Fault Propagation in Tabular Expression-Based Specifications

Tabular expressions have been used in industry for many years to precisely document software in a readable notation. In this paper, we propose a fault-based testing technique that traces the propagation of faults from the expression in each cell of a tabular expression to the output of the program under test. The technique has been formalized in the form of abstract test case constraints also represented by tabular expressions, so that it can be easily applied and automated.