Blogs

Extended String Testing with RegEx

Quite recently we added a support for expressing ”regular expressions” in the Conformiq models. As this is quite an interesting topic, I’m detailing this feature a bit in this post. (more…)

Conformiq Blog: Improve Your Testing Game

I recently had an opportunity to present in ETSI’s UCAAT conference a way to use component-enabled MBT to overcome some of the shortcomings with current interoperability and end-to-end testing approaches. Because this raised quite a lot of interest in the conference, I wanted to write a short blog post about the subject. (more…)

Black Box vs. White Box Coverage

When talking about black-box and white-box testing, the term "box" refers to the system under test or SUT where the "color of the box" refers to the visibility that a tester has to the internal details of the SUT. When we talk about black-box testing, the tester judges the quality and correctness of the system without seeing inside this box ...

Stochastic Use Case Testing & Markov Chaining

In this post I'll go through the basics for "stochastic use case testing". It is sometimes called also "Markov chaining" or "Markov testing". There are variations of this technique, of course, but my aim here is to cover the common ground and share some thoughts on where methods like this are best applied. (more…)

Software Processes Accommodating MBT

People ask often from us if model-based testing with Conformiq Designer can be a good fit for e.g. Agile, Test-Driven Development, Scrum or RUP. Now instead of providing a short answer ("yes"), I will try to explain in this post how model-based testing changes a software process, where that change occurs, and what is its impact. I will also give ...

How Computers Design Tests Differently from Humans

One complaint against computer-generated test cases is that they differ from those designed by humans. Somehow, computer-generated test cases have a different feel to them, and it is sometimes difficult for humans to grasp what is the crux or focal point of a test case produced by a model-based test generator, such as Conformiq Designer™. But why ...

MBT Users Report Triple Benefit & 59% Bug Reduction

According to the recent model-based testing user survey (see here), the respondents saw on the average a 59% reduction in escaped bugs, 17% reduction in testing costs, and 25% reduction in testing time. What do these figures mean? Let's say that a (software) product has 100 defects (that can manifest themselves) when it enters the testing ...

Top 3 Problems with Model-Based Testing

According to the recent model-based testing users survey, the top three problems MBT users face are in this order (see p. 26 of the report): Modeling is too hard Models blow up (the tool in use does not scale to complex models) Generated tests miss bugs These are all real problems and we have certainly seen customers face them (after ...

Conformiq CTO Presents Automated AUTOSAR Testing

Dr. Stephan Schulz, Conformiq's CTO, will give a presentation on "Automating AUTOSAR Functional Test Design with Model-Based Testing" at the SAE 2012 World Congress, to be held in Detroit, USA in April 2012. The SAE 2012 World Congress theme, Get Connected, is said to represent the new and diverse connections that will drive significant ...

Understanding Pairwise Test Generation

Combinatorial test data generators generate data tables for testing. The most basic, commonly used combinatorial data generation strategy is what is known as pairwise testing, all-pairs testing, covering arrays or Taguchi designs. (The term orthogonal array is sometimes used also, but it actually refers to a method for designing statistical ...

Testing Economics: Why Non-Defect Tests Matter

Let's assume (this obviously a much simplified setting) that you are planning to release a new product version that will generate $1mn in sales. There may or may not be one critical bug left in the version. If there actually is a critical bug, this will cost to you in terms of product replacements, customer supports and customer disloyalty total ...