Test and Verification 2007

Lecturers:

• Kim Guldstrand Larsen
• Brian Nielsen
• Arne Skou
• Marius Mikucionis

There is a strong need for the use of advanced, systematic  techniques
and tools that support the system validation process. [ Klaus Havelund ]

Brief course description

Software is becoming increasingly complex and there is a growing awareness within software engineering practice that both formal verification techniques as well as testing techniques are needed in order to deal with this growing complexity.  This is in particular true in areas such as embedded systems used in consumer electronics, time dependent systems occurring in safety critical systems and communication protocols from the telecommunication industry.

The focus of this course is on techniques and software-tools that can be used to assess the quality and correctness of software systems. The first part of the course considers tools and techniques for formal verification of system designs. The last part of the course considers tools and techniques for testing system implementations.

In a (logical) first part of the course, particular emphasis will be put on our own real-time validation tool UPPAAL. Later in the course, the commercial tool visualSTATE will also be presented. In the course we will evaluate the usefulness of the various features of these tools. Emphasis will be on application and hands-on experiment with the tools on small case-studies. 

• Uppaal allows for the modeling, validation and automatic verification of properties of real-time systems and communication protocols The underlying description language and specification formalism --- timed automata and timed temporal logic --- will be dealt with in detail.  The theoretical and practical aspects of the tool will be studied. To enable effective validation of  systems special attention is given to modeling and abstraction techniques that help to limit the complexity of the models used. 
• visualSTATE is a toolset that supports analysis, design, prototyping, validation, and verification through simulation, code generation and testing of systems. The toolset is based on the UML and MSC standards languages. visualSTATE provides graphical editors, simulators, a C code generator targeting real-time OS and network protocols, and a design-level debugger. 

In the (logical) second part of the course, emphasis will be on methods and techniques for testing. 

In addition, the course will involve guest lectures from colleagues at other universities.

Objectives

The aims of the course are that the students become familiar with the possibility of validating software systems based on formal models and specifications (in particular of real-time and embedded systems) with the aid of software tools for the verification and analysis, and that they learn practical techniques and methods for testing software systems.

Involved Semesters

Due to teaching capacity constraints and and study-board honorary we need to give the course jointly for several semesters.

• Dat8: Computer Science Extra Year. (17-Students)
  • Home Page, mailinglist dat8-listen
  • Study Regulations, (SE-Course)
• SW8: Software Engineering 8 semester (14 students)
  • Home Page, mailingliste: sw7-8
  • Study Regulations (PE-Course)
• SP2: Game Programming 2nd semester (Graduate Level)  (12-Students)
  • Home Page, mailinglist:SP1-2 listen
  • Study Regulations, (SE-Course)
• D4: Data Engineering 4th semester (16-Students)
  • Home Page
  • Study Regulations, (PE-Course)
• C6: Communication systems 6th semester (7-Students)
  • Home Page
  • Study Regulations

Preliminary schedule

Course material

• Famous Software Bugs
  • Arianne5 report
  • PathFinder report
  • Therac 25 Radiation Therapy Machine
• Behrmann, David, Larsen: A Tutorial on UPPAAL.
• Bengtson, Wang: Timed Automata: Semantics, Algorithms and Tools (PDF)
• [JPK] Joost-Pieter Katoen: " Concepts, Algorithms, and Tools for Model Checking ". (Lecture Notes)
• [AD] Alexandre David: "Uppaal2k Tutorial "
• [UPPAAL] Larsen, Pettersson, Yi: " UPPAAL in a Nutshell ", in Journal for Software Tools for Technology Transfer vol 1, 1997.
• [LSW] Laarsen, Pettersson, Yi: "Continuous Modeling of Real Time and Hybrid Systems", * in Journal for Software Tools for Technology Transfer, vol 1, 1997.
• [CW] Edmund M. Clarke and Jeanette M. Wing: " Formal Methods: State of the Art and Future Directions "
• [JPK2]: Joost-Pieter Katoen: System Verification .
• [CK] Edmund M. Clarke and Robert P. Kurshan: " Computer-Aided Verification "
• [SALLT+] J�rgen Staunstrup, Henrik Reif Andersen, Kim G. Larsen, Henrik Leerberg, Niels Bo Theilgaard et al.: "Practical Verification of Embedded Software "
• [HSLL] Klaus Havelund, Arne Skou, Kim G. Larsen, and Kristian Lund: " Formal Modeling and Analysis of an Audio/Video Protocol: An Industrial Case Study Using UPPAAL "
• [TMAP] Software Testing: A Guide to the TMAP approach. Martin Pol et al. Chapter 1-4, page  3--33 and  appendix
• [Whit} James A. Whittaler. What is Software Testing? And Why Is It So Hard?  IEEE Software January/February 2002
• [SPU] H�ndbog i Struktureret Program Udvikling. Biering S�rensen et al. Kapitel 3: SPU-udviklingsmodellen. Page 30-39
• [Pressman] Software Engineering: A Practitioners Approach -- European adaptation, 5ed, Pressmann Chapter 8, Chapter 17, Chapter 18
• [JUnit] JUnit Test Infected: Programmers Love Writing Tests
• [fow07] Martin Fowler, Mocks Aren't Stubs
• [Wil17] Extreme Programming Resources
• [CUNIT guide] Cunit User's Guide
• [Bullseyea] Bullseye coverage criterial
• [Bullseyeb] What is Wrong with Line Coverage
• [GCOV] gcov users guide
• Design and Validation of Computer Protocols by Gerard J. Holzmann chapter 8 and chapter 9 .