Project Details
Projekt
Integrated Model-based Testing of Continuously Evolving Software Product Lines (IMoTEP 2)
Subject Area
Software Engineering and Programming Languages
Term
from 2016 to 2020
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 284512969
Todays automation engineers are faced with new challenges concerning the development and maintenance of modern production systems as, e.g., pointed out in the Industry 4.0 manifesto. This includes the maintenance of often very long living, safety-critical, real-time control software with a rapidly growing degree of distribution as well as variability and adaptability at design and runtime. A promising paradigm for developing this type of software efficiently is Dynamic Software Product Line (DSPL) engineering combined with model-based testing (MBT) techniques; DSPL engineering supports the development of families of (self-)adaptive software systems, whereas MBT offers the appropriate means for systematically deriving test suites from test models and related coverage criteria. In the first funding period of the IMoTEP project, we laid the conceptual foundation for a comprehensive variant-aware MBT methodology with significant achievements concerning, e.g., the adaptation of model-checking techniques for DSPL test suite generation purposes, the integration of domain-specific modeling languages in a tooling framework, the delta-based handling of SPL evolution scenarios, and the usage of multi-objective optimization techniques for test case selection and test suite minimization purposes. In the second funding phase we will integrate our delta-based techniques for the evolution of SPL versions and their related test cases with our variant-aware approach for the model-based generation of a DSPL test suite that puts specific focus on runtime reconfiguration activities. The resulting tool-assisted methodology will offer unified support for the incremental co-evolution of all DSPL testing artifacts and regression testing strategies for mastering anticipated and unanticipated changes of a long-living DSPL. Based on our experiences with a real-world case study from an industrial partner and the PPU case study of the SPP we will develop automation and application domain-specific (model) coverage and mutation-based test selection criteria in order to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of generated test suites. Furthermore, the developed DSPL test suite maintenance methodology will be extended to take scenarios of distributed components with real-time constraints for their normal and reconfiguration behavior into account. The IMoTEP tooling will be extended accordingly, relying on meta-modeling, model transformation techniques in turn for the integration of a whole range of variability and modeling languages used in the automation engineering domain. In addition, we will continue our efforts to select and adapt advanced model-checking techniques and tools for our DSPL test suite generation and maintenance purposes. Last but not least we will continue our efforts to apply the developed methodology in the context of the above mentioned two case studies, complemented by controlled experiments studying the usability of the developed approach.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
Subproject of
SPP 1593:
Design for Future - Managed Software Evolution
Co-Investigators
Professorin Dr. Ursula Goltz; Professor Dr. Andreas Schürr
