Decomposability in Input Output Conformance Testing
This work addresses a specific challenge in software testing for third-party black-box components, offering incremental theoretical advancements.
The paper tackles the problem of deriving component specifications from system specifications for conformance testing using input-output conformance (ioco) theory, proposing and proving sufficient criteria for decomposability to ensure correct system composition.
We study the problem of deriving a specification for a third-party component, based on the specification of the system and the environment in which the component is supposed to reside. Particularly, we are interested in using component specifications for conformance testing of black-box components, using the theory of input-output conformance (ioco) testing. We propose and prove sufficient criteria for decompositionality, i.e., that components conforming to the derived specification will always compose to produce a correct system with respect to the system specification. We also study the criteria for strong decomposability, by which we can ensure that only those components conforming to the derived specification can lead to a correct system.