Integrating testability into the development process of reactive systems

In this paper, we present our approach to analyze the testability of data-flow designs of reactive systems. We use the SATAN technology which is based on the information theory to model the information transfer in the system. We extend this technology with: a common formalism to represent data-flow designs produced from different CASE tools; a flattening mechanism to allow a flexible analysis of testability. We also improve the testability analysis by introducing: a statistical evaluation of information loss coefficient of operators, and a cyclic analysis that takes into account the recurring behavior of reactive systems. Our approach was integrated into a tool allowing an automatic analysis of testability of graphical data-flow designs of reactive systems.