Test Sequence Generation from UML Sequence Diagrams

In this paper, we present an approach to generate test sequences from UML 2.0 sequence diagrams. Sequence diagrams are one of the most widely used UML models in the software industry. Although sequence diagrams are used for modeling the dynamic aspects of the system, they can also be used for model based testing. Existing work does not encompass certain important features of UML 2.0 sequence diagrams. Our work considers many of the novel features of UML 2.0 sequence diagrams like alt, loop, opt and break to generate test sequences. These areimportant features as far as testing is concerned. Our work begins with defining the important types of relationship that can exist between the messages. Based on the relationship between the messages, the message sequences are generated. Our work considers an important feature of UML 2.0 sequence diagrams called the dasiaExecution Occurrencepsila to generate message sequences. Next, an intermediate representation of the sequence diagram is built. This intermediate representation is called the Sequence Dependency Graph (SDG). The message sequences are incorporated into the SDG. Finally, we discuss a traversal algorithm to generate test sequences from SDG. Our method is fully automated and the test sequences generated can be used to check the correctness of the implementation under test.