Title :
Structural testing of concurrent programs
Author :
Taylor, Richard N. ; Levine, David L. ; Kelly, Cheryl D.
Author_Institution :
California Univ., Irvine, CA, USA
fDate :
3/1/1992 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
Although structural testing techniques are among the weakest available with regard to developing confidence in sequential programs, they are not without merit. The authors extend the notion of structural testing criteria to concurrent programs and propose a hierarchy of supporting structural testing techniques. Coverage criteria described include concurrency state coverage, state transition coverage and synchronization coverage. Requisite support tools include a static concurrency analyzer and either a program transformation system or a powerful run-time monitor. Also helpful is a controllable run-time scheduler. The techniques proposed are suitable for Ada or CSP-like languages. Best results are obtained for programs having only static naming of tasking objects
Keywords :
concurrency control; parallel programming; program testing; scheduling; software metrics; Ada; CSP-like languages; concurrency state coverage; concurrent programs; controllable run-time scheduler; powerful run-time monitor; program transformation system; sequential programs; state transition coverage; static concurrency analyzer; static naming; structural testing criteria; structural testing techniques; support tools; synchronization coverage; tasking objects; Aerospace materials; Aircraft propulsion; Buildings; Computer science; Concurrent computing; Laboratories; Monitoring; Runtime; Sequential analysis; Software testing;
Journal_Title :
Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions on