Test case generation using UML behavioral & structural models

Abstract

Quality software can be developed when it is properly tested. Due to increase in the size and complexity of object-oriented software, manual testing has become time, resource and cost consuming. Properly designed test cases discover more errors and bugs present in the software. The test cases can be generated much early in the software development process, during the design phase. The unified modeling language (UML) is the most widely used language to describe the analysis and designs of object-oriented software. Test cases can be derived from UML models more efficiently. In our work, we propose a novel approach for automatic test case generation from the combination of UML class and activity diagrams. In our approach, we first draw the UML class and activity diagrams using IBM Rational Software Architect (RSA). Then, export the XML metadata interchange (XMI) from IBM Rational Software Architect (RSA). The XMI file is processed to extract variables from the class and predicates from activity diagram using Java code. The predicates are then used to generate the test cases. We have not used any intermediate form which makes the automation difficult. Our approach achieves 100% branch coverage and suitable for mutation testing and unit testing. In our next work, we focus on UML composite structure diagram to generate test scenarios for integration testing. In our approach, we first draw the UML composite structure diagram using IBM Rational Software Architect (RSA). Then, export the XML metadata interchange (XMI) representation of composite structure diagram from IBM Rational Software Architect. Then, we parse the XMI code and generate the Component Structure Graph (CSG) automatically. Subsequently, we propose two algorithms to generate test scenarios for Top-Down and Bottom-Up integration approach. The generated test scenarios are sufficient enough to find the component in which probability of bug presence is maximum.