Mapping ACL to JavaMOP: A Feasibility Study

Model-based testing (MBT) is a quality assurance technique where a test suite is generated from an abstract model. There are a number of different approaches to accomplish model-based testing. While state-based techniques dominate, they have a number of inherent issues. These issues have led to the pursuit of alternatives such as scenario-based approaches. ACL/VF is one such scenario-based approach. Developed by Dr. Corriveau and his students, the ACL/VF system provides both a language to specify an implementation-independent testable model of a specification and the tool to validate an implementation against this model. However, the current implementation of ACL/VF has a number of issues that prevent it from being a usable solution. In particular, the current version of ACL/VF is extremely .NET3.5 specific. Unfortunately, upgrading it to a more recent version of .NET essentially amounts to a complete rewrite. Given the widespread use of Java, a most immediate research question is to determine whether or not it is feasible to reimplement ACL/VF on that platform. Our claim is that this reimplementation can be accomplished through a mapping from ACL specifications to JavaMOP monitor specifications. The following thesis provides two case studies supporting this claim as well as an element-by-element proposed mapping.