e., can better cope with nondeterminism and also has better guidance in the model traversal. Hence it can be used in agile development, select more revealing tests and achieve higher coverage and reproducibility.