On-the-fly Interpretation of Test Cases in an Automatically Generated TTCN-3 Test Suite

The TestUS framework (Statistical Testing based on use case scenarios) offers unique techniques and tools to obtain a TTCN-3 test suite starting from UML 2.0 requirement definitions. Use case diagrams that contain functional and non-functional requirements are transformed to a Markov Chain usage model (MCUM) in a completely automatic approach. The annotation of outgoing MCUM transitions by probabilities in the derived UML2 protocol state machine enables the generation of TTCN-3 test cases according to the expected occurrence frequencies of the specified usage pattern. However, compiling the derived TTCN-3 test suite can take quite a long time for a realistic SUT (System under Test). Consequently, we decided to map the MCUM directly into the executable test suite without generating test cases in advance. Test cases and the evaluation of test verdicts are therefore interpreted on-the-fly inside the executable TTCN-3 test suite. We proved the concept by testing an existing DECT communication system. The compilation time in the order of 20 hours for deriving the test suite was reduced to only 15 minutes and we got a TTCN-3 test suite that interprets as many test cases as one likes for the DECT system on-the-fly.