Using Model Checking to Generate Test Cases for Android Applications

TL;DR

This paper presents a method using model checking with Spin to automatically generate comprehensive test cases for Android applications by modeling user interactions with state machines.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach combining model-based testing and model checking to systematically generate test cases for mobile app testing.

Findings

Successfully implemented a tool for Android testing

Generated exhaustive user interaction test cases

Enabled automated runtime analysis of apps

Abstract

The behavior of mobile devices is highly non deterministic and barely predictable due to the interaction of the user with its applications. In consequence, analyzing the correctness of applications running on a smartphone involves dealing with the complexity of its environment. In this paper, we propose the use of model-based testing to describe the potential behaviors of users interacting with mobile applications. These behaviors are modeled by composing specially-designed state machines. These composed state machines can be exhaustively explored using a model checking tool to automatically generate all possible user interactions. Each generated trace model checker can be interpreted as a test case to drive a runtime analysis of actual applications. We have implemented a tool that follows the proposed methodology to analyze Android devices using the model checker Spin as the exhaustive generator of test cases.