Tester versus Bug: A Generic Framework for Model-Based Testing via Games

TL;DR

This paper introduces a versatile game-based framework for model-based testing where test case generation is modeled as a game between the tester and the system, enabling the use of various game-theoretic techniques.

Contribution

It presents a generic, adaptable game-theoretic framework for model-based testing that unifies different test assumptions and strategies.

Findings

Framework accommodates various test assumptions

Test cases correspond to game strategies

Conformance is modeled as alternating refinement

Abstract

We propose a generic game-based approach for test case generation. We set up a game between the tester and the System Under Test, in such a way that test cases correspond to game strategies, and the conformance relation ioco corresponds to alternating refinement. We show that different test assumptions from the literature can be easily incorporated, by slightly varying the moves in the games and their outcomes. In this way, our framework allows a wide plethora of game-theoretic techniques to be deployed for model based testing.