Software development model extends to testing

New from I-Logix, Rhapsody Automatic Test Generator (ATG) extends model-driven development (MDD) to include model-driven testing.

New from I-Logix, Rhapsody Automatic Test Generator (ATG) extends model-driven development (MDD) to include model-driven testing.

I-Logix is first in the market to deliver automatic test generation for embedded software development, allowing software engineers to automatically generate test cases from their Unified Modelling Language (UML) designs.

This breakthrough technology ensures that the system under development maintains design integrity at each design iteration, including final implementation on the target, reducing errors and expediting time-to-market.

Rhapsody ATG is key in the development of safety-critical applications, such as DO-178B compliant software, and is a natural extension to the Rhapsody MDD environment.

When software engineers use Rhapsody, they are able to specify their systems and software design graphically; execute and validate the system as it is built; and ultimately produce full production code from the model for the target system.

Rhapsody ATG enables software engineers to take the development process one step further by automatically creating test cases and executing them through the entire design process.

Once the software engineer defines the scope of the system under test - either a single class or a collection of classes - and its interface, Rhapsody ATG automatically generates test cases.

This results in high coverage testing of the UML model.

The test cases provide full coverage for states, transitions, operations calls, as well as events used in the model.

Furthermore, Rhapsody ATG is flexible enough to "read" the user-defined test cases, analyse the coverage and then automatically generate new test cases for the uncovered portion of the design.

Creating test scenarios on the host and running them throughout the development process offers significant automation for regression testing.

In addition, running the test cases on the target allows for early detection of instances where the behaviour on the target differs from the design's intended behaviour.

Rhapsody ATG can also be used in conjunction with I-Logix's Rhapsody TestConductor to provide "white box" testing.

By executing the test cases, the user is able to follow the internal interactions within the system components as the tests are running, enabling errors to be easily identified.

Additionally, the user can export the generated test cases to their own testing environment for "black box" testing.

"It is clear that testing is an integral part of the product development process.

With industry analysts' estimates stating that testing accounts for 70% of total development costs and 50% of overall development time, this is an area where substantial time and cost savings can be achieved", said Neeraj Chandra, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Development.

"Rhapsody ATG can be used throughout the entire development process, allowing software developers to not only test their designs as they evolve, but also apply the test cases to their implementation on the deployed target, resulting in a high quality product".

Rhapsody is a UML-based MDD environment designed to meet the challenges of embedded software development.

It allows embedded software engineers to analyse, design, implement, and test UML-based applications graphically.

Production-quality code is automatically generated as the design evolves and graphical animation allows design diagrams on the development host to be debugged before testing the software on the target.

This capability enables reuse at the design level and compresses the overall development cycle.

Rhapsody has an open architecture that enables interfacing to leading requirements traceability, configuration management, and testing tools.

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