Los Alamos Women in Science
Northern Chapter of the New Mexico Network for Women in Science and Engineering
LUNCHTIME TALK SERIES
sponsored by
the   Synergy Center   and   the   Zocher Corporation
 
Talk at 12:00, Thursday, November 18, 2004
Bldg 1, Los Alamos Research Park
Synergy Center Conference Room, 3rd flr
Hanna Makaruk, P-22, LANL
Method for Complete White-Box Software Test

(work done with Robert Owczarek, RRES-Ch, LANL and Nikita Sakhanenko, CNLS, LANL & UNM; LA-UR-04-5732)

Software complexity grows constantly; with it grow both importance and difficulty of software testing. Traditionally, a White Box (open code) test relies mainly on the expertise of an individual tester, rather than on any formalized method. In particular the testers rarely use formal methods to ensure test completeness, majority of tests are superfluous and very time consuming.

Systematic method for White Box testing of sequential programs is proposed. The method is independent of programming language. It finds a minimal set of paths, which cover the whole code. It ensures that each part of the code is executed at least once during the test. Additionally, in case that tests of one of the paths fails, the problem area is well localized inside the program code.

The analysis within the method begins with the program flowchart represented as an Activity diagram (UML). Each part of the code is assigned to an appropriate decision or action point. The Activity diagram is then translated to a directed graph: points become nodes, arrows become directed edges. This translation allows for calculation of the number of independent paths. The vector space of paths is defined. Independence of the paths is equivalent to linear independence of the vectors assigned to individual paths. It is sufficient to test any base of the paths space to complete the test. A method for effective choice of simple base of paths is presented.

Biography: Hanna Makaruk started to work at LANL in '96 as a Director Funded Postdoctoral Fellow, and is now a TSM. She is a physicist with interest in computer science. Currently she is working in P-22.

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