Disjunction Composition of BDD Transition Systems for Model-Based Testing

TL;DR

This paper addresses the challenge of testing complex, integrated system behaviors described by separate BDD scenarios. It introduces disjunction composition for BDD Transition Systems (BDDTs) and a symbolic semantics with Execution Conditions and Goal Implications to combine alternative behaviors while preserving the original testing power. The authors formally define the operator, prove key properties (commutativity, associativity, and testing-equivalence with the original components), and connect the symbolic semantics to concrete test cases. An industrial case study on train information boards demonstrates practical applicability, showing that composed BDDTS can cover more behavior with less setup and can reveal inconsistencies between scenarios. Overall, the work enables scalable, compositional MBT from modular BDD scenarios and lays groundwork for broader tooling integration.

Abstract

We introduce a compositional approach to model-based test generation in Behavior-Driven Development (BDD). BDD is an agile methodology in which system behavior is specified through textual scenarios that, in our approach, are translated into transition systems used for model-based testing. This paper formally defines disjunction composition, to combine BDD transition systems that represent alternative system behaviors. Disjunction composition allows for modeling and testing the integrated behavior while ensuring that the testing power of the original set of scenarios is preserved. This is proved using a symbolic semantics for BDD transition systems, with the property that the symbolic equivalence of two BDD transition systems guarantees that they fail the same test cases. Also, we demonstrate the potential of disjunction composition by applying the composition in an industrial case study.

Figures (5)

• Figure 1: Overview of our paper
• Figure 2: Two BDDTS and their disjunction composition
• Figure 3: Translation from BDDTS to STS to test case
• Figure 4: Compositional MBT+BDD approach vs. the NS BDD approach
• Figure 5: Format of manual BDD scenario and constructed BDDTS

Theorems & Definitions (41)

• Definition 1: Path condition
• Definition 2: $\mathit{EC}$ and $\mathit{GI}$
• Definition 3: Testing equivalence
• Definition 4
• Proposition 1
• Proposition 2
• Example 4.1
• theorem 1
• Example 4.2
• Definition 5: STS