The RELAY model of error detection and its application

Abstract

The authors report on a model of error detection called RELAY, which provides a fault-based criterion for test data selection. The RELAY model builds on the testing theory introduced by M.H. Morell (1981), where an error is created when an incorrect state is introduced at some fault location and is propagated if it persists to the output. The authors refine this theory by more precisely defining the notion of when an error is introduced and by differentiating between the persistence of an error through computations and its persistence through data-flow operations. They introduce similar concepts, origination and transfer, as the first erroneous evaluation and the persistence of that erroneous evaluation respectively.<>