Automatic testability analysis for data-flow designs of reactive systems

Abstract

Reactive real-time systems require a very high level of confidence. The validation of these systems is very important since it ensures the confidence in these systems. Two main activities of the validation are the proof of some parts of the system, and the testing of the system. However, testing of reactive systems is complex and expensive. This is where a testability analysis can help, by appraising the ease with which testing can be undertaken. In this paper, we propose a method to analyze automatically the testability of data-flow designs of reactive real-time systems. This method, which is based on the SATAN technology, allows testability of reactive systems to be measured very soon during the specification stage. Thus, weaknesses of the design can be detected, and the system can be improved in terms of testability.