2 Why We Need Model-Based Testing

Appendices 317
assurance method. A technique for exposing defects in software or gathering
other information about software for the purpose of improving its quality. Testing,
inspections, and static analysis are assurance methods.
asynchronous stepper. Astepper for testing a reactive system. An asynchronous
stepper maintains an observation queue.
atomic. An activity that runs to completion, without being interrupted or pre-empted
by other activities. An action must be atomic.
atomic action. A single action associated with both the call and return of an action
method that has no return value, or out or byref parameters. Contrast to split action.
attribute. In C#, a label applied to a declaration, which is stored in the assembly
and can be accessed when the program is run. The NModel library defines attributes
for labeling actions and other parts of a model program.
bag. An unordered collection of possibly repeating elements. Also called a multiset.
In the NModel library, bag is a compound value.
behavior. The complete collection of all runs that a program or system can execute.
behavioral abstraction. Abstraction applied to statements and methods. A higher
level of behavioral abstraction uses fewer statements or methods, where each statement
or method in the model program represents more behavior in the implementation.
behavioral coverage. Coverage that measures aspects of behavior, such as state
coverage or transition coverage. Contrast to structural coverage.
binary relation. Aset of pairs.
bug. A word which is sometimes used for defect and sometimes used for failure –
which are two different things!
Chinese postman tour. Postman tour.
cleanup action. An action that makes progress toward an accepting state in order
to finish a test run during on-the-fly testing. Closing a file is an example of a cleanup
action.
closed system. A system where all actions are controllable. Contrast to reactive
system.
component. A unit of software that can be deployed independently. Assemblies are
the components of the .NET framework.
composition. An operation that combines separate model programs into a new
model program called the product. Under composition, model programs synchronize
steps for shared actions and interleave actions not found in their common action
vocabulary.
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