Combinatorial Methods for Modelling Composed Software Systems

Abstract

In this paper, we review and prove certain properties regarding t-way coverage when covering arrays are merged together to form larger arrays. Moreover, we build upon these theoretical observations to formulate a procedure on how, from the input space model of a composed SUT and t-way test suites for its components, to create a larger and unified t-way test suite. The proposed modelling methodologies for a composed SUT involve a hierarchy between the different input models of the components of the SUT, which is nested in such a way that it can be linked to certain combinatorial constructions for covering arrays. As a proof of concept of our modelling methodology, that arises from such combinatorial constructions, we apply it to a sample of composed SUTs to validate our approach in practice.