Method and apparatus for testing of a finite state machine

摘要

The invention relates to goal directed searching of finite state machines which includes the steps of determining properties of the behaviour of individual components of the state machine, using the determined properties to infer properties of the solution as a whole; exploiting any parallelism between the behaviour of individual components, determining where different possible solutions have behaviour in common, and when commonality is determined to exist, developing these solutions together by exploiting their commonality as far as possible. This goal directed searching can be used to generate the traces which will form the basis of the tests of the product which is described by the EFSM. For very large state spaces, this can often be the only way of automating test generation. Goal directed searching can also be used with simulator tools, to allow the user to go directly to the behaviour of interest.