Case study: applying expert systems technology to testing phase of software life cycle

Describes the use of an expert-systems approach to automation of systems and integration testing for validation of complex, real-time communications software. The approach permits a `state´-based rather than path- or branch-based testing style. States can be associated with high-level system requirements to give a measure of test coverage. The benefits and weaknesses realized from using an embeddable expert-system shell with a custom relational database interface to construct an automated software verification tool supporting this approach are discussed, and a brief summary of the utility of applying expert systems technology in this software engineering area is presented. The effectiveness of the prototype automated software verification analysis was tested against an AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) baseline known to be faulty, and both documented and undocumented errors were identified