Theory of Program Testing - An Overview

Theory of Program Testing--An Overview By R. E. PRATHER* (Manuscript received January 18, 1983) In this paper, we provide a detailed survey of the various approaches to program testing that have been proposed in recent years. Particular attention is given to a discussion of the developing theory of program testing and to the decomposition of the testing problem into the program graph construction, test path selection, and test case generation phases. Examples are included to illustrate the different testing strategies. Comparisons are made from one method to another, all in a uniform terminology and notation, to facilitate an understanding of various combinations of strategies that might lead to a more workable testing methodology. I. I N T R O D U C T I O N T h e general goal of software testing is to affirm the quality of a program through systematic exercising of the code in a carefully controlled environment. T h e execution of a program test scheme should validate an expected prespecified behavior, ideally serving to demonstrate the absence of program errors. Considering the difficulty of obtaining actual proofs of program correctness, program testing * University of Denver, Colorado. °Copyright 1983, American Telephone & Telegraph Company. Photo reproduction for noncommercial use is permitted without payment of royalty provided that each reproduction is done without alteration and that the Journal reference and copyright notice are included on the first page. The title and abstract, but no other portions, of this paper may be copied or distributed royalty free by computer-based and other information-service systems without further permission.