A Method Combining Review and Testing for Verifying Software Systems

The application of specification-based program verification techniques (e.g., black-box testing, formal proof) faces strong challenges in practice when the gap between the structure of a specification and that of its program is large. This paper describes a method combining program review and testing to address these challenges. The essential idea of the combination is first to use a view-based program review approach to maintain consistency between the specification structure and the program structure, and then to use a view-based testing approach to dynamically check whether the program satisfies the functional requirements defined in the specification. Views are used to serve as the basis for reviewing structural consistency and for testing functional consistency.