On generating test data from prototypes

A new approach is proposed for automatically generating test data for functional testing from the specifications for rapid prototyping. Rapid prototyping, a new software development approach, uses formal specifications to quickly generate prototypes to obtain user´s feedback from the prototype execution. The authors find that the test cases and the corresponding behavior of the prototype are good references in generating test data for system acceptance testing, and the test data can be automatically generated from the formal specifications used in prototyping. Thus, most of the test cases for functional testing can be automatically generated, and a lot of efforts devoted to software testing can be reduced