Reliability estimation for statistical usage testing using Markov chains

Software validation is an important activity in order to test whether or not the correct software has been developed. Several testing techniques have been developed, and one of these is statistical usage testing (SUT). The main purpose of SUT is to test a software product from a user´s point of view. Hence, usage models are designed and then test cases are developed from the models. Another advantage of SUT is that the reliability of the software can be estimated. In this paper, Markov chains are used to represent the usage models. Several approaches using Markov chains have been applied. This paper extends these approaches and presents a new approach to estimate the reliability from Markov chains. The reliability estimation is implemented in a new tool for statistical usage testing called MaTeLo. The tool is developed in a joint European project involving six industrial partners and two university partners. The purpose of the tool is to provide an estimate of the reliability and to automatically produce test cases based on usage models described as to Markov models.