Using Boolean Satisfiability Solving for Pairwise Test Generation from Cause-Effect Graphs: Comparison of Three Approaches

Abstract

Cause-effect graphs can be used for specifying safety critical systems including avionics control software that are often intended to satisfy Boolean expression. Using cause-effect graphs for requirements-based testing demands the ability of dealing with various constraints in cause-effect graphs. Due to its rapid advance, Boolean Satisfiability (SAT) solving seems to be a promising approach for constraint handling. In this paper, we present three approaches using SAT solving for pairwise test generation from cause-effect graphs. One is an ideal approach that tries to obtain a minimal set of tests. Another approach focuses on breaking the problem to smaller solvable problems to scale the applicability of SAT solving. The other makes full use of a partial instance that forms a part of a solution known priori. We compare the three approaches in terms of the number of generated pairwise tests and fault detection capability. Comparison results show that an approach using partial instances can generate less number of pairwise tests than the other two approaches without degrading fault detection capability.