Consistency checking and test generation for UML statechart diagram via extended context-free grammar

UML statechart diagram is an important, visual, graphic tool to describe the dynamic behavior of the software system. This paper proposes an approach to checking the consistency and generating test cases from UML statechart specification through extended context-free grammar (ECFG). Our system input the UML statechart and ECFG, which is considered as external events, to perform an automated consistency simulation for UML specification. Firstly, we design algorithm to transform statechart diagram into a labeled transition system. Then, we introduced the concept of PLAY-Tree. The consistency checking of UML statechart specification is defined as whether there exists a corresponding PLAY-Tree with all successful branches. Finally, the parsing of ECFG conforming to PLAY-Tree contains all possible test cases for UML statechart.