The Automatic Efficient Test Generator (AETG) system

Software testing is expensive, tedious and time consuming. Thus, the problem of making testing more efficient and mechanical, without losing its effectiveness, is very important. The Automatic Efficient Test Generator (AETG) is a new tool that mechanically generates efficient test sets from user defined test requirements. It is based on algorithms that use ideas from statistical experimental design theory to minimize the number of tests needed for a specific level of test coverage of the input test space. The savings due to AETG are substantial when compared to exhaustive testing or other methods of testing. AETG has been used in Bellcore for screen testing, interoperability testing and for protocol conformance testing. This paper describes the current system and it constructs and reports some preliminary results obtained during initial trials.