Using UML Protocol State Machines in Conformance Testing of Components

In previous works we designed a comprehensive approach for conformance testing based on UML behavioral state machines. In this paper we propose two extensions to this approach. First, we apply our approach in the context of a component-based development, and address the problem of checking the interoperability of two connected components. Second, we address the problem of selecting relevant input sequences. Therefore we use UML protocol state machines to specify restricted environment models. This means that we restrict the valid protocol at the provided interface of the component under test with respect to a specific test purpose. Based on these models we select relevant input sequences. We implemented both extensions presented here in our TEAGER tool suite to show their applicability. Both extensions address the behavior at the interfaces of components. We use UML state machines as a unified notation for behavioral and protocol conformance testing as well as for test input selection. This considerably eases the work of test engineers.