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Publications

Publications by Bruno Carvalhido Lima

2016

A Model-Based Approach for Product Testing and Certification in Digital Ecosystems

Authors
Lima, B; Faria, JP;

Publication
2016 IEEE NINTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SOFTWARE TESTING, VERIFICATION AND VALIDATION WORKSHOPS (ICSTW)

Abstract
In a growing number of domains, such as ambient-assisted living (AAL) and e-health, the provisioning of end-to-end services to the users depends on the proper interoperation of multiple products from different vendors, forming a digital ecosystem. To ensure interoperability and the integrity of the ecosystem, it is important that candidate products are independently tested and certified against applicable interoperability requirements. Based on the experience acquired in the AAL4ALL project, we propose in this paper a model-based approach to systematize, automate and increase the assurance of such testing and certification activities. The approach encompasses the construction of several models: a feature model, an interface model, a product model, and unit and integration test models. The abstract syntax and consistency rules of these models are specified by means of metamodels written in UML and Alloy and automatically checked with Alloy Analyzer. Using the model finding capabilities of Alloy Analyzer, integration tests can be automatically generated from the remaining models, through the composition and instantiation of unit tests. Examples of concrete models from the AAL4ALL project are also presented.

2015

An Approach for Automated Scenario-based Testing of Distributed and Heterogeneous Systems

Authors
Lima, B; Faria, JP;

Publication
ICSOFT-EA 2015 - Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Software Engineering and Applications, Colmar, Alsace, France, 20-22 July, 2015.

Abstract
The growing dependence of our society on increasingly complex software systems, makes software testing ever more important and challenging. In many domains, such as healthcare and transportation, several independent systems, forming a heterogeneous and distributed system of systems, are involved in the provisioning of endto- end services to users. However, existing testing techniques, namely in the model-based testing field, provide little tool support for properly testing such systems. Hence, in this paper, we propose an approach and a toolset architecture for automating the testing of end-to-end services in distributed and heterogeneous systems. The tester interacts with a visual modeling frontend to describe key behavioral scenarios, invoke test generation and execution, and visualize test results and coverage information back in the model. The visual modeling notation is converted to a formal notation amenable for runtime interpretation in the backend. A distributed test monitoring and control infrastructure is responsible for interacting with the components of the system under test, as test driver, monitor and stub. At the core of the toolset, a test execution engine coordinates test execution and checks the conformance of the observed execution trace with the expectations derived from the visual model. A real world example from the Ambient Assisted Living domain is presented to illustrate the approach.

2016

Automated Testing of Distributed and Heterogeneous Systems Based on UML Sequence Diagrams

Authors
Lima, B; Faria, JP;

Publication
SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGIES (ICSOFT 2015)

Abstract
The growing dependence of our society on increasingly complex software systems makes software testing ever more important and challenging. In many domains, several independent systems, forming a distributed and heterogeneous system of systems, are involved in the provisioning of end-to-end services to users. However, existing test automation techniques provide little tool support for properly testing such systems. Hence, we propose an approach and toolset architecture for automating the testing of end-to-end services in distributed and heterogeneous systems, comprising a visual modeling environment, a test execution engine, and a distributed test monitoring and control infrastructure. The only manual activity required is the description of the participants and behavior of the services under test with UML sequence diagrams, which are translated to extended Petri nets for efficient test input generation and test output checking at runtime. A real world example from the Ambient Assisted Living domain illustrates the approach.

2017

A Survey on Testing Distributed and Heterogeneous Systems: The State of the Practice

Authors
Lima, B; Faria, JP;

Publication
SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGIES

Abstract
Distributed and heterogeneous systems (DHS), running over interconnected mobile and cloud-based platforms, are used in a growing number of domains for provisioning end-to-end services to users. Testing DHS is particularly important and challenging, with little support being provided by current tools. In order to assess the current state of the practice regarding the testing of DHS and identify opportunities and priorities for research and innovation initiatives, we conducted an exploratory survey that was responded by 147 software testing professionals that attended industry-oriented software testing conferences. The survey allowed us to assess the relevance of DHS in software testing practice, the most important features to be tested in DHS, the current status of test automation and tool sourcing for testing DHS, and the most desired features in test automation solutions for DHS. Some follow up interviews allowed us to further investigate drivers and barriers for DHS test automation. We expect that the results presented in the paper are of interest to researchers, tool vendors and service providers in this field.

2017

Towards Decentralized Conformance Checking in Model-Based Testing of Distributed Systems

Authors
Lima, BMC; Faria, JCP;

Publication
Proceedings - 10th IEEE International Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation Workshops, ICSTW 2017

Abstract
In a growing number of domains, the provisioning of end-to-end services to the users depends on the proper interoperation of multiple products, forming a new distributed system. To ensure interoperability and the integrity of this new distributed system, it is important to conduct integration tests that verify not only the interactions with the environment but also the interactions between the system components. Integration test scenarios for that purpose may be conveniently specified by means of UML sequence diagrams, possibly allowing multiple execution paths. The automation of such integration tests requires that test components are also distributed, with a local tester deployed close to each system component, and a central tester coordinating the local testers. In such a test architecture, it is important to minimize the communication overhead during test execution. Hence, in this paper we investigate conditions upon which conformance errors can be detected locally (local observability) and test inputs can be decided locally (local controllability) by the local testers, without the need for exchanging coordination messages between the test components during test execution. The conditions are specified in a formal specification language that allows executing and validating the specification. Examples of test scenarios are also presented, illustrating local observability and controllability problems associated with optional messages without corresponding acknowledgment messages, races and non-local choices. © 2017 IEEE.

2016

Towards the Online Testing of Distributed and Heterogeneous Systems with Extended Petri Nets

Authors
Lima, B; Faria, JP;

Publication
PROCEEDINGS 2016 10TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE QUALITY OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY (QUATIC)

Abstract
The growing dependence of our society on increasingly complex software systems makes software testing ever more important and challenging. In many domains, such as healthcare and transportation, several independent systems, forming a heterogeneous and distributed system of systems, are involved in the provisioning of end-to-end services to users. However, existing testing techniques, namely in the model-based testing field, provide little support for properly testing such systems. To bridge the gaps identified in the state of the art we intend to develop a research work where the main goal is to significantly reduce the cost of testing distributed and heterogeneous systems, from the standpoint of time, resources and expertise required, as compared to existing approaches. For that, we propose a preliminary approach and a toolset architecture for automating the testing of end-to-end services in distributed and heterogeneous systems. The tester interacts with a visual modeling frontend to describe key behavioral scenarios, invoke test generation and execution, and visualize test results and coverage information back in the model. The visual modeling notation is converted to a formal notation amenable for runtime interpretation in the backend. A distributed test monitoring and control infrastructure is responsible for interacting with the components of the system under test, as test driver, monitor and stub. At the core of the toolset, a test execution engine coordinates test execution and checks the conformance of the observed execution trace with the expectations derived from the visual model. A real world example from the Ambient Assisted Living domain is presented to illustrate the approach. As future work we intend to develop distributed and incremental algorithms for online testing of distributed and heterogeneous systems based on Extended Petri Nets at runtime and validate them in real world case studies.

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