Model based testing using an Extended Context Free Grammar

Abstract

There exists a frequent requirement to test components or modules that accept various parameters which need to be combined in specific ways, as dictated by constraints specified in a natural language. Extended Context Free Grammars (ECFG) are suitable for modeling the above test requirements. A tool is built that accepts a test design in the form of an ECFG and generates test data or scripts automatically. With the objective of providing a user-friendly interface for expressing test designs in ECFG, a visual formalism using data-flow graphs is provided by the tool. Some case studies are reported to demonstrate the benefits of the approach.