This article is an extended version of the paper ‘TRex—The Refactoring and Metrics Tool for TTCN-3 Test Specifications’ by Paul Baker, Dominic Evans, Jens Grabowski, Helmut Neukirchen, and Benjamin Zeiss, which was originally presented at TAIC PART 2006 (Testing: Academic & Industrial Conference—Practice And Research Techniques).
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Research Article
Quality assurance for TTCN-3 test specifications†
Article first published online: 24 JAN 2008
DOI: 10.1002/stvr.379
Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Issue
1099-1689/asset/cover.gif?v=1&s=f770cbd14e5dbc2249e9f62de4d9f5779efcc8b7 "Software Testing, Verification and Reliability")
Software Testing, Verification and Reliability
Special Issue: TAIC PART 2006 Special issue - Testing: Academic & Industrial Conference - Practice And Research Techniques
Volume 18, Issue 2, pages 71–97, June 2008
Additional Information
How to Cite
Neukirchen, H., Zeiss, B., Grabowski, J., Baker, P. and Evans, D. (2008), Quality assurance for TTCN-3 test specifications. Software Testing, Verification and Reliability, 18: 71–97. doi: 10.1002/stvr.379
- †
Publication History
- Issue published online: 16 MAY 2008
- Article first published online: 24 JAN 2008
- Manuscript Accepted: 19 SEP 2007
- Manuscript Revised: 16 AUG 2007
- Manuscript Received: 5 JAN 2007
- Abstract
- References
- Cited By
Keywords:
- testing;
- quality assurance;
- TTCN-3;
- refactoring;
- metrics;
- tool;
- eclipse
Abstract
Comprehensive testing of modern communication systems often requires large and complex test suites, which have to be maintained throughout the system life cycle. Industrial experience, with those written using the standardized Testing and Test Control Notation (TTCN-3), has shown that this maintenance is a non-trivial task and its burden can be reduced by means of appropriate concepts and tool support. To this aim, Motorola has collaborated with the University of Göttingen to develop TRex, an open-source TTCN-3 development environment, which notably provides suitable metrics and refactorings to enable the assessment and automatic restructuring of test suites. This article presents concepts like metrics and refactoring for the quality assurance of TTCN-3 test suites and their implementation provided by the TRex tool. These means make it far easier to construct and maintain TTCN-3 tests that are concise and optimally balanced with respect to maintainability quality characteristics. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.