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An information flow model of fault detection

Authors:

Margaret C. Thompson,

Debra J. Richardson,

Lori A. ClarkeAuthors Info & Claims

ISSTA '93: Proceedings of the 1993 ACM SIGSOFT international symposium on Software testing and analysis

Pages 182 - 192

https://doi.org/10.1145/154183.154270

Published: 01 July 1993 Publication History

Abstract

RELAY is a model of how a fault causes a failure on execution of some test datum. This process begins with introduction of an original state potential failure at a fault location and continues as the potential failure(s) transfers to output. Here we describe the second stage of this process, transfer of an incorrect intermediate state from a faulty statement to output.

Transfer occurs along information flow chains, where each link in the chain involves data dependence transfer and/or control dependence transfer. RELAY models concurrent transfer along multiple information flow chains with transfer sets, which identify possible interaction between potential failures, and with transfer routes, which identify actual interactions. Transfer sets, transfer routes, and control dependence transfer are unique to the RELAY model.

The model demonstrates that the process of potential failure transfer is extremely complex and full analysis of real programs may not be practical. Nonetheless, RELAY provides insight into testing and fault detection and suggests an approach to fault-based testing and analysis that may be warranted for critical systems software.

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Cited By

Masri WPodgurski ALeon D(2007)An Empirical Study of Test Case Filtering Techniques Based on Exercising Information FlowsIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2007.102033:7(454-477)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2007
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TSE.2007.1020
Leon DMasri WPodgurski ARoman GGriswold WNuseibeh B(2005)An empirical evaluation of test case filtering techniques based on exercising complex information flowsProceedings of the 27th international conference on Software engineering10.1145/1062455.1062531(412-421)Online publication date: 15-May-2005
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1062455.1062531
Xie TNotkin D(2005)Checking Inside the Black BoxIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2005.10731:10(869-883)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2005
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TSE.2005.107
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An information flow model of fault detection

RELAY is a model of how a fault causes a failure on execution of some test datum. This process begins with introduction of an original state potential failure at a fault location and continues as the potential failure(s) transfers to output. Here we ...
An Information Flow Model of Fault Detection
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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

ISSTA '93: Proceedings of the 1993 ACM SIGSOFT international symposium on Software testing and analysis

August 1993

193 pages

ISBN:0897916085

DOI:10.1145/154183

Editors:
Thomas Ostrand
Siemens Corporate Research
,
Elaine Weyuker
New York Univ., New York, NY

ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes Volume 18, Issue 3
July 1993
192 pages
ISSN:0163-5948
DOI:10.1145/174146
Editor:
Lori A. Clarke
Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst
Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 1993 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 01 July 1993

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June 28 - 30, 1993

Massachusetts, Cambridge, USA

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Overall Acceptance Rate 58 of 213 submissions, 27%

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Cited By

Masri WPodgurski ALeon D(2007)An Empirical Study of Test Case Filtering Techniques Based on Exercising Information FlowsIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2007.102033:7(454-477)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2007
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TSE.2007.1020
Leon DMasri WPodgurski ARoman GGriswold WNuseibeh B(2005)An empirical evaluation of test case filtering techniques based on exercising complex information flowsProceedings of the 27th international conference on Software engineering10.1145/1062455.1062531(412-421)Online publication date: 15-May-2005
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1062455.1062531
Xie TNotkin D(2005)Checking Inside the Black BoxIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2005.10731:10(869-883)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2005
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TSE.2005.107
Leon DMasari WPodgurski A(2005)An empirical evaluation of test case filtering techniques based on exercising complex information flowsProceedings. 27th International Conference on Software Engineering, 2005. ICSE 2005.10.1109/ICSE.2005.1553584(412-421)Online publication date: 2005
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSE.2005.1553584
Renieris MChan-Tin SReiss SFlanagan CZeller A(2004)Elided conditionalsProceedings of the 5th ACM SIGPLAN-SIGSOFT workshop on Program analysis for software tools and engineering10.1145/996821.996839(52-57)Online publication date: 7-Jun-2004
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/996821.996839
Li MWei YDesovski DNejad HGhose SCukic BSmidts C(2004)Validation of a Methodology for Assessing Software ReliabilityProceedings of the 15th International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering10.1109/ISSRE.2004.47(66-76)Online publication date: 2-Nov-2004
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/ISSRE.2004.47
Tao Xie Notkin D(2004)Checking inside the black box: regression testing based on value spectra differences20th IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance, 2004. Proceedings.10.1109/ICSM.2004.1357787(28-37)Online publication date: 2004
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSM.2004.1357787
Elbaum SMalishevsky ARothermel G(2002)Test Case PrioritizationIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/32.98849728:2(159-182)Online publication date: 1-Feb-2002
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/32.988497
Rothermel GUntch RChu C(2001)Prioritizing Test Cases For Regression TestingIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/32.96256227:10(929-948)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2001
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/32.962562
Elbaum SMalishevsky ARothermel G(2000)Prioritizing test cases for regression testingACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes10.1145/347636.34891025:5(102-112)Online publication date: 1-Aug-2000
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/347636.348910
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