Automating test-based inspection of design models

Abstract

Software design is usually a highly creative and error-prone activity even if supported by patterns within a given domain. Therefore, inspection techniques are often needed to validate design models so that defects are not propagated to code and tests. However, traditional inspection techniques often focus on structural aspects of models, leaving behavior validation for testing that is performed later. Guided inspections combine both traditional inspection activities and testing to bring in the testing perspective earlier in the development process in order to more effectively uncover omission and nonconformity. This paper presents an automated solution, based on model-driven architecture concepts and technology, to the guided inspection technique focusing on Unified Modeling Language models. The automated technique, as observed from 3 case studies, can be reasonably effective to uncover defects of different types.