Refining Light-Weight Formal Specifications Validations using Black Box Testing and Code Coverage Analysis: An Electrocardiograph Application

Published in: Engineering Innovations for Global Sustainability: Proceedings of the 14th Latin American and Caribbean Conference for Engineering and Technology
Date of Conference: July 20-22, 2016
Location of Conference: San Jose, Costa Rica
Authors: Elizabeth Vidal Duarte
Refereed Paper: #22

Abstract:

Light-weight formal specifications are used to achieve a better understanding of the desired behavior of a system. The specifications must correctly reflects the requirements that were expressed informally to the system being modeled. To validate specifications black-box testing technique had been widely used. Selecting test cases to validate the specification based only on the black-box testing technique, makes it possible that we won’t be able to validate the whole formal specification. A complementary technique is code coverage analysis. Combining black-box testing and code coverage analysis will let us evaluate which part of the specification was not validated and thereby to create new test cases. This is reflected in a refined specification, more accurate and correct. As an example we present the light-weight formal specification in VDM++ of a digital electrocardiograph. The specification is based on the informal description of the performance characteristics of the electrocardiograph.